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Home , Azcapotzalco (altepetl), Chicomoztoc, Tlatelolco (altepetl)

The path from Aztlan to

On visual narration in Mesoamerican codices

FEDERICONAVARRETE

The aim of this article is to examine certain graphic from Aztlan (a given place at a given time) to conventions used to represent time and space in Mexico (a different place at a later time). sixteenth-century Mesoamerican pictographic codices As will be seen below, all the other Mexica codices dealing with the history of the Mexica migration.1 This dealing with the migration employ similar devices for an as will, in turn, lead to analysis of such documents depicting space and time, and all of them combine visual narratives. these devices in a fashion that is deliberate and The most remarkable of these conventions is a set of systematic. The use of these conventions reflects the or lines blocks marking distance and duration that unites existence of highly developed visual narrative traditions the towns of Aztlan and Mexico-, the inMesoamerica. A comparison with other visual beginning and the end of the Mexica migration, and that narrative genres, such as modern comics and film, will a appears in different guises in all the codices dealing allow for better understanding of the Mexica codices with that historical event. as narrative discourses. Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the Perhaps the best known codex dealing with the chronotope will, in turn, clarify the role of the space and Mexica migration is the Codex Boturini (also called time lines as devices used to organize and structure Tira de la Peregrinaci?n, Codex Boturini 1975). In this narrative genres (Bakhtin 1981). This approach will lead beautiful sixteenth-century pictorial history, the to a new definition of native historical genres that differs distance between Aztlan and Mexico is marked by two from the traditionally accepted classification, based on a row different lines (fig. 1).2 The first is of footprints categories borrowed from the Western tradition, such as representing the path followed by the Mexica in their annals and maps. The fact that the pictographic a migration; the second is continuous line that unites documents belonging to, and narrating the history of, the rectangular year signs that represent the time other Mesoamerican peoples, such as the , elapsed during the migration. Cuauhtinchantlaca, or Mixtee, use markedly different These two lines are carefully intertwined throughout ways of representing space and time, while also near a the codex: the footprints always begin year sign, managing to incorporate them into a single visual clearly establishing the date of the departure of the narrative discourse, points to a relationship between Mexica from each place, and they lead to a place sign, these genres and specific ethnic groups. The final line of next concern the stopping point in their migration. Each place analysis will the colonial adaptation of these a sign, in turn, is followed by meandering block of year traditions, which preserved their narrative foundations frames that represents the length of the sojourn of the while incorporating many of the conventions of Mexica in In are art. that place. this way, time and space European into a integrated single narrative of the journey of the Iwill not deal with the pictographic reading of the codices, nor with the traditional art-historical analysis of style, figure, and form, not because I reject their usefulness or validity, but because Iam proposing a 1. Throughout this article, Iwill use the term Mexica, rather than to to different, road of the Aztec, refer the -speaking people who lived inMexico complementary analysis: reading as Tenochtitlan and in order to clearly distinguish them from codices visual narratives. their neighbors in the . 2. My drawings of the codices dealing with the migration were The to inspired by Robertson's scheme of the year sign and footprint lines of path from Aztlan Mexico-Tenochtitlan the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. I have omitted many details to isolate There are six that deal with the elements used for depicting time and space, plus some figures that pictographic manuscripts are to one the Mexica clearly linked them. This allows to better perceive their migration: the already mentioned Codex complexity and their systematic nature. Boturini, the Codex Mexicanus, the Codex Azcatitlan, 32 RES 37 SPRING 2000

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Figure 1. The lines depicting time and space in the Codex Boturini. Drawing: Federico Navarrete.

