Beyond the Codices

Beyond the Codices: The Nahua View of Colonial Mexico explores a lesser-known yet rich corpus of Nahuatl texts that reflect the dynamic cultural and social changes experienced by indigenous communities in colonial Mexico. While much of classical Nahuatl scholarship has focused on pre-Columbian legends, annals, and poetry—often presented in elaborately illustrated "codices"—this study turns its attention to everyday records such as wills, land transactions, municipal council minutes, tax records, and petitions. These documents provide a more immediate and practical perspective on post-conquest life, revealing how indigenous communities navigated the colonial system and adapted their traditions to new realities.

The book seeks to make these scattered, unpublished, and linguistically challenging records more accessible by presenting a selection of transcribed, translated, and annotated texts. This "second world" of Nahuatl documentation, though initially daunting due to its standardized and legalistic forms, can be understood more easily once a single model document is mastered. Drawing on key sources such as the Coyoacan papers from Mexico's Archivo General de la Nación and UCLA's McAfee Collection, the authors aim to provide scholars with the tools to unlock this overlooked repository of indigenous colonial history. Their work underscores the importance of these texts in broadening our understanding of the complex interplay between indigenous and colonial cultures.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1976.