The gold of Cortes, the jewels of Pizarro

[petmoosie]

In Spanish class, we are studying the history of Mexico. We're still knee-deep in the Conquest. We've been learning about the translators, La Malinche and a certain priest. La Malinche translated between two native languages (and was a native of Mexico).

We are all confused how the priest (who arrived with Cortes) learned Mayan so quickly. Prior education in Latin and Greek would only help a tiny bit. Maybe he was highly gifted at languages.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I recently re-learned about the Catholic priest who destroyed most of the written Mayan language scrolls (y'know, they were the work of the Devil); that was kind of interesting in a train-wreck sort of way.

[petmoosie.livejournal.com]

I looked it up in Wikipedia. The priest was Gerónimo de Aguilar, and he was a Mayan slave from 1511 to 1519, when he joined Cortés' campaign (He had been in a shipwreck near the Yucatan). So 8 years as a slave is much better (for learning the language) than no prior experience.