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Between 1540 and 1570, mainly under the efforts of the Franciscans, there is an emergence of works whose authorship was recognized as that of some former students of the Colegio or linked in some other ways to the highly educated elite. Among them, Tadeo de Niza wrote a history of the conquest of Tlaxcala that unfortunately has been lost (1548–1554); Don Pedro Ponce de León, ruler of Tlaxcala, authored Breve relación de los dioses y ritos de la gentilidad; Francisco Acaxitli, ruler of Tlalmanalco, wrote about the mission of viceroy Mendoza to fight the Chichimecs; Don Alfonso Izhuezcatocatzin Axayacatzin, governor of Texoco, wrote in Spanish and Nahuatl the history of his ancestors; and Don Antonio Pimentel Ixtlilxochitl authored Memorias históricas del Reino Acolhua (Garibay 1954, 1: 227–30). However, following a pre-conquest tradition, some historical compilation continued to be anonymous, such as the Codex Aubin (1576), the Annals of Cuauhtitlan (1560–1570), Legend of the Suns (1558), the Annals of Tlatelolco,⁴ and the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca (1544), just to name a few.

From the 1560s to well into the seventeenth century research on Indigenous cultures and languages continued in spite of harsh colonial policies. The prohibitions of 1577 seemed to have developed to control future investigations. On the one hand, the ban on native research would bring to an end the Franciscan monopoly on Indigenous matters; on the other hand, perhaps, the prohibitions were a way to discourage the development of professional research on native matters by the Indigenous students. By the 1570s there were Spanish and mestizo individuals already fluent in native languages who perhaps were perceived to be more objective and less dangerous for such research. In addition, the Jesuit order had arrived in New Spain in 1572. Their projects of conversion followed different methods than those of the Franciscans. Jesuits opened schools not only for Indigenous students but also for Spanish and mestizos. For the teaching of native languages to novices, they benefited from individuals who were fluent in Indigenous tongues, were connected to the secular Church, and had access to materials on Indigenous matters. Be that as it may, parallel to the time of Sahagún’s Historia general, a branch of research on Indigenous matters was ordered by Viceroy Don Martín Enríquez Almanza (1568–1580) to be carried out by individuals other than the Franciscans.

The topics of some of the works Enriquez Almanza requested suggest that he was interested in information regarding Indigenous economic production and social situation in the colonial present, as well as information on the pre-conquest past. The mestizo Diego Muñoz Camargo collaborated on this project with his Relación particular de la grana cochinilla que ofrecía a S.M.D. Felipe N. Señor. This relación focuses on the cultivation of the cochinilla (cochineal insect), on the quality of its red pigment known as grana, and on the rules to recognize its falsification (Carrera Stampa 1945, 93–142). As a result of Almanza’s commission to a Juan Bautista, an Indigenous official, to collect tribute from Indigenous vagabonds, a diario by several Indigenous writers, however attributed to Juan Bautista, gives economic information on Indigenous tribute (Reyes 2001, 19). Recently edited, this diario is referred as the Anales de Juan Bautista. Although this narrative, written in Nahuatl in the annals format, includes dates that range from 1519 to 1582, it focuses primarily on the everyday life of tlahcuiloque – native codex painters – and amanteca – hand-labor artisans – from 1566 to 1574. In addition to being an excellent source on tlahcuiloque and Indigenous artisan circles, it also provides important information on the conflictive reaction to the new regulations on tribute, on the repercussions of the imposition of paid work, the introduction of private property of land, and the use money had in the political and social system of the native population during those years (Reyes 2001, 13).

The research on the Indigenous polities of Tenonchtitlan, Texcoco, and Tula corresponded to that of the Jesuit Juan de Tovar (ca. 1541–1626). A relative of the Spanish Dominican historian Diego Durán, Tovar was born in Texcoco and was well versed in the Indigenous languages Nahuatl, Otomí, and Mazahua. He was first a secular priest and later joined the Jesuits in 1573. Tovar became one of the key individuals in bringing together much of the corpus already produced on native languages and history by Franciscans and other intellectuals.

By the 1580s, other narratives were produced that benefited from exchanging information with the Franciscans. For his Relación de la Nueva España (1585), the oidor of the Audiencia Real, Alonso de Zorita, acknowledges writings by Sahagún, by the Franciscan Toribio de Benavente, known as Motolinía, and, among others, by the Indigenous Pablo Nazareo, one of the gramáticos. In the introduction to his Relación, Zorita includes a substantial bibliography of New World historians and gives us evidence of an active exchange of sources among them. By the end of the 1550s or beginning of the 1560s, parallel to Sahagún’s research, the Spanish Dominican Diego Durán (1537–1588), who visited the Colegio, began to gather information for his Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (1570–1581). His works would also serve as a source for his relative Juan de Tovar’s writings and would also be included in Book VII of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias of the Jesuit José Acosta (1540–1600).

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, evidence of an active circle of intellectual exchange on native and colonial historiography is noticeable in the Monarquía Indiana by the Franciscan Juan de Torquemada (1564–1624). Torquemada, the Guardian of the Convent of Tlatelolco at the Colegio’s decline, was named Chronicler of the Order of San Francisco of New Spain. He was charged with writing a history that would include Franciscan missionary labors and the most notable native traditions. His Monarquía Indiana, in three volumes, includes, among many issues, affairs related to the colonial administration, native traditions, and the history of the evangelization in New Spain. Torquemada benefits from the narratives of the Franciscans Andrés de Olmos, Motolinía, and Gerónimo de Mendieta. He also acknowledges his familiarity with works by the Dominican Diego Durán and the Jesuits Juan de Tovar and José de Acosta. His native sources from Tlaxcala have much in common with the Historia de Tlaxcala, also known as Descripción de la ciudad y provincia de Tlaxcala by the mestizo Diego Muñoz Camargo, and those, from the Texcoco region, share similarities with narratives by the castizo Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, by the mestizo Juan del Pomar, and by the Indigenous writer Don Antonio Pimentel Ixtlilxóchitl.