McAfee, Byron

Biography

McAfee was born in Houston, Texas, in 1883; emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as employee of the Compañía Mexicana de Peteo El Aguila, S.A.; began studying the Nahuatl language in 1907 under John H. Cornyn with whom he jointly authored several studies; after Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated with Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow; became an acknowledged expert in Nahuatl studies and published widely.

Expanded Biographical Narrative

Byron McAfee (1883-1966) was born in Houston, Texas, and emigrated to Mexico in 1906 as an employee of the Compañía de Petróleos El Aguila. Shortly thereafter, he joined a Nahuatl study group at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City where he made contacts with scholars such as Robert Barlow, Miguel Leon Portilla, John H. Cornyn and Doña Luz Jimenez (a noted native Nahuatl consultant, also known as Julia Jimenez Gonzalez). McAfee became known as a prolific ethnohistorian and Nahuatl linguist through his research collaborations with Cornyn, and publications of several studies. After Cornyn's death in 1941, McAfee collaborated with noted scholars such as Angel María Garibay K. and Robert H. Barlow, and maintained friendships with Mexican intellectuals such as Alfonso Caso and Manuel Gamio.

McAfee's publications include: The Techialoyan Codex E (Codex Cempoala, Hidalgo, 1945), La Danza de la Gran Conquista (translation, 1952), Tlacahuapahualistli (with Cornyn, 1943), The Titles of Tezcotzingo (with Barlow, 1945), and The Techialoan Codices: Codex K (1946), in Tlalocan; Anales de la Conquista de Tlatelolco 1473 a 1521 (with Barlow, 1945), La Guerra Entre Tlatelolco y Tenochtitlan Según el Códice Cozcatzin (1946) and Unos Anales Coloniales de Tlatelolco, 1519-1633 (1948), in Tlatelolco a Través de los Tiempos; Diccionario de Elementos Fonéticos en Escritura Jeroglífica (Códice Mendocino) (1949) and El Códice de Mixtepec (with Garibay, 1949); The Techialoyan Codex of Tepotzotlan: Codex X (Reylands Mexican Manuscript l) in Bulletin of the John Ryland Library (with Donald Robertson, 1960).

From the guide to the Byron McAfee collection of papers relating to the Nahuatl language, ca. 1553-1964, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)