Translation in America in the 16th century

Abstract

The history of translation in America in the 16th century is closely related to the construction of a colonial empire. In letters, chronicles, accounts, diaries, autobiographies, histories, diverse narratives, scientific texts, administrative documents and laws, it is almost impossible to isolate the fragments alluding to the interpreters and translators of heart-rending accounts of the political and diplomatic operations designed to obtain profit by exploiting and enslaving the indigenous peoples. In its most generalised form, translation between languages by nahuatlatos, or interpreters, was used to subjugate the oppressed. Paradoxically, the opposite is also found: early texts which, in the broad framework of evangelization, preserved verbal and aesthetic forms of the civilizations that were destined to disappear.