First fire: Central and South American Indian poetry

This wonderful edition: First Fire by Hugh Fox, is a book about Central and South American Indian Poetry. "In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the ancient Indian cultures of Central and South America were largely obliterated by the conquistadores. The Spanish destroyed the sacred books of the Aztecs and Mayas, dismantled the priesthoods that had preserved and interpreted the hieroplyphic writings, and enforced a total conversion to Roman Catholicism. Those who clung to the old gods and idols were put to death. Fist Fire enables the reader to penetrate the pre-Columbian mind through text and tales that did survive the Conquest."