Nahua Singers: Celebrating an Indigenous Empire in Sixteenth-Century Mexico

In Nahua Singers, Peter Bjorndahl Sorensen provides a more than 300-year long history of the Aztecs from their departure from the Seven Caves (Chicomoztoc) to the close of the sixteenth century-centering Indigenous voices as they narrate their own past. Nahua singers preserved their histories in the form of popular song lyrics that have long been misunderstood. Sorensen employs a new approach to the lyrics, bringing them to life by spotlighting their performative elements, offering new and accessible translations, and explaining the lyrics' historical significance in a comprehensive yet concise way. Through fourteen complete translations and dozens partly translated, the songs featured cover topics including precolonial kings, the conquest of Mexico, and early examples of the adaption and adoption of Christian imagery.

About the Author

Peter Bjorndahl Sorensen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University. He previously held an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Wolf Humanities Center and is a recent recipient of a prestigious 2024/25 Hong Kong University Grants Council Early Career Scheme Grant. This is his first book.