Education and Culture in New Spain

Education in New Spain

• Education was not a state responsibility in Spain, usually handled by the church at the individual level, and the crown showing interest mainly for bureaucratic careers.
• Educational system was planned to aid Christianization and Spanish assimilation through education in the language.
• Don Antonio de Mendoza observed an Indian boy reciting in Latin, demonstrating the early focus on using education for Hispanicization.
• Pedro de Gante, a Franciscan, played a key role in educating indigenous boys.
• He founded San José school teaching trades and core subjects like Latin.
• He also guided in the building of 100 chapels and churches.
• Vasco de Quiroga established a school-hospital, promoting an ideal society and self-government for indigenous communities.

Cultural Vitality of New Spain

• Cultural developments were driven by learned clergymen.
• Laymen were often in government, law, or other professions.
• Early education was dominated by religious orders, providing intellectual and cultural attainments.

The School of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco

• Founded in 1536 by Viceroy Mendoza and Bishop Zumárraga, fostering higher education for indigenous nobles aiming for cultural transmission.
• Including subjects like Latin, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, music, and native medicine.

Other Indian Schools and Education

• Jesuit San Gregorio Magno school trained Nahuas.
• Orphanage school of San Juan de Letrán helped mestizos.

Scholarship and Literature

• Early scholarship emerged with friars' inquiries into indigenous peoples and the land.
• Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, a detailed account of the conquest written by a footsoldier in Cortés's army.
• Importance of early historians, like Motolinía, Sahagún, and Zorita, offering crucial knowledge of indigenous groups.