DIDACTIC MATERIALS IN NEW SPAIN AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST

Overview: Franciscan friars landed with Cortes in the New World in 1519. By 1523, more Franciscans had arrived and they set out to build schools that would aid in their mission to convert and to civilize the Indians. By 1540 they had established two schools-- San Jose de los Naturales and Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco-- the former a primary school and the latter a school of advanced learning, both to serve the children of the Aztec nobles and elite. The main courses offered were Religion, Latin, Spanish Laws and Custom, and Spanish. They also developed a course of studies designed to train native catechists. To facilitate their teaching, the friars created a series of didactic materials that were intended for their students and for the larger community of adults who attended their masses.

"De Como la gente baja ofrecía sus hijos a la casa que se llamaba Telpuchcali y de las constumbres que ahí les mostraban." C.F. Libro 3, Folio 31V; Credits: Leon-Portilla, SRE, 1999

The first Franciscans were obsessed by the need to understand the native. According to Leon-Portilla (1999) the friars felt that they would not be able to evangelize, "...si los misionarios no conocerian de raiz la religión y la cultura de los gentiles recien conquistados." Another observer noted of Pedro de Gante, founder of San Jose de los Naturales, that he busied himself running around recording everything that his native students said. No sooner had he written it down, than it would appear in a new way (imbued with the Christian message) in some didactic material, including books, paintings, codices, and other material that were used to teach the Friars about their students' background and their students about the Spanish culture. Often times, local scribes and artists were asked to help in this process, illustrating pictures that later appeared in codices, prayer books, and in the literacy readers. Other artists created mosaics (some using feathers) and paintings in workshops affiliated with the schools. Their images of Christianity appeared on the walls of churches, and priests often referred to them during their masses, for they believed that the Indian learned more effectively by seeing (por los ojos) than by listening (por los oidos).

During the first few decades, the physical conquest had converted itself in many ways into a mental one, through the schools and specifically, the didactic materials that were employed to replace the old Aztec cosmovision with the new Spanish one. Interestingly, the new one was built upon the old one since the Aztecs (mainly the students, artists and the scribes) provided the words, values, activities, religion, and even the images that were used in many of the didactic materials. Thus, upon a close examination of these materials, one can find vestiges of the Aztec culture alongside the Spanish, with many concepts already appearing in a syncretized form in some of these materials.

Of course, the purpose of any good didactic material is to teach. However, they also serve to preserve a culture or to reinforce the values, skills and knowledge, a given society finds useful They also synthesize a culture, narrowing it down to its most basic concepts. A great deal can be learned about a culture through the study of its didactic materials. This site provides images of these didactic materials including books, manuscripts and some of the paintings that appeared on Church walls, along with a brief explanation of how they were utilized. It also provides links to some of the edicts, letters and plays that went back and forth between Spain and New Spain, which were also used as didactic materials.

Materials Images/Text (1) Paintings and mosaics as didactic materials (2) Manuscripts (codices) as didactic material (3) Manuals for missionaries & books on missionaries bookshelves (4) Royal edicts, letters, and plays-- intro and link to DT's web site Additional Reading Franciscan Education in New Spain (1519-1540) by Tracey Holland Bibliography