ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mesoamerican literature

Mesoamerican literature is like a really old storybook from a special place called Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica is a big area where countries like Mexico and Guatemala are today. The stories in this book were written a long, long time ago by people who lived in Mesoamerica before Christopher Columbus arrived.

These stories tell us all about the history, beliefs, and traditions of the people who lived in Mesoamerica. They talk about things like how the world was created, the gods they worshiped, and the adventures of animal heroes like the jaguar and the monkey. Some of the stories are even about real-life people who lived a long time ago, like Montezuma, the leader of the Aztecs.

Mesoamerican literature is special because it was originally written using pictures instead of words. People would draw the stories on big pieces of paper, and each picture would tell a different part of the story. It's kind of like reading a comic book! Later on, people learned how to write using letters, and they started writing these stories in a special alphabet called hieroglyphics.

Today, we still have some of these old storybooks, but they are very rare and precious because they are so old. But we can still learn a lot from them and understand what life was like for people who lived in Mesoamerica a long, long time ago.