Background
Leon-Portilla, Miguel was born on February 22, 1926 in Mexico City, Mexico. Son of Miguel and Luisa (Portilla) Leon-Portilla.
(The first anthology in any language to represent the full...)
The first anthology in any language to represent the full trajectory of this remarkable literature. From new interpretations of the glyphic writings of the Maya through the poetic response to events in modern Chiapas, here is a history of Mexico and Central America from the Indian point of view. In these pages the reader will encounter, often in new translations, the deeply affecting Aztec poems, the horrific battles of conquest, and the thoughtful philosophy of the Mayan "bible," the Popol Vuh. Full, clear introductions make this extraordinary material accessible to all readers. In the Language of Kings is a gemstone of cultural strength for those who trace their ancestry to Mesoamerica, as well as an essential resource for historians and anthropologists. Above all, it is literature: intimate, grand, painful, proud, and finally renascent in the new awakening of the original peoples of Mesoamerica. "A magnum opus of Mesoamerican literature. . .achieves nothing less than the human and divine." -Bomb
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(The most in-depth and scholarly panorama of Western spiri...)
The most in-depth and scholarly panorama of Western spirituality ever attempted!In one series, the original writings of the universally acknowledged teachers of the Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic and Native American traditions have been critically selected, translated and introduced by internationally recognized scholars and spiritual leaders.The texts are first-rate, and the introductions are informative and reliable. The books will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of every literate religious persons". -- The Christian Century
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( In this second English-language edition of one of his m...)
In this second English-language edition of one of his most notable works, Miguel León-Portilla explores the Maya Indians’ remarkable concepts of time. At the book’s first appearance Evon Z. Vogt, Curator of Middle American Ethnology in Harvard University, predicted that it would become "a classic in anthropology," a prediction borne out by the continuing critical attention given to it by leading scholars. Like no other people in history, the ancient Maya were obsessed by the study of time. Their sages framed its cycles with tireless exactitude. Yet their preoccupation with time was not limited to calendrics; it was a central trait in their evolving culture. In this absorbing work León-Portilla probes the question, What did time really mean for the ancient Maya in terms of their mythology, religious thought, worldview, and everyday life? In his analysis of key Maya texts and computations, he reveals one of the most elaborate attempts of the human mind to penetrate the secrets of existence.
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( This volume presents ancient Mexican myths and sacred h...)
This volume presents ancient Mexican myths and sacred hymns, lyric poetry, rituals, drama, and various forms of prose, accompanied by informed criticism and comment. The selections come from the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Mixtecs and Zapotecs of Oaxaca, the Tarascans of Michoacan, the Otomís of central Mexico, and others. They have come down to us from inscriptions on stone, the codices, and accounts written, after the coming of Europeans, of oral traditions. It is Miguel León-Portilla’s intention "to bring to contemporary readers an understanding of the marvelous world of symbolism which is the very substance of these early literatures." That he has succeeded is obvious to every reader.
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( For at least two millennia before the advent of the Spa...)
For at least two millennia before the advent of the Spaniards in 1519, there was a flourishing civilization in central Mexico. During that long span of time a cultural evolution took place which saw a high development of the arts and literature, the formulation of complex religious doctrines, systems of education, and diverse political and social organization. The rich documentation concerning these people, commonly called Aztecs, includes, in addition to a few codices written before the Conquest, thousands of folios in the Nahuatl or Aztec language written by natives after the Conquest. Adapting the Latin alphabet, which they had been taught by the missionary friars, to their native tongue, they recorded poems, chronicles, and traditions. The fundamental concepts of ancient Mexico presented and examined in this book have been taken from more than ninety original Aztec documents. They concern the origin of the universe and of life, conjectures on the mystery of God, the possibility of comprehending things beyond the realm of experience, life after death, and the meaning of education, history, and art. The philosophy of the Nahuatl wise men, which probably stemmed from the ancient doctrines and traditions of the Teotihuacans and Toltecs, quite often reveals profound intuition and in some instances is remarkably modern.” This English edition is not a direct translation of the original Spanish, but an adaptation and rewriting of the text for the English-speaking reader.
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( Who were the poets of Mexico in the days of Aztec splen...)
