This article argues that historians of literacy, including Carl
Kaestle, Harvey Graff, Suzanne de Castell, and Allan Luke, have not taken into
account America's Hispanic literacy legacy. Drawing examples from historical
accounts, diaries, and Spanish civil law, the author illustrates the depth and
breadth of Hispanic contributions to American literacy. The article sharply
contrasts the (relatively recent) image of “literacy deficient” Hispanic Americans
with the rich legacy of their forebearers, who brought a new world of literacy to
early America.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barth, P. J. (1950). Franciscan education and the social order in Spanish North
America (1502-1821). Chicago:
n.p.
2.
Beers, H. P. (1979). Spanish and Mexican records of the American
Southwest. Tucson:
University of Arizona Press.
3.
Bolton, H. E. (1921). The Spanish borderlands: A chronicle of Old Florida and the
Southwest. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
4.
Bolton, H. E. (1949). Coronado: Knight of pueblos and plains.
Albuquerque:
Whittlesey.
5.
Reprinted in E. R. Kintgen, B. M. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy. Carbondale
and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1988.
6.
“Fidalgo d'Elvas” [Gentleman of Elvas]. (1557).
The discovery of Florida.
Berkeley: Bancroft Library Collection,
University of California.
7.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New
York: Seabury
Press.
8.
Gallegos, B. (1992). Literacy, education, and society in New Mexico,
1693-1821. Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press.
9.
Garner, R. (Ed.). (1985). Iberian colonies, New World societies: Essays in
memory of Charles Gibson. Private printing.
10.
Góngora, M. (1975). Studies in the colonial history of Spanish America.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
11.
Reprinted in E. R. Kintgen, B. M. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy. Carbondale
and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1988.
12.
Hakuta, K. (1986, April). Societal and policy contexts of research with
language minority students. In C. Underwood (Ed.), Schooling language minority youth, Volume 2: Proceedings of
the Linguistic Minority Project Conference, Berkeley,
CA.
13.
Hall, F. (1885). The laws of Mexico: A compilation and treatise relating to
real property, mines, water rights, personal rights, contracts and
inheritances. San Francisco:
A. L. Bancroft & Company.
14.
Hallenbeck, C. (1926). Spanish missions of the old Southwest.
New York: Doubleday, Page &
Company; Harcourt Brace.
15.
Reprinted in E. R. Kintgen, B. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy. Carbondale
and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1988.
16.
Kintgen, E. R. , Kroll, B., & Rose, M. (Eds.). (1988). Perspectives on literacy.
Carbondale and Edwardsville:
Southern Illinois University
Press.
17.
Lockhart, J. , & Otte, E. (1976). Letters and people of the Spanish Indies: The sixteenth
century. London: Cambridge
University Press.
18.
Lockridge, K. A. (1974). Literacy in colonial New England: An enquiry into the social
context of literacy in the early modern west. New
York: Norton.
19.
Lummis, C. (1929). The Spanish pioneers and the California missions.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg &
Company.
20.
Munilla, O. G. (1963). Spain's share in the history of the United States of
America. Madrid:
Publicationes Españolas.
21.
Natella, A. (1980). The Spanish in America, 1513-1979: A chronology and fact
book. Dobbs Ferry, NY:
Oceana.
22.
New Mexico Writers Project . (1945). New Mexico.
Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press.
23.
Otis, R. R. (1952?). First settlement of the United States by Catholic
Spain. Jacksonville (?), FL:
Georgia Historical Society.
24.
Oxford American dictionary. (1990). E. Ehrlich (Ed.). New York: Oxford
University Press.
25.
Rodríguez-Buckingham, A. (n.d.). The first forty years of the book industry in
sixteenth-century Mexico. Reprinted in R. Garner (Ed.), Iberian colonies, New World societies: Essays in memory of
Charles Gibson, private printing, 1985.
26.
Salmon, M. (1986). Women and the law of property in early America.
Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press.
27.
Schmidt, G. (1851). The civil law of Spain and Mexico.
New Orleans: Thomas
Rea. (UC Berkeley Bancroft Library Collection)
28.
Udall, S. L. (1987). To the inland empire. New
York: Doubleday.
29.
Weber, D. J. (1992). The Spanish frontier in North America.
New Haven, CT and London: Yale
University Press.
