Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)

Lehel Vadon: Spanish Roots of American Literature

5 Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewall paved the way, unwittingly, for Spanish influence on the literature of the United States. Their communication with Mexico made the dissemination of the Spanish language and knowledge including literature, painting and architecture easier. Both Mather and Sewall studied Spanish. The motives of these early scholars for learning this language were political and economic but primarily religious, to protestantize Mexico and South America. Sewall suggested that the introduction of the Protestant Bible in Spanish should be the first step in the mass conversion. Cotton Mather, a characteristic man of Puritan New England and the foremost Spanish scholar in New England in his age, besides religious matters, was keenly sensitive to Spanish arts, literature and language. He read Cervantes whose name occurred in the catalogues of several libraries, and in his Magnolia Christi Americana he speaks of the "romances of Don Quixote and the Seven Champions." His good command of Spanish made Matter the author of the first book written in Spanish in the northern colonies. His Spanish book, La Religion Pura, en Doze palabras Fieles, dignas de sor recebidas de Todos, published in Boston in 1699, written in a simple, vigorous language, is a great and lasting influence upon American literary culture. In the eighteenth century the widening awareness of Spanish culture is obvious. The seventeenth-century Spanish plants took root in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, blossoming in language, customs, folkways and arts. Spanish towns with names now so familiar that we have almost forgotten their origins (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and over two thousand other settlements), and the missions with their old Spanish architectural form developed their systems of education. Spanish words spread and crept into the English language. Spanish historical and religious plays, already mentioned, interwoven with ballads and children's songs, were performed. By the middle of the eighteenth century it became evident that there were two important political powers and two major languages in the New World. The political presence of Spain, America's participation in Spain's wars, in her border conflicts and inevitably in her culture, too, focused the attention of the eighteenth-century leaders like Franklin, Jefferson and John Adams to the importance of Spain and the substantial knowledge of the Spanish language and history. In 1777 the enthusiastic reception of the History of America, one of the great works of historiography, by the Scotch historian William Robertson proved the interest of American readers in Spain. Between 1750 and 1769 ships from Salem made the voyage to every Spanish and SpanishAmerican harbor. This trade meant the mingling of peoples, tongues, grammars, books and dictionaries. Recognizing the significance of the Spanish language and culture Franklin arranged for the inclusion of Spanish in the course of study of the Philadelphia