Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco

Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco
The Colegio viewed from the Plaza de las Tres Culturas
TypeCatholic
EstablishedJanuary 6, 1536; 488 years ago (1536-01-06)
Location
Tlatelolco, Mexico City
,
Mexico
CampusUrban
Exterior of the church

The Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, is the first and oldest European school of higher learning in the Americas[1] and the first major school of interpreters and translators in the New World.[2] It was established by the Franciscans on January 6, 1536[3] with the intention, as is generally accepted, of preparing Native American boys for eventual ordination to the Catholic priesthood.[4][5] Students trained in the Colegio were important contributors to the work of Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún in the creation of his monumental twelve-volume General History of the Things of New Spain, often referred to as the Florentine Codex. The failure of the Colegio had long-lasting consequences, with scholar Robert Ricard saying that "[h]ad the College of Tlatelolco given the country even one [native] bishop, the history of the Mexican Church might have been profoundly changed."[6]

  1. ^ Steck; Francis Borgia (1936). The first college in America: Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco. Washington DC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Lourdes Arencibia Rodriguez (2006). "The Imperial College of Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco: The First School of Translators and Interpreters in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America". Charting the Future of Translation History. Perspectives on Translation. University of Ottawa Press. pp. 263–275. ISBN 9780776626208. Retrieved 2017-09-27.
  3. ^ Carlos Villa Roiz (July 16, 2016). "A 480 años del Colegio de la Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco" [480 years of Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco]. Cronica.com.mx (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 18, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  4. ^ Robert Ricard, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico. Translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press 1966, pp. 217-235.
  5. ^ See Brand, p. 63; for the argument that it was not founded with this intention, see Estarellas, Juan: "The College of Tlatelolco and the Problem of Higher Education for Indians in 16th Century Mexico". History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1962) pp.234-243 at pp.236f.
  6. ^ Ricard, Spiritual Conquest, p. 235.