Aportaciones de Matthäus Steffel al conocimiento d ela escuela jesuita sobre el tarahumara

The grammar of Tarahumara written in Latin By Matthäus Steffel (1799) has been analyzed of mentioned in few historiographic studies about Missionary Linguistics that address languages spoken in Mexico. The manuscript has not been published yet. This contribution faces at least three main questions: (a) What are the argments to include this work within the specialized field of Colonial or Missionary Linguistics of New Spain? (b) What are the main features that let us include this work as part of it?, and finally, (c) Is it still possible to refer to Matthäus Steffel as a Jesuit, even though the Society of Jesus (Latin Societas Iesu) had been abolished 26 years before the author finished his work? The present study referes to the main historical context of this grammar and describes some of its gramaticographic properties in order to argume in favor of a grammar than despite the fact that it was written by an author educated at the College of Tepotzotlán, the intention of the author, and the work itself must be considere not really as a missionary grammar, but as part of studies with ethnographic perspective.