Intro | Mysite

Hello! You arrived at my personal website.

A few things about me:

I am Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, focused on early modern theologies, colonialism, and Indigenous traditions of the Americas. I work with Nahuatl and K'iche' Maya language texts and material culture from the Late Postclassic period (1200-1521CE). I bring together the study of religion, cultural change, and material evidence to the study of church history in Latin America.

While I am a specialist on Indigenous Christianities of Latin America, I also have an interests in non-Christian religions before the period of contact and their continuity to the present-day. Part of how I approach this work is through Indigenous language learning and diffusion. Since 2017 I have worked on an online, open access Nahuatl-language curriculum with the help of Nahuatl-speakers, Sabina Cruz de la Cruz and Catalina Cruz de la Cruz (https://tlahtolli.coerll.utexas.edu/). It is a self-paced study of Huasteca Nahuatl from northern Veracruz, Mexico.

A few things about this website:

Below you will find my education and current projects, but more importantly, a list of resources for Indigenous languages and a list of downloadable primary sources I use in my research. The digital humanities has changed how we access information, and my goal is to point you to how archivists, historians, and web developers have facilitated our studies in the last of decades.

( 01 )

Education

2021 Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin

2018 M.A. The University of Texas at Austin

2014 M.Div. Southern Methodist University

2011 B.A. Northwestern College

( 02 )

Current Research

I am writing a monograph on Nahua ritual specialists!

I am working on his first monograph, based on my doctoral dissertation, which focused on Nahua (i.e. Aztec) ritual specialists from before and after European occupation. The book demonstrates that household ritual specialists were official participants in the life-cycles Nahua city-states. It also shows how “lifestyles” and “labors” were categories that organized religious systems before European occupation. The book tells the story of how Spanish local officials and Christian friars both abdicated and co-opted Nahua culture to enforce the Christian religion and European civility, invariably changing people's views on Nahua ritual specialists. The book embraces multidisciplinary approaches, such as Nahuatl and K’iche’ Maya ethnohistory, material culture and archeology, and theological anthropologies from the medieval and early modern periods.

( 03 )

Language Resources

Mesoamerica is a vast region with mutually unintelligible languages. We need the help of many resources! Check out these language learning programs, digital archives, and dictionaries.

AILLA (Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America)

https://ailla.utexas.org/

FAMSI (Archive of Mesoamerican Studies)

http://www.famsi.org/index.html

Le Qach'ab'al K'iche' (Online K'iche' Language Program)

https://tzij.coerll.utexas.edu/

Nahuatlahtolli (Online Nahuatl Language Program)

https://tlahtolli.coerll.utexas.edu/

Classical Nahuatl Dictionary

http://sites.estvideo.net/malinal/nahuatl.orient.html

Diccionario náhuatl - español (basado en Molina)

http://www.historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/publicadigital/libros/diccionario/nahuatl.html

Classical and Modern Nahuatl Dictionary

https://nahuatl.uoregon.edu/content/welcome-nahuatl-dictionary

Diccionario náhuatl de Chicontepec, Veracruz

https://www.academia.edu/34987634/Tlahtolxitlauhcayotl._Chicontepec_Veracruz

Colonial Zapotec Dictionary

https://ticha.haverford.edu/en/vocabulary/A/

Maya Hieroglyphic Dictionary (Peter Mathews and Péter Bíró
Drawings by John Montgomery)

http://research.famsi.org/mdp/mdp_index.php

Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs (John Montgomery)

http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/montgomery/index.html

Diccionario y arte de Otomí (L.D. Luís de Neve y Molina)

http://www.famsi.org/research/boot/neve_y_molina_1767/Neve-y-Molina-1767_full.pdf

K'iche' - English Dictionary (Allen Christensen)

http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/christenson/quidic_complete.pdf

Colonial Pokom Maya Dictionary (Lawrence Feldman)

http://www.famsi.org/reports/97022/97022Feldman01.pdf

Chuj Maya Dictionary (Nicholas Hopkins)

http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/hopkins/ChujEnglishDictionary2012.pdf

Chol Maya Dictionary (Nicholas A. Hopkins, J. Kathryn Josserand, and Ausencio Cruz Guzmán)

http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/hopkins/CholDictionary2010.pdf

Ch'orti' Maya Dictionary (Kerry Hull)

http://www.famsi.org/reports/03031/03031.pdf

Hieroglyphs of Ek' Balam (Alfonso Lacadena)

http://www.famsi.org/reports/01057/01057LacadenaGarciaGallo01.pdf

( 04 )

Primary Sources

Thanks to the work of archivists, historians, and web developers, we have access to primary sources in a digital form. Follow the links to download these important sources related to Mesoamerica.

