This companion exhibition for the Marino Family International Writers' Workshop centers on Álvaro Enrigue's novel You Dreamed of Empires.
The historic sources offer a glimpse into the history, culture, and language of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City). Memorable motifs from the novel appear throughout the exhibit, such as Moctezuma's intricate featherwork depicted in Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, and the translation of cauallo (horse) from Nahuatl to Spanish in a sixteenth century Spanish/Nahuatl dictionary.
Newer studies on the history of Mexico from our general collections are also included, such as Mexico: A 500-Year History by Paul Gillingham and The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation, and World History, 1500–2000 by Georgetown University History professor John Tutino.
Every featured item can be found and consulted at Lauinger Library—whether in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections, the main stacks, or online (as e-books or, in the case of the Nahuatl/Spanish dictionary, via DigitalGeorgetown).
If you are interested in learning more about the Mexican and Latin American Collections at Lauinger Library, please consult the Latin American Studies Research Guide. For further inquiries or research assistance, please feel free to contact the Latin American Studies and Iberian Languages Liaison & Reference Librarian, Jade Madrid.
You Dreamed of Empires
Álvaro Enrigue
Translated by Natasha Wimmer
New York: Riverhead Books, 2024
PQ7298.15.N636 T813 2024
Tu sueño imperios han sido
Álvaro Enrigue
Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 2022
PQ7298.15.N636 T8 2022
Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España [General History of the Things of New Spain]
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún
Fomento Cultural Banamex, 1982
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
The top images depict featherwork artisans creating regalia for Moctezuma Xocoyotzin (the ninth emperor of the Mexica Empire) and Huitzilopochtli (patron God of the Mexica).
This is a reprint of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s encyclopedic work about the people and culture of central Mexico, published in 1577.
“Map” from the portfolio Mexican People
Taller de Gráfica Popular
1946
Lithograph on paper
Art Collection purchase, 1990
1990.24.4.1
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
![The front cover of the Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana [Spanish and Nahuatl Language Dictionary]](/sites/default/files/2026-08/dictionary-frontispiece.jpg)
Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana [Spanish and Nahuatl Language Dictionary]
Alonso de Molina
En casa de Antonio de Spinosa, 1571
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
This page contains definitions of words that contain “cauallo” (horse) in Nahuatl.
Rhetorica Christiana [Christian Rhetoric]
Diego Valadés
Apud Petrumiacobum Petrutium, 1579
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
“The Great Chain of Being” etching depicts the worldview of Aristotelian metaphysics, with its hierarchical reality, (God the Father at the pinnacle, angels, human, animals, and plants in descending order), but superimposed onto the natural world of Mexico.
Esta es vna carta, que el muy ilustre señor don Hernando Cortés… [A secret letter to the emperor, accompanying Cortés' fourth letter]
Hernán Cortés
Imprenta particular de Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, 1865
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
This is a limited edition reprint of the secret letter Hernán Cortés sent to Emperor Charles V in 1524.
Códice Ixtlilxochitl: apuntaciones y pinturas de un historiador [Codex Ixtlilxochitl: Notes and Paintings from a Historian]
Ferdinand Anders
Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1996
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
“Templo Mayor” [Main Temple]. This is a facsimile of the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, which was created in the sixteenth century and is currently housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Historia de la conquista de México, población, y progressos de la América Septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España [History of the Conquest of Mexico, Population, and Progress of Northern America, Known by the Name of New Spain]
Antonio de Solís
A costa de Marcos-Miguel Bousquet y Compañía, 1641
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
“Cortés and Moctezuma” (p.134).
The Art in the Great Temple: México—Tenochtitlan
Text by Rubén Bonifaz Nuño
Photography by Fernando Robles
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia/SEP, 1981
Booth Family Center for Special Collections
Reproduction from the Codex Durán Atlas, a 16th-century illustrated manuscript created by the Dominican Friar Diego Durán
El maíz se sienta para platicar: Códices y formas de conocimiento nahua, más allá del mundo de los libros [The Maize Sits Down to Talk: Codices and Nahua Forms of Knowledge, Beyond the World of Books]
Ana Díaz Álvarez
Bonilla Artigas editores, 2016
E-book access
The Mexican Heartland: How Communities Shaped Capitalism, a Nation, and World History, 1500-2000
John Tutino
Princeton University Press, 2017
E-book access
Groundbreaking history of capitalism from the perspective of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, written by Georgetown University history professor John Tutino.
Curated by Jade Madrid (Latin American Studies and Iberian Languages Liaison & Reference Librarian) with contributions from Christen Runge (Assistant Art Curator).