Migrations and Foundations in the Literature of New Spain

doi:10.1017/9781108976893.002

Chapter 1 - Migrations and Foundations in the Literature of New Spain

from Part I - Land, Space, Territory

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2022

Pablo García Loaeza

Edited by

Rocío Quispe-Agnoli and

Amber Brian

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Rocío Quispe-Agnoli: Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Amber Brian: Affiliation:
University of Iowa

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Summary

The classic notion of translatio (imperii, studii, etc.) can be advantageously deployed to examine the narrative construction of space and its bearing on identity formation. The concept covers the displacement of people, the political and spiritual changes wrought by such movements, and the renderings of these events in various media. In New Spain, such transitions were represented, in both visual and alphabetic texts, by migrations (the wandering Aztecs, the sea-fearing missionaries, the forlorn creoles) and urban foundations (the legendary Tollan, the otherworldly Puebla, the all-encompassing Mexico-Tenochtitlan) in which past, present, and future, as well as myth, history, and literature, overlap. This chapter will consider the representation of several key migrations and foundations that illustrate transitions from images to words and from myth to history, and back again, in New Spanish literature to highlight the role of place in the identity-formation processes that lead from pre-Hispanic Anahuac to modern Mexico.

Keywords

Colonial coat of arms foundation migration narrative Mexico-Tenochtitlan New Spain Puebla Texcoco Tollan Tolteca

Type: Chapter
Information: Latin American Literature in Transition Pre-1492–1800 , pp. 17 - 33

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976893.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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