The Indigenous Literature of the Americas
In late August, Mexico City and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico signed an agreement to teach Náhuatl language and culture to Nahua (Aztec) students in Santa Ana Tlacotenco in the high southern reaches of the city. The signatories were a deputy mayor of the city, the coordinator of humanities at the university, and an honored witness,
Miguel León-Portilla, the leading scholar in the world of Náhuatl history and culture. It had been many years, perhaps centuries, since a great Mexican university had educated Nahua students in their own culture and offered a diploma to those who completed the course satisfactorily. According to some observers, it had not happened since the calmecac (school for nobles) was destroyed with the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521. Náhuatl culture and language had been studied in Mexican universities, but not taught as a living culture. It was yet another instance of a resurgence of indigenous culture in the