Who were the poets of Mexico in the days of Aztec splendor? What were the poems of a culture so different from our own? In this first English-language translation of a significant corpus of Nahuatl poetry into English, an expansion of his classic Trece poetas del mundo azteca, Miguel León-Portilla was assisted in his rethinking, augmenting, and rewriting in English by Grace Lobanov. Biographies of fifteen composers of Nahuatl verse and analyses of their work are followed by their extant poems in Nahuatl and in English. The poets - fourteen men and one woman - lived in the central highlands of Mexico and spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Texcocans, Tlaxcalans, and several other chiefdoms. These authors of "flower and song" (a Nahuatl metaphor for poetry, art, and symbolism) lived during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Sources for the poems included indigenous "codices," books of songs" now unfortunately lost, and renditions of them preserved by the Nahuatl oral tradition, which survived the Spanish Conquest and were recorded by several young natives in two manuscripts.
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Leon-Portilla, Miguel was born on February 22, 1926 in Mexico City, Mexico. Son of Miguel and Luisa (Portilla) Leon-Portilla.
Bachelor, Loyola University, Los Angeles, 1948. Master of Arts, Loyola University, Los Angeles, 1951. Doctor of Philosophy, National University Mexico, 1956.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), Southern Methodist University, 1980. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), University Tel Aviv, 1987. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Southern California University, 1989.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Toulouse University, France, 1990. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Colima University, San Andres, 1994. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), University La Paz, Bolivia, 1994.
Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Brown University, 1996. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Carolina, Prague, 2000. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), California State University, San Diego, 2002.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Iberoamericana, Mexico City, 2002. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), Catholic University, Peru, 2003. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), La Habama, 2006.
He wrote a doctoral thesis on Nahua philosophy under the tutelage of French Ángel María Garibay K., another notable researcher and translator of primary Nahuatl source documents whose publications in the 1930s and 1940s first brought Nahuatl literature to widespread public attention. Continuing with Garibay"s work, León-Portilla established his renown through translating, interpreting and publishing several recompilations of Nahuatl works.
León-Portilla has spearheaded a movement to understand and reevaluate Nahuatl literature, not only from the pre-Columbian era, but also that of the present day – Nahuatl is still spoken by 1.5 million people.
He has contributed to establishing bilingual education in rural Mexico. León-Portilla was also instrumental in bringing to light the works of French
Bernardino de Sahagún, a 16th-century primary source on the Aztec civilization and whose works have become one of the major references for cultural and historical information on Postclassic central Mexico. León-Portilla was the first to acclaim Sahagún as the "Father of Anthropology in the New World", an appellation which has since become a commonplace, although by no means universally held, viewpoint.
Sahagún recorded the knowledge of three independent groups of Nahuatl elders (tlamatini), in their own language, he compared the different versions and then he questioned again to resolve the differences, then he arranged, so the Aztec Tlacuilos (codex painters) made the illustrations of his work.
At the request of Spanish authorities, he wrote a bowdlerized version in Spanish (the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España), but his original work, the Florentine Codex, was never published. Before León-Portilla, it had only been translated once (into German), and even that was incomplete. As a historian, León-Portilla gives us an understanding of the figure of Tlacaelel.
Originally, an obscure name in some chronicles, Tlacaelel is now seen by many as the architect of the Aztec empire.
He has addressed this region in more than 30 books and articles, including a 1995 volume collecting several of his earlier publications. In 1995, he was elected to membership of the National Academy of Sciences.
( Who were the poets of Mexico in the days of Aztec splen...)
(The most in-depth and scholarly panorama of Western spiri...)
( This volume presents ancient Mexican myths and sacred h...)
( In this second English-language edition of one of his m...)
( For at least two millennia before the advent of the Spa...)
(The first anthology in any language to represent the full...)
(xxiii + 241 pp. with 4 illus. & 8 plates, 1 map, 8vo.)
Board regents National University Mexico, 1976-1986. Ambassador of Mexico to United Nations Educational, 1987-1992, permanent delegate, Paris, 1987-1992. Member National Academy of Sciences (foreign), Mexico Academy History (president 1996), Royal Spanish Academy Language, Smithsonian Council, American History Association (honorary), Sociètè des Americanistes de PAris, Institute Different Civilizations, Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, American Anthropological Association, El Colegio Nacional Mexico, Royal Academy Letters of Extremadura, National Academy of Science, Washington, District of Columbia.
Married Ascensión Hernández Treviño, May 2, 1965. 1 child, Marisa.