About

Abelardo de la Cruz is an Assistant Professor and Nahua scholar at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a native Nahuatl speaker and scholar from Chicontepec, Veracruz, Mexico. His academic background includes a Ph.D. from the University at Albany, State University of New York, obtained in 2022, a master's degree in Humanistic and Educational Research, and a bachelor's degree in law from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico. His research focuses on religion in the Americas, particularly within Mexican Indigenous communities, with an emphasis on linguistic anthropology centered on Nahuatl, discourse analysis, indigenous devotions, sacred landscapes, ritual practices, ethnography, and Christian prayers translated into Nahuatl. De la Cruz's doctoral dissertation, titled “Motiochihuanih: Catechists and Prayer Specialists as Religious Leaders Brokering ‘el costumbre’ Nahua, in Chicontepec, Veracruz,” examines religious practices in Chicontepec through oral histories and ethnographic research. His work explores how Nahua religious leaders trained as Catholic catechists become prayer specialists and navigate traditional Nahua religion alongside Catholic practices, illustrating religious coexistence and accommodation. He has contributed to the understanding of Nahuatl language, ritual language, and indigenous identity, and has published on topics related to Nahua religion and language. Additionally, he has engaged in public scholarship, including a lecture series at UC Berkeley and a documentary appearance on BBC Studios.

Research topics

• Humanities
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Art
• Philosophy
• Mechanical engineering
• Ecology
• Engineering
• Biology

Selected publications

• Healing Like Our Ancestors: The Nahua Tiçitl, Gender, and Settler Colonialism in Central Mexico, 1535–1660

  Hispanic American Historical Review · 2025-04-29

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Language, Nahua Life-Cycle Rituals, and Indigenous Identity

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-01-23

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Life-cycle rituals have been studied by anthropologists in a variety of contexts. This chapter, based on my research in my own community as an Indigenous anthropologist and as a native speaker of Nahuatl, presents a distinctive and innovative perspective on these rituals: that of Nahua communities whose members have negotiated the divide between received Nahua ritual protocols designated as el costumbre, “custom,” and the demands of Native catechists influenced by liberation theology movements of the 1970s in Latin America. The chapter focuses on the oral performances and descriptions of several ceremonies among the Nahua of the Huasteca region in Mexico, including the ritual bathing of infants, healing rituals, and protocols for addressing the continuous presence of dead parents in a household, as reported by their relatives.

  PublisherDOI

• How will we work to conduct research and revitalization with our Indigenous language and culture?

  PoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review · 2024-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract From the twentieth century to today, foreigners and mestizos have conducted research on Nahua culture and the Nahuatl language from an etic perspective. In this article, I discuss how Nahuas see the role of non‐Indigenous researchers studying our language and culture and what role we—Indigenous Mexican scholars—must undertake in field research to revitalize Nahuatl, our language. I also discuss immigration from rural places to the city, which causes linguistic displacement and identity change. Finally, I propose a new way of engaging in community research through scholarship. When Nahuas carry out a research project, we make a decision to explore and learn about our culture from an emic perspective through which we engage in the language revitalization. We emphasize linguistic documentation using our mother tongue and then disseminate the Indigenous knowledge in the academia and in our small towns.

  PublisherDOI

• Titlatehtemozceh huan titlayoltilizceh ica tomacehualtlahtol huan tomacehualtlallamicca: ¿queniuhqui titequitizceh?

  PoLAR Political and Legal Anthropology Review · 2024-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Ipan cempohualli hueyixihuicahuitl huan naman tonatiuh coyomeh tlen zancapahueli tlalli quichiuhtihualtoqueh tlatehtemoliztli zan ica inintlallamiquiliz campa moixnextihtihualtoc nahuatlahtolli huan macehualtlallamiccayotl. Pan ni amatlahcuilolli nizaniloa queniuhqui macehualmeh tlen naman tiquittah inintequiuh coyomeh tlatehtemoanih tlen tlahcuiloah ica macehualtlallamiccayotl, huan nouhquiya niquihtoa tlen monequi ticchihuazceh macehualmeh tlen Mexcotlalli pan tlatehtemoliztequitl tlen ica titlahtolyoltilizceh nahuatlahtolli. Nouhquiya nizaniloa ica quizaliztli campa ticcauhtehuah toaltepehuan huan quichihua ma tizanilocan ceyoc tlahtolli huan pehuah timoixpatlah. Ica totlamachtiliz tlen ticcuitoqueh naman, nizaniloa ica ce yancuic ohtli campa ticchihuazceh tlatehtemoliztli pan toaltepehuan. Na niquitta quemman macehualmeh ticchihuah ce tequitlatehtemoliztli, achtohui ticcalaquih tiquixmatih tomacehualtlallamicca ica toyoltlallamiquiliz campa timochomoniah ica tlahtolyoltiliztli. Temachtli ticchihuah tequitl ica totlahtol campa tictequihuiah tonantlahtol huan teipan ticpannextiah macehualtlamatiliztli ipan caltlamachtiloyan huan nouhquiya ipan toaltepehuan.

  PublisherDOI

• How will we work to conduct research and revitalization with our Indigenous language and culture?

  Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  From the twentieth century to today, foreigners and mestizos have conducted research on Nahua culture and the Nahuatl language from an etic perspective. In this article, I discuss how Nahuas see the role of non‐Indigenous researchers studying our language and culture and what role we—Indigenous Mexican scholars—must undertake in field research to revitalize Nahuatl, our language. I also discuss immigration from rural places to the city, which causes linguistic displacement and identity change. Finally, I propose a new way of engaging in community research through scholarship. When Nahuas carry out a research project, we make a decision to explore and learn about our culture from an emic perspective through which we engage in the language revitalization. We emphasize linguistic documentation using our mother tongue and then disseminate the Indigenous knowledge in the academia and in our small towns.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• <i>Aztec Antichrist: Performing the Apocalypse in Early Colonial Mexico</i>. By Ben Leeming

  Indigenous Religious Traditions · 2023-12-21

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Aztec Antichrist: Performing the Apocalypse in Early Colonial Mexico. By Ben Leeming. 2022. Denver: University Press of Colorado/Albany, NY: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies. 314pp. $100 (hardcover), $35.95 (paperback), $29.95 (e-book).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• La evangelización en México: Las respuestas múltiples de los nahuas hacia la predicación cristiana

  2023-12-19

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Este trabajo propone, desde una perspectiva cultural nahua, una comparación entre la época de la conquista espiritual y la época contemporánea en cuanto a la implantación del cristianismo en México. Se inicia con un bosquejo de las respuestas de algunas comunidades nahuas frente al nuevo sistema religioso durante los procesos de idolatría realizados a finales de la década de 1530. En contraste al inicio de este proceso histórico de evangelización y disciplina, se examinan las prácticas culturales de dos comunidades nahuas de la región de Chicontepec en la Huasteca Veracruzana, explorando las opiniones de catequistas católicos, quienes a principios de 1980 tomaron el papel de evangelizadores en sus propias comunidades. Los nahuas de hoy expresan su estima por dos religiones, la primera denominada el costumbre y la segunda el cristianismo. Debido a la catequización más reciente, los nahuas pueden articular o bien desarticular estratégicamente ambos sistemas religiosos, según lo que más les convenga y esté de acuerdo con su pensamiento y prácticas culturales.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Práctica autóctona para revitalizar la lengua Náhuatl en comunidades bilingües de México

  Lenguas Radicales · 2022 · 12 citations

  • Humanities
  • Humanities
  • Art

  Debido a que esfuerzos por preservar idiomas tradicionales pueden excluir identidad comunitaria y realidades lingüísticas, enfoques decoloniales buscan minimizar el efecto del español en el náhuatl. Aquí ofrecemos reflexiones que presentan lo contrario: un estudio de la forma histórica en que los hablantes de náhuatl adoptaron el español se aborda como una estrategia decolonial para apoyar la revitalización del náhuatl en el presente. Los académicos indígenas De la Cruz y Cruz Morales han dado forma a programas de revitalización en sus respectivas comunidades náhuatl hablantes en la región Chicontepec de la Huasteca Veracruzana en México. Al implementar proyectos producidos en consulta con sus propias comunidades y con académicos extranjeros por igual, los coautores han comenzado a cuestionar a quién sirven los materiales de revitalización del idioma. En lugar de referencias al estilo de diccionario que enfatizan el náhuatl estandarizado, el conocimiento oral local dentro del nahuañol, se puede recuperar para servir el aprendizaje y la enseñanza autónoma y autosuficiente del náhuatl. Los ejemplos se basan en estructuras gramaticales históricas todavía presentes en el español local, tal como se habla actualmente en México. Metodológicamente, documentos notariales, escritos por náhuatl hablantes en el siglo XIX ofrecen evidencia de la adopción autónoma de las lenguas coloniales (en este caso, el español). Este proceso histórico ilustra cómo valorar la gramática náhuatl que sustenta el español local actual -- una modificación inteligente del español -- según las estructuras náhuatl. Los autores proponen que las variadas expresiones de nahuañol (en este caso tal como se habla en diversas comunidades náhuatl hablantes) facilitan el reconocimiento de las ideas y la gramática náhuatl; los hablantes locales de todas edades ya usan las normas. Miembros y investigadores de la comunidad facilitan el reemplazo del español por el náhuatl, practicando náhuatl sin ser "enseñados" desde afuera y sin necesidad de leer; un enfoque que invita al ejercicio del náhuatl en su diversidad local.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• La historia de Chicomexóchitl y Tenantzitzímitl de Jesús Bautista. Elementos paralelos a los cuentos populares europeos

  2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Humanities
  • Humanities
  • Art
  Publisher

• The Value of El Costumbre and Christianity in the Discourse of Nahua Catechists from the Huasteca Region in Veracruz, Mexico, 1970s–2010s

  University Press of Colorado eBooks · 2017-01-01 · 6 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Miriam Melton-Villanueva

  University of Nevada, Reno

  1 shared

• Ofelia Cruz Morales

  Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas "Francisco García Salinas"

  1 shared

Education

• PhD. Candidate, Anthropology

  University at Albany

  2022