The quality and quantity of transcribed and translated primary sources available through academic presses for classrooms and researchers constitutes one of the most promising developments in the field of Latin American studies. Ida Altman's Contesting Conquest: Indigenous Perspectives on the Spanish Occupation of Nueva Galicia, 1524–1545 is both a welcome and a long-needed contribution to this important scholarly genre. Spanish American manuscripts from circa 1492 to 1830 resist easy access given their location in university and foreign archives, their challenging and at times indecipherable script, and the complexities of translating archaic Spanish. Initially, it was primarily the writings of Spanish elites that were readily available to English speakers. Spanish-language scholars on both sides of the Atlantic had a long and prestigious history of transcribing more mundane manuscripts, but this paleographic tradition commonly focused on civil and religious institutions and was sparingly translated into English. In the Anglophone world, monographs on...

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