A play written more than 400 years ago by an Indigenous Mexican nobleman, in his own language, will be read aloud on Audubon Terrace this Saturday. The Hispanic Society Museum and Library hosts a free live reading of excerpts from Antichrist and the Hermit, performed in the original Nahuatl with English subtitles, on Saturday, October 24, at 3 p.m.

The play

Antichrist and the Hermit is a 16th-century religious drama by Fabian de Aquino, a Nahua nobleman. In the play, an Aztec Antichrist tries to draw Nahuas who had converted to Christianity back to the religious practices of their ancestors. It was written for Indigenous audiences, and the museum presents it as a window into how Nahuas themselves made sense of Christianity.

The program

  • 3 to 3:30 p.m.: Translator Ben Leeming on the history of Nahuatl Christian texts and on translating the play.
  • 3:30 to 4 p.m.: Excerpts read in Nahuatl, with English subtitles, by Irwin Sanchez and Mark DiBattista.
  • 4 to 4:20 p.m.: A discussion of efforts to preserve Nahua culture and the Nahuatl language.
  • 4:20 to 4:30 p.m.: Audience questions.

The event is free, and the museum asks guests to RSVP through the event page.

Also on Audubon Terrace

The museum's outdoor commission this year is Uptown Visions by Harlem painter Tom Sanford, the fourth year of its Art on Audubon Terrace series with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. The paintings show uptown summer street life and pay tribute to Joaquin Sorolla's Vision of Spain, the mural cycle inside the museum, marking 100 years since it was installed. Uptown Visions is on view through November 1. Earlier artists in the series include Marta Chilindron, Rose Deler and Oscar Caballero.

On Thursday, October 22, at 6 p.m., the museum also hosts Jonathan Goldman and Rochelle Rives on Puerto Rican culture in 1920s New York, tied to Goldman's book Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York.

How to go

The Hispanic Society is at 3741 Broadway, between West 155th and 156th Streets, on Audubon Terrace. Enter from the west side of Broadway and go up the steps; the museum door is the one flanked by two limestone lions. Wheelchair access is from the Broadway entrance by ramp and lifts, and visitors currently have access to the museum's ground floor only.

The 1 train stops at 157th Street, one block north, and the C stops at 155th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, two blocks east. The M4 and M5 buses stop at Broadway and 155th Street. Museum admission is free with a timed ticket, with a suggested donation of $15 for adults and $10 for residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The museum is open Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

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