<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV class="MsoNormal">Michael,</DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>A few months ago there was a discussion about how people on the list got into Nahuatl. I have been putting off making my contribution, but your mail on the “New Philology” has given me good excuse to do it now. Let me start off by saying that I consider myself within that tradition.</DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>While doing my MA in Spanish at USC, I took a course in Latin American Colonial Literature with Mabel Moraña, and read “Visión de los vencidos” by Miguel León Portilla. After asking myself why I couldn’t read the texts in the original language, I searched around LA for someplace to study Nahuatl. I took two semesters of Classical Nahuatl with William Bright at UCLA, using Andrew’s text and workbook, which accompany me, rebound, to this day. At the same time I approached Jim Lockhart who, although I wasn’t a student of his, generously (a characteristic that distinguishes him) invited me to participate in the informal study group he held at his home. So for the next two years, twice a month, I sat at Jim’s kitchen table with other grad students, read and commented Carochi, and parsed, analyzed and translated mundane Nahuatl documents. Using the expression that Joe and others have used, I was hooked immediately. I think there are two things that were involved in the start of this love affair. First, Nahuatl grammar is a beautifull piece of machinery: everything is systematic and easily understandable (the only exceptions I can think of are the Classical plural noun endings, and the passive/applicative/causative verb radicals). Second, reading mundane documents lets you sit down with an indian who lived 300 hundred years ago and listen to his or her comments written in Nahuatl on daily life and interactions with Spaniards. It’s fascinating. And I think this an aspect of New Philology that has integrated itself into the work I do with native speakers. More on this in a moment.</DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>USC wouldn’t let me use Nahuatl to satisfy my second language requirement. They said I needed to study a real language, so I took two semesters of Latin, and then forgot it. I went on to do my Ph.D. in Literature at UCSD. My dissertation, "Procesos de sujeción colonial en el municipio tlaxcalteca del siglo XVI y la respuesta indígena," was basically a discourse analysis of the Nahuatl text of Las Actas de Tlaxcala. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>I returned to Zacatecas in 1993 with my family (my wife and I met while I was studying to be an elementary school teacher at the Escuela Normal “Manuel Avila Camacho” in Zacatecas, 1977-1981), and began to work in the Facultad de Humanidades at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, teaching classes in Hispanic Literature, Classical Nahuatl, and finishing my dissertation. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>During that time I became aware that there were many native speakers of Nahuatl studying as undergraduates at the university. I immediately began to work daily with two of them, Urbano Francisco Martínez and Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz. As I began to learn conversational Nahuatl, I immediately became aware of the fact that Classical Nahuatl and the Modern Nahuatl of the Huasteca were simply two variants of a single system: in other words, one set of rules explains all. In fact, over the years, I have come to the conclusion that if you study either one in isolation, it’s like trying to read a book with some of the pages torn out. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>Together Urbano, Delfina and I have developed a series of courses in Older and Modern Nahuatl which we teach at the UAZ, both during the school year and during the Summer. We also founding two non-profit institutes, one in Mexico (Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas) and one in the US (Macehualli Educational Research) for the purpose of funding our teaching and research projects. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>Currently we have about 10 indigenous college students on scholarship working with us in the preparation of a monolingual dictionary and a monolingual grammar of Modern Huastecan Nahuatl (using “Classical” spelling and word entry conventions). I have also recently started working with two students who are native speakers of wixarika (huichol), and sometime in the future we will offer courses and do research projects in this area. I also work currently with mundane Nahuatl documents from Colonial Western Mexico.<O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>We work on a series of principles: <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal">1. The relationship between Older and Modern Nahuatl (or any indigenous) language and culture is one of continuity, not of rupture. One can not be understood in isolation from the other. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal">2. Indigenous students need to study older and modern aspects of their language and culture; and they need to review, comment on, and participate in (not as passive informants, but as research assistants) the Western production of knowledge concerning Mesoamerica. They need to be authors of their own projects in this area. <O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal">3. Bilingualism is a good thing; the lack of monolingual academic (especially reference) materials for native speakers is not. Institutions of higher education all over the world) need to realize that general education courses in ethnic studies offered in the dominant language are of zero value if they are not accompanied by courses in indigenous languages taught <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">in person</SPAN> by native speakers.<O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal">4. Mexican institutions of higher education need to transform themselves from deculturalization machines into spaces where indigenous students can study a career in Spanish, and at the same time become educated in their native language and culture, contributing actively to its revitalization and the extension of its use in urban society. However, since in general, Mexico and its educational institutions have neither the interest nor the resources for developing this, partnerships with “1st world” institutions will be indispensable. But they will be indispensable for both sides.<O:P></O:P></DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count:1"> </SPAN>As I said at the beginning, I consider myself within the New Philology. I also consider that the future of this school, as well as the future of indigenous studies in general will look something like what we are doing here in Zacatecas.</DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal">John</DIV><DIV class="MsoNormal"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John Sullivan, Ph.D.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tacuba 152, int. 47</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Centro Histórico</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Zacatecas, Zac. 98000</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">México</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:idiez@mac.com">idiez@mac.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">www.idiez.org.mx<SPAN></SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">www.macehualli.org</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>