COLLECTIONS

Documents in Nahuatl from Central America

http://nahuatl-nawat.org/items/browse

Primeros Libros (Indigenous Languages Books printed in New Spain in the 16th-century)

http://primeroslibros.org/browse_language.html?lang=en

Maps from the AGN (Archivo General)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/mapas-indigenas-novohispanos-agn

Documents in Nahuatl at UCLA

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0009gvf4

Relaciones Gegráficas (Sixteenth-Century Reports and Maps of Mesoamerica)

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=1fcabf740a844d9d80d5bf0248416f47

Indigenous Languages Database at John Carter Brown Library

https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/ildb/index.php

PRE-CONTACT

Codex Colombino (12th-century)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3245/#page=2&countries=MX

Dresden Codex (13th-century)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11621/#page=4&countries=MX

Tonalamatl Aubin (15th-century)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15283/#page=4&countries=MX

Codex Boturini (16th-century)

https://codexaubin.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/3

1520's

Augsburg Newspaper about Yucatan (1522)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2832/#countries=MX

Second letter of Hernán Cortés (1524)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/19994/#page=4&countries=MX

1530's

Nahuatl Lectionary by Sahagún (1530's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15015/#page=4&countries=MX

Huexotzinco Codex (1530's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2657/#countries=MX

Matrícula de tributos (1530's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3248/#page=2&countries=MX

Codex Vergara (1530's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15278/#page=4&countries=MX

Codex Azcatitlan (1530's?)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15280/#page=4&countries=MX

1540's

Boban Calendar Wheel (1540's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/6760/#page=3&countries=MX

Trilingual Dictionary by Sahagún (1540's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15016/#page=4&countries=MX

Códice Huetamo (1540's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/codice-huetamo

Fragments of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (1540's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/lienzo-tlaxcala-fragmentos-texas

Codex Xolotl (1540's)

https://amoxcalli.org.mx/codice.php?id=001-010

Codex Mendoza (1540's)

https://codexaubin.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/2

Sermons in Nahuatl by Sahagún (1540's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15018/#page=4&countries=MX

1550's

Codex Telleriano Remensis (1550's)

https://codexaubin.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/4

Uppsala Map (1550's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/503/#countries=MX

Primeros Memoriales de Sahagún (1550's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/bernardino-sahagun-codices-matritenses

Códice Sierra Texupan (1550's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/codice-sierra-texupan

Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (1550's)

https://amoxcalli.org.mx/codice.php?id=046

Petitions Against Hernán Cortés (1550's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/9681/#page=3&countries=MX

Geneology of Nezahualcoyotl and Itzcoalt (1550's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/genealogia-circular

Códice Yanhuitlan (1550's)

http://bdmx.mx/documento/codice-yanhuitlan

Codex Ixtlilxochitl (1550's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15281/#page=4&countries=MX

1560's

Osuna Codex (1560's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/7324/#page=3&countries=MX

Matricula de Huexotzinco (1560's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15282/#page=4&countries=MX

1570's

Chavero Codex of Huexotzinco (1570's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3246/#page=2&countries=MX

Florentine Codex (1570's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/10096/#page=3&countries=MX

Codex Aubin (1570's)

https://codexaubin.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/1

Nahuatl Interpretations of the Gospel by Sahagún (1570's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15017/#page=4&countries=MX

1580's

Codex Totomixtlahuaca (1580's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2701/#countries=MX

Codex Tovar (1580's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/6759/#page=3&countries=MX

1590's

Codex Huamantla (1590's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3244/#page=2&countries=MX

Sigüenza Map (1590's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3247/#page=2&countries=MX

Tira de Tepechpan (1590's)

https://codexaubin.ace.fordham.edu/collections/show/8

Codex Mexicanus (1590's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15284/#page=4&countries=MX

1610's

Virtues of Plants by Fransisco Hernández (1610's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/7334/#page=3&countries=MX

1640's

Nican Mopohua (1640's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/2966/#page=2&countries=MX

1680's

Techialoyan Codex of Cuajimalpa (1680's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/9682/#page=3&countries=MX

1740's

Codex of Mexican History (1740's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/15279/#page=4&countries=MX

Report by Cabeza de Vaca (1740's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/162/#countries=MX

1790's

Antonio León y Gama (1790's)

https://www.wdl.org/en/item/516/#countries=MX

Josefrayn

Sánchez-Perry