page_title: Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco / History
caption_attribution_description: Español: Iglesia de Santiago Tlatelolco, México D.F., MéxicoEnglish: Arheological zone and church of Santiago Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico
context_page_description: The Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, is the first and oldest European school of higher learning in the Americas and the first major school of interpreters and translators in the New World. It was established by the Franciscans on January 6, 1536 with the intention, as is generally accepted, of preparing Native American boys for eventual ordination to the Catholic priesthood. 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."
context_section_description: The Colegio was built by the Franciscan order on the initiative of the President of the Audiencia Sebastián Ramírez de Fuenleal, Bishop Don Juan de Zumárraga, and Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza on the site of an Aztec school, for the sons of nobles (in Nahuatl: Calmecac). It was inaugurated on January 6, 1536, however, it had been a functioning school since August 8, 1533.
  While Bishop of Santo Domingo, Ramírez de Fuenleal had encouraged the Franciscans to teach the sons of Indians grammar in their native language of Nahuatl. Franciscan Arnaldo de Basccio began the task with considerable success, which gave support to the project of establishing an institute of higher learning. Ramírez de Fuenleal urged the crown to provide funds to establish and support such an institution. The Franciscans had already established primary schools prior to the Colegio, one at Texcoco, established by Fray Pedro de Gante in 1523 and the other by the leader of the First Twelve Franciscans, Martín de Valencia in Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1525. Still others were founded by Franciscans in this early period.  These schools for Indian and mestizo boys taught basic literacy, but also singing, instruction in how to help with the mass, and sometimes manual labor. The primary education of Indian girls was also a concern and schools were established in Mexico City, Texcoco and six other locations lasting only for a decade.
  But not until the establishment of the Colegio de Santa Cruz were sons of Indian men given higher education. Bishop Juan de Zumárraga was a supporter of the establishment of the Colegio, but credited  Fuenleal and the crown for the accomplishment. The Colegio was inaugurated on January 6, 1536, the feast of the Epiphany,  deliberately chosen for its symbolism of calling the gentiles to the true faith. The establishment of such a school to train young men for the priesthood was highly controversial, with opposition especially coming from Dominican friars and articulated by the head of that order, Fray Domingo Betanzos.  Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún wrote a strong defense of the capacity of the Indians, countering the opinions of those who doubted the Indians' ability not only to learn Latin grammar, but to speak, and compose in it. He went on to refute concerns about the possibility of the Indians spreading heresy.  Betanzos in his opposition to the Colegio said that Native Americans who knew Latin could expose the ignorance of the existing European priests, an argument that perhaps unwittingly did the same.
  The original purpose of the Colegio was to educate a male indigenous priesthood, and so pupils were selected from the most prestigious families of the Aztec ruling class. These young men were taught to be literate in Nahuatl, Spanish and Latin, and received instruction in Latin in music, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy, and indigenous medicine. One student educated at the Colegio was Nahua botanist Martín de la Cruz, who wrote the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, an illustrated herbal.
  Actual instruction at the Colegio was by two Franciscans at a time, aided by Indian assistants. Among the teachers were notable scholars and grammarians such as Franciscans Andrés de Olmos, Alonso de Molina and Bernardino de Sahagún, all of whom have made important contributions to the study of both the Classical Nahuatl language and the ethnography and anthropology of Mesoamerica. Other Franciscans who taught there were Fray Juan de Goana, Fray Francisco de Bustamante, Fray García de Cisneros, Fray Arnaldo de Basaccio, and Fray Juan Focher. Fray Juan de Torquemada also served as a teacher and administrator at the Colegio. When recollecting historical and ethnographical information for the elaboration of the Florentine Codex, Sahagún used his trilingual students to elicit information from the Aztec elders and to transcribe it in Spanish and Nahuatl and to illuminate the manuscripts.
  Opened with great fanfare, the ceremony was attended by Viceroy Mendoza, Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, and the President of the Audiencia, Sebastián Ramírez de Fu
caption: The archaeological site of Tlatelolco with the church at background, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas.
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