Introduction

Abstract

Invocations such as “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” or “Once upon a time” exercise a majestic power over memory and imagination. Beginnings and stories about beginnings are hard to resist, as the cultural critic Edward Said pointed out, because they establish priorities and convey greater explanatory power than other forms of analysis and explorations of history.¹ The Spanish word principios is synonymous with “beginnings,” “first notions,” and “established theoretical and moral criteria” and eloquently expresses these functions. A beginning is a set of principles that guides the effort to establish an unquestionable foundation for human behavior, social institutions, tradition, culture, and language. Guided by a sense of loss (of precious heritage, oral traditions, idiosyncrasies, or birthright), inquiry into the past becomes part of a process of restoration during which a great deal of work is done to recapture a language that best expresses our identity and indicates the definite place to which we belong in this world.