Some indigenous persons received a European education because they went to the schools (Martín & Pettus (eds.) 1973 Scholars and Schools) which were established for them and where they were instructed in Spanish, Latin, Christian religion as well as crafts. These were normally the sons of the American indigenous elite.

Very few indigenous writers have left their works for us to find. It is interesting that they did not seem to have attended any formal schooling, and the fact that their work was not published at the time. They seem to have grown up in the environment of clerics and thereby received their European training which included, of course, writing, but also the reading and familiarity with books in Spanish and probably even Latin.