Resumo

CUNILL, Caroline. Justice and interpretation in plurilinguistic societies: A case study of the sixteenth-century Yucatán. Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2015, n.52, pp.18-28. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehn.2014.03.001.

The present article pretends to highlight the decisive role played by the interpreters of indigenous languages in the development of the justice system in colonial Spanish America during the sixteenth century. Consequently, the issues of the linguistic and cultural skills of those officeholders, their ordinary work and the collaboration that they established with the Defenders of the Indians (Defensores de Indios) will be examined. Although this study is focused on the interpreters of Yucatec Maya language in the province of Yucatan, comparisons with other regions of the New World, as well as references to general royal decrees will be included in the analysis in order to provide a broad overview of the question. Indeed, it ought to be remembered that the complex relationship between justice and interpretation affected all the multiethnic and multilingual societies of Spanish America and that it still remains a polemic issue today.

Palavras-chave : Interpreters; Justice; Native peoples; Defenders of the Indians; Colonial Yucatan.