Description

Our world little brother is an amoxtlalpan a land of books In the jungles where the jaguar dwells the Mayas make books In the mountains the cloud people the Mixtecs make them as well So do others in the coast and in the forests And we the Mexica of the mighty Aztec empire who dwell in the valley of the volcanoes make them too A young Aztec girl tells her little brother how their parents create beautiful painted manuscripts or codices She explains to him how paper is made from local plants and how the long paper is folded into a book Her parents and others paint the codices to tell the story of their peoples way of life documenting their history science tributes and sacred rituals Inspired by the preColumbian codices this story tells howcontrary to the historical narrative that European colonizers bestowed civilization and knowledge to the Americasthe Aztec and their neighbors in the Valley of Mexico painted books and records long before Columbus arrived and continued doing so among their Nahuaspeaking descendants for generations after the Spanish Conquest