Broken Spears or Broken Bones: Evolution of the Most Famous Line in Nahuatl

• John F. Schwaller ^[1] ; Miguel León-Portilla ^[2]
  1. [1] State University of New York

     State University of New York

     City of Albany, Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas
• Localización: The Americas: A quarterly review of inter-american cultural history, ISSN 0003-1615, Vol. 66, Nº. 2, 2009, págs. 241-252
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Arguably the line “Broken Spears” is the most famous in Nahuatl. Any undergraduate student who has taken a course in Latin American history, literature, or anthropology has in all likelihood come across the line. It, of course, comes from the title of Miguel Leon-Portilla's book of the same name. The line appears in a description of Tlatelolco following the destruction of the city by the Spanish in the conquest of Mexico:

    Broken spears lie in the roads We have torn our hair in our grief The houses are roofless now, and their walls Are red with blood.

    This evocative image has dominated much of the imagination of two generations of college students.