In my American Literature class we read translations of Aztecs describing various omens (two-headed men, fire in the sky, disappearing birds) they experienced foretelling the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The accounts are authentic native words from eye-witnesses of these omens, translated from nahuatl under the supervision of Spanish friar Bernardino de Sahagú. Because of this mediating presence of the Spanish, as well as the eye-witnesses speaking seven years after the fact, the indigenous accounts carry a degree of interpretation. It's necessary to consider these caveats when analyzing an oral history, especially one from a different culture and/or language, because much can be lost through time and translation. The presence of the friar and his men also could have psychologically affected the indigenous informants, making them afraid to trust them or say certain things about the omens.
These considerations aside, the accounts were particularly interesting to read because of how not only the omens described, but also the language with which those omens were described, illuminate the character and beliefs of the Aztec culture. The supernatural elements, the presence of fire and blood reminiscent of their sacrificial practices, the heavily natural imagery, and the particular myths alluded to all inform a greater picture of the spirituality of Aztec culture. The poetics of this portrait clash then even more vividly with the historical context of an invading Spanish empire - the modernity and unromantic aggressiveness of their conquering fervor. Accounts from the indigenous cultures of the New World are especially poignant and important because of how rare they are, and because even those that exist are due to and framed by the recording efforts of those very empires responsible for the physical and cultural genocides.
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