caballo (LTlaxUT1b)

In this digital collection, horses are often in the company of Spaniards. The Spanish word for horse entered the Nahuatl language as a loanword in the sixteenth century because there was no word for horse prior to the arrival of Europeans. There had been horses in this hemisphere long ago, but they died out and were reintroduced with colonization. Nahuas at first called the horses deer (mazatl), but they fairly quickly learned the term caballo, although they would spell it in various ways. Tlacuilos would also draw and paint horses in great detail. Elite Nahuas would begin petitioning for licenses to ride horses in the sixteenth century, although there were also Nahua complaints against large animals introduced by the colonizers, because the animals were multiplying and trampling cornfields.