Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco

Title

Description

The Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco was the epicenter of education and academia in sixteenth-century century Mexico City. The college was founded by the Franciscan order and its primary purpose was to convert young, native Nahua boys to Christianity while teaching them Spanish. It faced many challenges in educating these boys that included insufficient language training that accompany the complex relationship between colonized and colonizer. The Nahua had many variations of the language that it was difficult for the Spanish to learn the language and to teach the boys Spanish. The college also produced some of the first native accounts of the conquest of Mexico City and other native confession manuals and sermons. These native accounts were translated into Spanish by the Nahua students with the supervision of the Catholic friars. While this allowed for native history to be preserved, its intention or original meaning was often distorted because of the inability of Spanish words to accurately capture the spirit of the native narration while in the process of translation. For example, stories of the Tlaxcalan boys who died during the conquest had their stories distorted by the written history produced by the college because the true story reflected poorly on the Spanish and the trauma and spiritual impact could not accurately have translated from Nahua to Spanish. The construction of the college was modeled on Spanish architecture and building techniques. Its placement was informed by the Spanish concept of the plaza which was the grid system that is used in Mexico City and many Spanish cities. Perhaps most intriguing about the intent of the college’s education of the Nahua youth is that it served to benefit the Spaniard’s goals of assimilation and control. The Spanish hoped that by educating these boys in the vein of Spanish culture and tradition through language, religion, and politics that eventually they could be used to impose order on the native population. This process of indoctrination and control was not successful as the boys did not prove to be the effective community leaders the Spanish had anticipated, so ultimately the Spanish filled the leadership and political positions with fellow Spaniards. The primary success of the school was in educating the boys in Spanish, but the texts produced by the college have also provided insight into native culture and the culture of Mexico City post-conquest. The college was lost to the Francsicans when it became too difficult to maintain and was turned over to the crown shortly after the conquest. In 1546, maintenance of the college was turned over its former students. It fell into disrepair after that and now stands in ruins as a memory of the history of post conquest education.

Bautista, Juan. Advertencias para los confessores de los naturales. Mexico City: M. Ocharte, 1600.
Castano, Victoria Rios. Translation as Conquest. Spain: Vervuert, 2014.
Haskett, Robert. “Dying for Conversion: Faith, Obedience, and the Tlaxcalan Boy Martyrs.” Colonial Latin American Review, Vol 17, No. 2 (2008): 185-212.
Pollnitz, Aysha. “Old Words and the New World: Liberal Education and the Franciscans in New Spain, 1536—1601.” Transactions of the RHS, Vol. 27 (2017): 123-152.
Williams, Jerry M. “Iconography and Religious Education in New Spain.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Vol. 15, No. 2 (1991): 305-322.

Creator

Alfonso de Santa Cruz and native person from Mexico City/Tenochtitlán

Date

1521

Source

Special Collections, Mary Couts Burnett Library, Texas Christian University

Type

Map

Item