Self-Taught Studies And Attitude Of The Franciscan Friars Towards The Challenges Of Education And Evangelization Of The Autochthonous Groups In The Americas

Abstract

This article presents the results of a historical-pedagogical research, which objective was to know, what the self-taught studies and the attitude of the Franciscan friars before the challenges of education and evangelization of the autochthonous groups in the Americas were. Authors establish that Franciscan friars found ways to approach and communicate with the Indians using learning method of linguistic immersion and close coexistence with the cultures of the target languages. They created religious and didactic texts in local languages (Nagual, Otomi, Zapotec, etc.), contributing to the preservation of these cultures, many of which are already extinct today.

The study suggests that missionary activity consisted not only of evangelizing Indian children, youth, and adults, but also of transmitting the traditions and customs of Spanish (European, Catholic) culture, and teaching Spanish and Latin. The missionaries founded the first medieval European-type educational institutions in America; they taught indigenous peoples how to grow plants unknown in the New World before then, how to irrigate cultivated land, how to care for livestock, how to build churches, civil buildings, and hydraulic structures using European technologies; how to make new textiles, furniture, utensils, food, etc.

In contrast to the position of the viceroyalty authorities and the higher church leadership, the Franciscans’ attitude toward Indian languages and their study was very positive: “these are incredibly beautiful cultures and languages and it is necessary for everyone in the colonies to learn and use them.” The friars themselves studied local languages and cultures, many of them were fascinated by the traditions of ancient New World civilizations, they opposed the forced Spanishization of the indigenous people, and sought to protect the “pure souls of the Indians” from the influence of Europeans and the “perverted customs of the old world.”