authenticity and ambivalence in the text: a colonial Maya case

The Spanish conquest of Yucatan created a new discourse in which Maya and Spanish systems of representation were encompassed, interacted, and then produced hybrid cultural forms. The Maya nobility played an important role early on in this process, through their participation in both Spanish and indigenous sectors of colonial society. This paper explores the ambivalence of the nobility by analyzing their letters, addressed to the Spanish Crown, in Maya language. The hybrid character of these texts is demonstrated in the forms of royal address, the representation of the Franciscans and the secular clergy, and the network of intertextual relations linking the letters to a broader contemporary discourse.