To the European imagination, America was a tabula rasa, a virgin territory. As this program describes, narrative art forms were essential to making sense of this exotic Eden and the possibilities it offered. New Spain became a place for re-creating myths and legends of the Western literary canon, for transforming poetry, prose, and epic literature. The diaries of Columbus, Bartolomé de las Casas’ History of the Indies, Bernal Díaz’ True History of the Conquest of New Spain, and Bernardino de Sahagún’s Florentine Codex are explored along with works from indigenous authors of the early colonial period—such as Ixtlilxóchitl (History of the Chichimec Nation), Muñoz Camargo (History of Tlaxcala), and Alvarado Tezozomoc (Mexicayotl Chronicle).