The huehuetlatolli are the traditional testimonies that contain the entire legacy of culture and knowledge of the Nahua people. They served as a teaching instrument for the ancient tlamatini - wise men in Nahuatl - to transmit the wisdom of their ancestors to children, youth and adults.
They are defined as texts loaded with rhetoric, some very extensive, which through different literary resources were used by the ancient Mexica to educate their children.
The Huehuetlatolli explain how human life should be on earth and the relationship with their environment according to the Nahua. Photo: OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay
They refer mainly to the principles and norms accepted in the Nahuatl universe, exposing how human life should be on earth and the relationship with their environment.
Origin
The birth of the Huehuetlatolli dates back to the establishment of the pre-Hispanic culture of Mesoamerica, long before the arrival of the Spanish.
This culture reached great levels of both social and intellectual development, the Huehuetlatolli being its main source of wisdom and knowledge. Some texts supported by the wonderful Mayan writing that at the time was one of the most advanced in the world.
In pre-Columbian times in Mexico, there were two main schools that applied his teachings: Calmecac (higher education in Nahuatl) and Telpochcalli, which translates from Nahuatl as 'youth house'.
The difference between one and the other is that the first educated the nobles, especially those of the lower class. In the second, future combatants were prepared for war.
What they both have in common is that huehietlatolli were learned by heart, word for word, albeit with different approaches.
But although they are now manuscripts, their origins came from the oral traditions of central Mexico. Speeches that, although they were delivered by the most experienced and studied, were transmitted even by young adults who already knew them perfectly.
It was the first missionaries to arrive in the New World who were largely in communion with the ideals implicit in the huehuetlatolli.
Thus, it is how these jewels of indigenous literature are still preserved today, which continue to be the object of study due to the aesthetics of the word so subtle that characterizes them and for the entire context that surrounds them.
characteristics
The huehuetlatolli fulfilled the function of persuading listeners, in order to guide them along a specific path of values, conduct, social behavior and religion.
Types of huehuetlatolli
The word "testimonials" with which they could be defined more clearly, has many variables. Researchers agree that they can even take other forms such as admonitions, salutations, exhortations, supplications, or comforting talks, as the circumstance warrants. If we define it by types or situations, they could be:
-Rulers addressing their people or the gods.
-Speeches for a newborn, for a marriage or for educational advances.
-Wise people advising their listeners to always go the right way.
-Parents advising their children.
However, there are many other variations of huehuetlatolli, such as some that are personified in supplications to the gods by circumstances of nature, such as a very strong rain or a storm; and favors to be granted to rulers or priests.
Values, morals and ethics
The huehuetlatolli are characterized in each word for being exponents and defenders of humility, courtesy and generosity, among other traditional values.
To this day they remain representative of good behavior and an essential part of the most correct human behavior, but at the same time extremely conservative and orthodox.
The indispensable complement to the content of the huehuetlatolli, for their desired effect to emerge, were the discursive skills of those who had the task of disseminating and teaching them.
They did it with an imposing character, pursuing the objective of instilling the values and knowledge necessary to train future leaders and develop the civic foundations that would sustain the communities in the short, medium and long term.
Morals, ethics and good customs were the most fundamental part of the huehuetlatolli, whose teaching started from the family, the most important pillar of the Nahua culture, even before considering the creation of the Calmecac and Telpochcalli schools.
Telpochcalli was also known as "the war school", where the younger Nahua were enlisted and educated for combat. There they trained in pursuit of values that came from the huehuetlatolli: the correct and ideal warrior was not the strongest or the most skilled, but the one who acted according to his fighting spirit and his service to the people.
Calmecac, on the other hand, emphasized through the ancient word that greatness was obtained through wisdom and knowledge, by leading a life full of virtues and benefits.
In any case, the variety in the directionality of education did not change its purpose. Everyone learned good language, appropriate speeches, how to count the years, the interpretation of dreams, the stars, and even divine songs.
Examples of huehuetlatolli
These are some huehuetlatolli compiled to give a more approximate vision of the rhetoric and the rich literary resources that characterize them:
Ruler after his election
A father teaching his son
Importance of ancestors
Man and education
References
- Sahagún, Bernardino de. Ancient Mexico (Selection and rearrangement of the General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and the indigenous informants). Caracas: Ayacucho Library, 1981.
- Garibay K., Ángel María. History of Nahuatl literature. Mexico: Porrúa, 2000.
- León-Portilla, Miguel. The fate of the word. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1996.
- Abbot, Paul, "The ancient word: rhetoric in Aztec culture", 1987.
- Mónica Ruiz Bañuls, Los huehuetlatolli: discursive models for rhetorical teaching in the indigenous tradition, Castilla, Estudios de Literatura, 2004.