Diego Durán (1537–1588) came to the New World with his family when he was a young boy and spent almost his entire life in Mexico. He entered the Dominican Order when he was nineteen, joining the Spanish effort to Christianize their new colonial subjects. Convinced that “there is nothing in the world so barren as a man who lives out his entire life attempting to grasp something he does not understand,” Durán argued that the true conversion of Mexico’s peoples could not move forward without a detailed knowledge of their culture and beliefs. Seeking to remedy the ignorance of his fellow Spaniards, Durán composed three important works: Book of the Gods and Rites, The Ancient Calendar, and The History of the Indies of New Spain. As you read this excerpt from Durán’s work, think about what motivated him to create a written record of Aztec history and culture.

[The Indians] will never find God until the roots have been torn out, together with that which smacks of the ancestral religion. Thus the practice of the Faith is corrupted where there remain survivals of the cult and faith in another god. These people are reluctant to abandon things familiar to them. While the memory [of the old religion] lasts, they will turn to it, like those who find themselves ill or in need. While they call on God, they also seek out sorcerers, shamans who laugh at [Christianity], and then return to the superstitions, idolatries, and omens of their forebears. I have seen these things; I understand them. If we are trying earnestly to remove the memory of Amalech, we shall never succeed until we fully understand the ancient religion. In my humble judgment, therefore, I believe there is nothing in the world so barren as a man who lives out his entire life attempting to grasp something he does not understand, who feels no need of penetrating the roots of heathen beliefs of ancient times, who vainly strives to prevent these frail and weak people from mixing their old and superstitious rites with our Divine Law and Christian Religion. The ancient beliefs are still so numerous, so complex, so similar to our own in many cases that one overlaps the other. Occasionally we suspect that they are playing, adoring idols, casting lots regarding future events in our very presence — yet we do not fully understand these things. We believe they do [Christian] penance and practice certain absentions. But [they] always had their own sacraments and a divine cult which in many ways coincides with our own religion, as we shall see during the course of this work.

Those who with fervent zeal (though with little prudence) in the beginning burned and destroyed all the ancient Indian pictographic documents were mistaken. They left us without a light to guide us — to the point that the Indians worship idols in our presence, and we understand nothing of what goes on in their dances, in their market places, in their bathhouses, in the songs they chant (when they lament their ancient gods and lords), in their repasts and banquets; these things mean nothing to us. Heathenism and idolatry are present everywhere: in sowing, in reaping, in storing grain, even in plowing the earth and in building houses; in wakes and funerals, in weddings and births (especially if the child is the offspring of a nobleman, when complex rites are performed).

The most elaborate rites were found in the celebration of the feasts. And everything was associated with heathenism and idolatry, even bathing in the river. Elders were often offended with the community if certain acts were not accompanied by ceremonial.

All these things are concealed from us, kept as a tightly guarded secret. The task of discovering and making them known is overwhelming. He who attempts [to do so] will soon discover this, and of a thousand other customs [he will be lucky if he discovers] one half.

Let our priests who toil in missionary work take note of the grave error in ignoring these things; the Indians will make mockery of the Faith, and the minister will remain in the dark. I have experienced some of these things in recent times. I have discovered a number of sly tricks which no one had paid any attention to.

He who wishes to read this book will find an account of all the main gods worshiped in ancient times by these ignorant and blind people, with the rites and ceremonies performed in the entire land and in the Province of Mexico. He will find the count of the days, months, weeks, and years and the manner and dates on which the festivals were celebrated. All this is meant as an instruction which the curious reader will discover in this book, written with that aim. If the fruits [of my work] are meager, my intention and zeal in presenting it are not.

Source: Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden, eds. and trans., Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), pp. 54–56. Reproduced with permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center.

Questions to Consider