How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As this was Christmas Day, the two friends were speaking in their native tongue. For years they had made it a practice to speak English together, except upon very special occasions, and of late they conversed in Spanish, in which they both needed to gain fluency. (1.3.18)
It's only on rare occasions that Fathers Latour and Vaillant will speak French to one another after moving to New Mexico. That's because the two languages that are most important to know in the United States are Spanish and English… much like today.
Quote #2
There was no way in which he could transfer his own memories of European civilization into the Indian mind, and he was quite willing to believe that behind Jacinto there was a long tradition, a story of experience, which no language could translate to him. (3.2.22)
Father Latour is an open-minded man, and as such, he can admit that there are certain things in Jacinto's experience as a Native American that he'll never be able to understand. Sure, Jacinto can try his best to convert his experience into English or Spanish. But ultimately the translation will never be perfect. There'll always be something lost.
Quote #3
Not once speaking to him or to each other, they bound his feet together and tied his arms to his sides. (3.4.20)
When father Baltazar kills one of his Native American servants, part of him knows that he's going to have to die for his crime. What he doesn't know, though, is how creepily silent the Native American people are going to be when they tie him up and throw him off a cliff. The silence of the scene helps establish that there is something about death and justice that language can never express. No discussion needs to happen here. Baltazar killed a guy, so now he has to die.