Estefania Yunes Vincke

Dr Estefanía Yunes Vincke


Lecturer in Spanish
PhD
+44 (0)1483 682864
18 LC 03

Academic and research departments

Literature and Languages.

About

Areas of specialism

Cultural contact between indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and the mendicant orders during the first decades of the viceroyalty period in Mexico; Indigenous identity and agency; Language contact and dissemination

University roles and responsibilities

  • Programme Director Evening Language Classes
  • PTYA tutor

    My qualifications

    2015
    PhD in Spanish and Latin-American Studies
    University College London
    2010
    Master in Book and Digital Media
    Leiden University
    2007
    Master in Archaeology of the Near East
    Leiden University
    2004
    Bachelor in Archaeology
    Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia

    Research

    Research interests

    Teaching

    Publications

    Yunes Vincke, Estefanía (2020) "Primer for a New World: Fr. Pedro de Gante's Cartilla para enseñar a leer." The Americas, vol. 77 no. 1, p. 129-140.

    The Cartilla para enseñar a leer (1569), attributed to Flemish Franciscan Pedro de Gante, was one of the most important primers from the early years of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, the primer's importance during the process of cultural contact has been largely ignored. As did other primers of the period, the Cartilla contained the most important prayers, but what sets the Cartilla aside is that its selection of prayers is presented in a trilingual version, in Castilian, Latin, and Nahuatl. The content of the Cartilla invites the question as to why Gante, a missionary focused on writing doctrinal works in Nahuatl, would compose a primer that is trilingual, but raises another that is perhaps more perplexing: Why were most of the prayers in Castilian? In this article, I intend to shed a light on Gante's decision to create a complex tool that could be employed by a mixed audience of Castilian, creole, mestizo and Nahua children. By doing this, Gante unwittingly started a process of cultural contact in which language played a pivotal role. The Cartilla thus presents itself as a multifaceted tool that helped shaped the culture of the Basin of Mexico during the early years of the viceroyalty.