Estrategias para (des)aparecer: la historiografía de Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl y la colonización criolla del pasado prehispánico

Abstract

The Mexican pre-Hispanic past became integrated into the criollo patriotic and nationalist project under the influence of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's historiography. The narrative structure of his best known works--the Historia de la nación chichimeca and the "XIII Relación"--reveals that this author's perspective marked a turning point in the way indigenous history was conceived. I characterize Alva Ixtlilxochitl's representational tactics as strategies of (dis)appearance which present an idealized image of his Native American ancestors at the expense of all but outer signs of indigenous culture and character. This recasting of history opened the door for its colonization by criollo intellectuals. Through echoes of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl's historiography in the work of such representative figures as Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Francisco Javier Clavijero, and Carlos María de Bustamante, I show how the historical perspective of criollo patriotism, which still informs Mexican nationalism, can be traced back to this early-seventeenth-century historiographer.