¿Un refranero mestizo?

Abstract

The main characteristic of American collections of sayings and proverbs is their mixed condition: while their common origin always goes back to Spanish collections that come to the Americas in conquistadores' boxes of books, there they are transformed into the varieties we know today when they come into contact with totally new historical situations and societies. Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian, Cuban and Argentine collections of sayings and proverbs represent perfect examples of this heterogeneity, since they come into being as a consequence of multiple cultural influences. The discussion I want to propose concerns what is considered the first American collection of its kind, which might just tells us something about the initial phase of formation of the paremylogical heritage of the continent. Both literary criticism and historiography consider that the first traces of an original American elaboration can be found in the last three chapters of the Historia General de las cosas de la Nueva Espana by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, which is presented as a synthesis between Nahuatl and Spanish wisdom, sometimes intimating some very original solutions to the conflicts which the Franciscan friar faced