Sep 16, 2024
David Tavárez,
originally from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, completed a degree in
anthropology and visual environmental studies. He had several ideas
for his future career, wavering between being a scientist or a
filmmaker. He secured a place at the Writers Workshop in Iowa and
an internship at the American University in Cairo. He spent a year
in Cairo after graduation and supplemented that summer by writing
about the Baltics for the Let’s Go Europe travel
series.
Studying Indigenous Culture and
Christianity
David worked as a journalist for a
couple of years then decided to pursue a PhD at the University of
Chicago in 1994, focusing on indigenous history. His interest was
drawn to two languages, Nahuatl and Zapotec, which have a rich
store of texts dating back to the 1530s. David discovered documents
related to the arrival of Christianity in Mexico. These documents
included calendars, cosmological manuals, and ritual songs written
in Zapotec alphabetic script.
After graduating from the University of Chicago, he worked at Bard
College in Latin American and Iberian studies. He then moved to
Vassar, a selective institution with a vibrant student body. David
currently lives in Rhinebeck, New York, where he is a full
professor in the anthropology department at Vassar. His first book,
The Invisible War, explores how indigenous people in central Mexico
confronted the church in colonial Mexico and managed to work with
their ancestral beliefs while also embracing Christianity. He has
translated several books into Spanish and collaborated with other
scholars on a book on the great indigenous historian of colonial
Mexico, Chimalpahin.
The Indigenous Languages of the
Americas
David's most recent book, Rethinking
Zapotec Time, compiles two decades of work. The book, which
received awards from the Native American Indigenous Studies
Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and the New
England Council of Latin American Studies, is a labor of love,
aiming to understand the world of the ritual specialist and the
Christians they confronted, as well as how they managed to survive
and share ancestral beliefs and knowledge with others. The
indigenous languages of the Americas before the 20th century were
the most voluminous in terms of producing works. By the early 17th
century, there were over 100 works, mostly religious, printed, and
manuscripts. By the end of the colonial period, there were 1000s of
works, mostly mundane literature, such as petitions, wills, and
testaments. This diversity is comparable to Greek and Roman
literature, but there are gaps and can only be reconstructed from
later translations. Mexican songs, such as the Cantares Mexicanos,
feature difficult language and are lyrical, sometimes difficult to
understand. The most famous song is the Song of the Women of
Chalco, which features warriors from a defeated polity dressing up
as women and taunting the Aztec emperor Axayacatl. There are many
convergences between indigenous intellectuals from the 16th century
to present. This work highlights the physical and intellectual
growth of different indigenous communities through colonial times
and post-colonial legacies.
The Zapotec Time-space Continuum
The Zapotec conception of time is an eternal, 260-day calendar with
specific meanings. They believed in a time-space continuum, where
every day had divinatory meaning and moved people to specific
regions in the cosmos. They had a notion of the cosmos as having
three main domains: sky, earth, and Underworld, with other domains
beyond the underworld relating to ancestral time and its origins.
Time was seen as a way to think about Earth and the cosmos, rooted
in geography and cosmology. They believed that everyone was taken
on an eternal journey through space and time, allowing
communication with ancestors. While their notion of the time-space
continuum may not date back to Einstein or quantum physics, they
believed that time and space were interconnected.
Influential Harvard Courses and
Professors
David mentions Rosemary Joyce, and
taking classes with Noam Chomsky at MIT. He believes that there are
many ways to approach and learn about remote worlds through
experimental means, such as working with film and visual arts.
David discusses his interest in working with ritual specialists and
documentary filmmakers. He shares his desire to place students in
the past through films and visual arts, such as Aguirre, the Wrath
of the God by Werner Herzog, and The Mission.
Timestamps:
04:37: Indigenous history, language, and culture in Mexico
12:01: Indigenous perspectives on Spanish conquest and religion in Latin America
17:09: Indigenous Christian texts in the Americas, focusing on the complexity of colonialism and the diversity of indigenous experiences
25:00: Zapotec conception of time and its connection to geography, cosmology, and ancestral communication
31:08: History, filmmaking, and academia with a Vassar College professor
Links:
Vassar Faculty: https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/tavarez
Guggenheim Fellows: https://www.gf.org/fellows/david-tavarez/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/David-Tavarez/author/B003XJJ3M6?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Featured Non-profit:
The featured non-profit of this episode is, recommended by Ruth Hertzman-Miller who reports:
I'm Ruth Hertzman-Miller, class of 1992. The featured non-profit of this episode of The 92 report is North Cambridge Family Opera. NCFO performs original, entirely sung theater works for audiences of all ages with large casts from ages seven to adult ranging from people with no performance experience to classically trained vocalists. I'm proud to have performed with and written music for North Cambridge Family Opera. I've also been a board member for the past two years. You can learn more about their work at familyopera.org, and now here is Will Bachman with this week's episode.
To learn more about their work visit: http://www.familyopera.org/drupal/