How Nahuatl found me

[John F. Schwaller]

Colleagues,

At the risk of being repetitious, my story is not really that 
exciting.  Like Fran Karttunen and Michael McCafferty,  I was a 
graduate student at Indiana University.  Unlike them, I was studying 
colonial Mexican history.  My advisor, John Lombardi, suggested that 
learning Nahuatl might be of great utility in my research.  It just 
so happened that IU was a federally funded Latin American Studies 
center and offered Nahuatl, and other native languages, which 
qualified for federal assistance under the National Defense Foreign 
Language Act.  So my second year of graduate work I earned a 
fellowship to learn Nahuatl under the direction of Joe Campbell.  It 
was one of those transformative experiences.  Joe was/is so 
passionate about the language that it was impossible not to get 
sucked in.  My fondest memories are of making glossaries of Nahuatl 
words that we would then enter on to punch cards to form Joe's data 
base.  We read the Horcasitas folk tales, and then worked on 
individual entries in the Molina dictionary.  After about 2 years 
with Joe, I even had the temerity to offer Nahuatl at IU through the 
popular university program.  I used to joke that I learned Nahuatl 
from a computer, programmed by Joe.  I also recall that when I tried 
to read Sahagun it seemed the most difficult and impenetrable thing I 
had ever seen.  As a graduate student I began to catalogue Nahuatl 
language manuscripts in the US, working first with the collection at 
the Lilly Library.  In 1974, I met Jim Lockhart, and got to know Fran 
Karttunen, as I provided minimal archival assistance in finding 
colonial Nahuatl documents.

I then went on to a career as a history and Spanish prof.  At every 
institution where I have worked, I have taught Nahuatl, Florida 
Atlantic University, the U. of Montana, and here at the U. of 
Minnesota.  Once I became an administrator and archival research 
became more difficult because of my "day job," I have turned more and 
more to Nahuatl.  It's something I can work on in my spare 
moments.  Also in the mid-1980s I received funding from NEH to 
develop a catalogue of Nahuatl language manuscripts in the US, which 
was eventually published by the Academy of American Franciscan 
History.  Also in the mid-80's at the behest of Marc Eisinger of 
France, I initiated this discussion list.  It makes it one of the 
oldest lists around, having begun during the precursor to the 
internet, bitnet.  I also developed www.nahuatl.org, which 
unfortunately languishes from time to time due to my commitments elsewhere.

As Fran pointed out, I make copies of the "Foundation Course" 
available.  Right now it is out of print, but when I get to Potsdam, 
NY, I'll have more copies printed and it will be for sale once again.

I have worked on the Guide to Confession written by Bartolome de 
Alva, on some of the cofradia constitutions of Molina, and recently I 
have been looking at nuances in Sahagun's Psalmodia and 
Coloquios.  Ironically I now find Sahagun to be quite clear and 
straightforward and use selections for readings when I teach Nahuatl.

I must give my deepest thanks to Joe Campbell and certainly to Fran 
Karttunen.  Without them I would never have persisted in Nahuatl as 
long as I have.  Their passion for the language has certainly inspired me.







John F. Schwaller
President
SUNY Potsdam
schwaljf at potsdam.edu

Until 6-30-06:
University of Minnesota, Morris
600 E 4th Street
Morris, MN  56267
320-589-6015
FAX 320-589-6399
schwallr at morris.umn.edu

_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl