Abstract 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.

中文翻译：

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新世界入门

摘要 Cartilla para enseñar a leer (1569) 是佛兰芒方济各会佩德罗·德·甘特 (Pedro de Gante) 所著，是新西班牙总督辖区早期最重要的入门书之一。然而，入门在文化接触过程中的重要性在很大程度上被忽视了。与该时期的其他入门读物一样，Cartilla 包含最重要的祈祷文，但将 Cartilla 放在一边的是其精选的祈祷文以三语版本呈现，包括卡斯蒂利亚语、拉丁语和纳瓦特尔语。Cartilla 的内容引发了这样一个问题：为什么专注于在纳瓦特尔撰写教义作品的传教士 Gante 会撰写一本三语的入门书，但引发了另一个可能更令人困惑的问题：为什么大部分祈祷都用卡斯蒂利亚语？在这篇文章中，我打算阐明 Gante' 决定创建一个复杂的工具，可供卡斯蒂利亚、克里奥尔、混血和纳瓦儿童的混合受众使用。通过这样做，甘特不知不觉地开始了一个文化接触的过程，其中语言发挥了关键作用。因此，在总督辖区的早期，Cartilla 将自己展示为一个多方面的工具，帮助塑造了墨西哥盆地的文化。