Diego Durán – Wikipedia

Diego Durán (Seville, 1537 – 1588) was a Spanish historian.

Dominican friar is mainly known for being the author of one of the first western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, History of the Indies of New Spain and Islands of the Firm Land (Also known as Codice Durán ), a book that was strongly criticized in its era for the help that gave the maintenance of a pagan culture. Durán was currently spoken of the Aztec language and managed to use the stories and pictorial codes of the local population for his work as well as the works of his predecessors’ religious.

His empathic nature allowed him to gain the trust of many natives who normally did not share their stories with the Europeans, and was thus able to document numerous stories and legends previously unknown, making his work unique.

The early years [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Durán was born in Seville around 1537, but his family moved to Mexico when he was still a child. As he said later “although he did not have my first tex to texcoco, he had the second there” ( History Postal Code. I), and it was precisely to Texcoco that he learned the Nahuatl. His family was not excessively florid and did not own one Encomienda Indeed, his relatives were not even owners of slaves.

His family moved to Mexico cities when Diego was still very young, here he attended the school and found himself exposed to both Aztec culture, albeit under colonial domain and that of the many slaves that the Spaniards had brought from Africa. According to Heyden, Durán was often troubled by the mixing of races and cultures and the meaning they had in the social classes (Heyden XXV-XXVI).

Life in the Church [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In 1556 Durán entered the Dominican order and after the training period in Mexico City was sent to Oaxaca in 1561. He settled in the convent of Oaxtepec, where he found important information for his research. It is believed that he was a pupil of Francisco de Aguilar, who as a soldier had participated in the siege of Tenochtitlán. Subsequently De Aguilar entered the Dominican order, and contributed a lot to the knowledge of Durán regarding the Aztecs in the period of the first contact with the Conquerors . His name is often mentioned in the History .

Subsequently Durán became vicar in the convent of Hueyapan and had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge on the Aztec culture. The convent had been founded by decree of the emperor Charles V to spread Christianity among the local population, as well as for the observation of local uses and customs and the search for ancient documents, precisely for this reason Durán had the opportunity to go often to the surrounding villages .

He developed a close relationship with the people who were trying to convert and this led him to criticize the religious and conquistadores who had never learned the Aztec language and to sorry for the raw and often ridiculous use that many Spaniards made of this language. (they should know the language well and understand [the people] to pretend to obtain fruits. And the priests should not be satisfied saying that knowing that little language to listen to the confessions is sufficient – Dal book of the gods and rites).

Durán was divided between two worlds, the one he came from and the one in which he had come to live. He deeply respects Aztec and his social and political organization before the Spanish conquest, and he had grown his admiration for the Mexican people. On the other hand, the disgust that Durán felt in certain aspects of the culture with which he confronted, especially human sacrifices, aspects that entered the conflict with his duty as a missionary and evangelizer, remained.

Another of his duties was to document the uses and customs of the natives, to serve as a manual to other monks in their effort to evangelize pagans. Despite its purpose, it was to describe the Pagan practices For the use and consumption of other missionaries, he also wanted to make his manual pleasant to reading.

In 1585 Durán returned to Mexico City in bad health conditions, and worked in the local monastery of Santo Domingo as a translator from Nahuatl to the Spaniard on behalf of the Inquisition.
He died in 1588 from an unknown disease. (Heyden, XXIX)

The History of the Indies of New Spain and islands of the mainland , also known as Codice Durán , consists of 78 chapters ranging from the Aztec story of creation to the time following the Spanish conquest, and includes a chronology of the Aztec kings.
The monks of the 16th century often used material of each other without quotations. According to some scholars the Codice Durán He formed the foundations for the manuscript known as the Ramírez code, according to others instead both are based on a previous and unknown work, to which reference is made with the name of Chronicle X . An explicit quote by Durán as a source is in History of the Foundation and Speech of the Province of Santiago de Mexico (1596), of Frate Agustín Dávila Pandilla. (Heyden XXX)

The Durán code was not printed until the 19th century, when it was found in the Madrid library by José Fernando Ramírez. In his Ancient calendar Durán himself from an explanation of why his work would have waited for a long time by saying “some people (and not few) says that my work revives among the Indians Ancient rites and customs. “His replica is that the Aztecs were quite good to secretly preserve their traditions even without help from the outside.
Durán’s work has assumed a fundamental value for archaeologists and other scholars of Mesoamerican cultures. Although some few Aztec codes wrote written before the Spanish conquest, the most numerous post -conquest codes and contemporary works such as that of Durán are invaluable secondary sources for the interpretation of the theories and finds of archaeologists.