Two major world-history crossroads where different worldviews converged and collided occurred in early Ibero-American history. They left a rich legacy of intercultural dialogues forged in and reflecting on asymmetric and violent encounters, where a cadre of translators and writers sought to negotiate individual and collective spaces drawing on an array of multilingual intellectual and literary traditions that had never before converged and that henceforth could not be read completely separately. The first dates back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and is known as the Toledo School of Translators. Under the auspices of King Alfonso X of Castile, a heterogeneous group of Jew, Arab and Christian intellectuals translated ancient and classical Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew texts, philosophical and scientific works, into Latin and Spanish. The second world-converging moment occurred in sixteenth-century Mesoamerica, in the wake of Iberian imperial expansion. It made possible an intricate meshing of ancient and classical Mesoamerican and European intellectual and literary traditions. Its best-known corpus was written in European languages, but there is, too, a significant corpus written in Nahuatl, Maya, Zapotec and other Mesoamerican languages that has not received its due attention beyond small circles of specialists. It is time to recognize the breadth and depth of its significance.

In this respect, Shroeder's collection is a clear and firm step towards a more comprehensive view of the multilingual and multiform intellectual traditions that emerged under Spanish colonialism – despite censure. This is a wonderful collection of nine interdisciplinary essays by authors with established expertise in Mesoamerican languages and cultures. The introduction provides an overview of the colonial reorganization of central Mexico's ethnic states (atlepetl) and highlights the multiple roles played by the educated noble native elite in the new society, serving as governors, priest assistants, judges, court interpreters, and historians. Nahuatl annals, histories, wills, letters, bills of sale, criminal complaints, songs, land titles, and many other documents were produced in pictorial form, alphabetic texts or a combination of both, drawing from and refashioning native narrative traditions and forms of expression. In the first essay Kevin Terraciano examines the micro-political rivalries between Mexico City's main atlepetl, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, through Nahuatl texts that reveal the internal political rifts and that show that native writers did not remember the conquest in the providential Christian scheme that Spanish sources stress. Art historian Travis Barton Kranz studies how the Tlaxcalan images of the conquest change through the sixteenth century to better assert their collective political pleas to the crown. Next, anthropologist Louise Burkhart examines a Nahuatl play adapted from Spanish known as the Destruction of Jerusalem. The text echoes the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, omitting and stressing some elements of the Spanish text that brought the play more closely to its audience. Next, Schroeder's chapter looks at a prolific and erudite seventeenth-century native annalist known as Chimalpahin, whose work goes beyond documenting the history of his hometown to include the history of Christianity, placing historical events in both native and Christian calendars. Amber Brian compares the narratives of the conquest of Mexico by Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who sought, simultaneously and not without contradictions, to affirm his native noble lineage and his role as a loyal ally of the Spaniards. Camilla Townsend examines Don Juan Zapata's seventeenth-century text documenting the history of Tlaxcala since its founding year in 1310, in a text that draws from the native annals tradition. Next, Barry Sell examines the linguistic work of the Jesuits, focussing in particular on the work of Father Horacio Carochi, “the greatest colonial grammarian of Nahuatl” (181). His confession manual took an unusual route to highlight the intricate language use of Nahuatl speakers, registering the linguistically rich responses of the penitents. Anthropologist David Tavarez looks at series of late seventeenth-century Zapotec texts from Oaxaca. These texts were passed down from one generation to the next, each adding their marks, creating open-ended, collective texts that draw both from the native calendric tradition and from the legal Spanish genre of the probanza. In the last chapter Robert Haskett examines a primordial title of Cuernavaca that highlights the autonomy of the atlepetl. The narrative of the conquest, for instance, presents no Spanish protagonists and the main agency lies with the indigenous lords.

The collection provides an excellent sample of recent scholarly research on post-conquest Mexico. Well written and well developed, the essays are easy to follow, great for undergraduate and graduate courses. Besides its evident solid scholarship, there are a few elements of the collection itself worth considering. The introduction is perhaps too narrowly conceived, underselling its significance, which can be asserted by placing it in a wider historical framework. A genealogy of Nahuatl studies, a field in itself that the collection makes evident, could have been included, as well as Latin American-based researchers. Lastly, Nahuatl and Zapotec are living languages today, although none of the essays seem to take that into consideration. Despite these objections, I highly recommend this collection.