User:Ridiculus mus/sandbox/Antonio Valeriano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antonio Valeriano (his Indian name is unknown) was among the first – and was certainly the most illustrious – of the Indians to assimilate the dominant Spanish culture in the first decades after the Conquest of New Spain.[1] Although a noble birth is disputed, he married into the family of Moctezuma and rose to the position of juez-gobernador (administrator of an Indian district) first of Azcapotzalco (his home town) and then of San Juan Tenochtitlan, which latter post he held until some time in the 1590's.[2] Among his intellectual accomplishments, he was renowned as a linguist and for the major role he played in assisting fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the latter's extensive project of collecting and recording information about the fast-vanishing indigenous cultures. Sahagún described him as "el principal y más sabio" (the main and most learned) of his native collaborators.[3] Valeriano also taught at the prestigious Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco at which he had studied, and he taught Nahuatl to Franciscan friars, including the future historian fray Juan de Torquemada who praised his various skills.[4] No less notable is his presumed authorship of the Nican Mopohua, a masterpiece of literary Nahuatl and a core text in the development of the tradition of the Marian apparitions to Juan Diego at Tepeyac which initiated the celebrated cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe.[5] He died in 1605 and was accorded an imposing funeral, the details of which were recorded by Juan de Torquemada, who attended them.[6]
Antonio Valeriano | |
---|---|
Judge-governor of San Juan Tenochtitlan | |
In office 1573–1599 | |
Preceded by | Francisco Jiménez |
Succeeded by | Gerónimo López |
Judge-governor of Azcapotzalco | |
In office 1565–? | |
Personal details | |
Born | ca. 1531 Azcapotzalco |
Died | 1605 |
Nationality | Novohispanic |