II.

Native American Literature

At the time of the European conquest, some Native American literature was written down. However, most of it was transmitted from one generation to the next by professional reciters who memorized texts and narrated them. Some countries accept this expression as part of a national literary tradition, most notably Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Many literary historians view it as a “literature of resistance” to the European languages of the conqueror or as a more “authentic” expression of a country’s original culture.

As in most cultures, this early literature includes creation stories that attempt to explain the origin of the universe, stories about gods and their activities that offer an explanation of the workings of the world, and histories that relate the genealogy of rulers. Creation stories were particularly prominent among the Tupí-Guaraní people of what is today Paraguay, northern Argentina, and southwestern Brazil, and they continue to influence writers of that region.

Poetry was also present in Native American literature. The Flor y Canto (Flower and Song) tradition in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs produced lyric verses associated with rituals, such as harvest ceremonies. These poems indicate that literature was appreciated for its own sake, apart from its use in religious and historical narratives.

Some native-language literature is exclusively oral, such as the Quechua-language play Ollantay of the Inca of Peru. Other traditional literature is both oral and written, including Aztec rituals in the Nahuatl language and sacred myths of the Maya in various Mayan languages and dialects. The Popul Vuh, of the Maya-Quiché of southern Mexico and Guatemala, is a collection of sacred myths that were first written down in the 16th century. Translations of these myths into Spanish in the 18th century considerably advanced the awareness of native literature in Middle America (Mexico and Central America). The oral material of the Incas was captured in writing in the 17th century, while the process of recording what survives of the oral traditions of other people of the Andes Mountains region continues today.

Native American literature played an important role for Latin American writers who sought a distinctively Latin American voice. Twentieth-century writers who incorporate Native American myth and folklore into their plots, characterizations, and social analyses include Guatemala’s Miguel Ángel Asturias, Peru’s José María Arguedas, and Paraguay’s Augusto Roa Bastos. Even writers with an international outlook, such as Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes and Chile’s José Donoso, draw on indigenous culture in contrasting modern urban societies with traditional rural ones.