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Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatán, and Guatemala. Edited by Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. xiii, 245. Illustrations. Maps. Glossary. Notes. References. Index. $55.00 cloth; $18.99 paper.
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpuhin Qitauhtlehnunitzin. Edited by James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Numulu. PaIo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. Pp. 329. Illustrations. Map. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $55.00 cloth.
Mesoamerica may have been colonized by the Spanish, but in many ways the region remained largely indigenous-socially and culturally-during that extended period of foreign political and economic domination. This was true despite a demographic disaster and a growing integration of survivors and newcomers over time. Of the many attestations of this colonial reality are the abundant native-language manuscripts that illuminate indigenous thinking and activity from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The two books under review here share an interest in Mesoamericans' experiences and perspectives as they were expressed in native-language records made under Spanish rule. Mesoamerican Voices gathers sixty examples from several different genre and four culture/ones, all in English translation. Primordial titles, letters, land and tribute documents, testaments, petitions, and elder speech are among the genres, highlighting views of the Spanish invasion, political life, domestic concerns, social structure, gender ideology, crime, punishment, religious life, and philosophy. Collectively, these manuscripts span the years from circa 1540 through 1812. They were...