and two related the the Sig?enza Map, documents, However, the artist or tlacuilo3 took great care to draw Codex Telleriano-Remensis and the Codex Vaticano-R?os the time lines and the footprint lines on each page at known as Codex Vaticano-3738 and Vaticanus same (also A); exactly the height as on the previous one, a seventh known as the Codex manuscript, Aubin, maintaining the illusion that the book was a continuous combines elements with text written in pictographic unit. Ifwe analyze this ?mage as such, the year signs Latin All of these documents use some kind of script. form an uninterrupted row in the center of the page. The or other to and time in lines, devices, represent space footprints always start from a year sign (springing from a the followed the but on path by Mexica, they implement thick line planted the year frames) and always go as them in different and insert them in ways radically far as the next toponymie glyph. visual contexts. diverging Because of the central ity accorded to the year signs, Of all of the Codex would at them, Boturini, appear, this codex has been likened to the Tira de Tepechpan, first to be the closest to sight, pre-Hispanic conventions, which Robertson considered a prime example of the because it has the traditional of a foldout shape long original time-oriented style of Mesoamerican codices and depicts a "spaceless landscape," lacking horizon (1959:62-64). As we shall see below, this form was or to the as line any other method ground characters, assimilated to the European genre of the annals, defined Robertson The by Donald (1959:61). only considered as the earliest and least developed form of elements that the series of events and join toponyms historiography. in the codex are the that depicted footprints represent However, the Mexicanus ismore complex than the the followed the Mexica and the continuous a path by annals genre. First, the row of year signs begins at line the or frames. this utter uniting year signs However, specific place in space: the river crossed by the Mexica well be a colonial as simplification may elaboration, when they departed from Aztlan. Another time line, will be seen below. sometimes painted pink, joins the place signs to the year Mexicanus a different The Codex (1952) presents very sign for the year inwhich the Mexica arrived and to the implementation of the space and time lines (fig. 2). First and foremost, in this document, the continuity of these 3. Iwill the N?huatl term for "artist," tlacuilome, lines faces a new because it is not a employ pluralized challenge, because itmeans both painter and writer, and thus conveys the dual continuous like the but a codex the an foldout, Boturini, (in nature of the codices as images and narratives, and provides European usage of the word, Chartier 1995: 256-257). accurate description of the complex craft of their creators. Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 33

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in 18 to 25. Federico Navarrete. Figure 2. The lines depicting time and space the Codex Mexicanus, pages Drawing:

year sign for the year inwhich they departed, thus Furthermore, we see the reappearance of the bird that were marking the length of their stay. The fact that the place sang to the Mexica when they leaving Aztlan (very a or sign is always placed near the middle of the period likely nahualli, animal manifestation, of the god was defined by this second time line makes the footprint line [Del Castillo 1991:135], and that seen as longer than would be strictly "necessary" if this walking with them they left their first stopping now document were indeed depicting time alone. In that place, Tlatzallan (see fig. 2). This divine bird is case, the place sign should be put above the year of shown diving from the top margin of the page, toward an arrival, marking the time at which the Mexica got there; Chicomoztoc, idea that is stressed by the presence of and the footprints should go from the year of departure a second footprint line representing its flight. Its to the year of arrival in the next place, marking the time reappearance seems to suggest that it had been flying they spent on the road. Yet, in this case, the footprints above the Mexica all along, and above the top margin row are clearly depicting the distance in space between the of the page. This indicates that the of year signs is as a places visited by the Mexica. being used horizon line and that Chicomoztoc is an In fact, throughout the section dealing with the placed in the underworld, interpretation that is a migration in the Mexicanus, the interaction between the strengthened by the presence of tree growing out of depiction of time and space is so elaborate that Chicomoztoc and rising to the sky. sometimes the tlacuilo seems to be make puns with it. For There is another line, starting from the bird's beak and instance, there is always a human figure at the beginning diving below the main time line. Both lines (the human on of the footprint line: he is placed above the thick line and the divine) reappear the other side of the large marking the moment of departure of the Mexica. glyph of Chicomoztoc and then stay below the time line Sometimes, he actually appears to be standing on this until the Mexica reach Coatepec. There they go under on line, as if itwere a physical object in space (see fig. 2). the time line again and reemerge the top, The most elaborate play with this ambiguity takes place transformed into the original pink time line and the thick when the Mexica arrive at a location called Chicomoztoc, marker for the departure, on both of which a human seen the Seven Caves (fig. 3). Because this is the only place sign character is standing. scene so in the whole migration history that is placed below the The interaction between the lines in this is central row of year signs, both the footprint line and the complex and systematic that it should be considered second time line also are shifted. Thus we see the intentional. The fact that this upheaval takes place in the no as we footprints going under the central time line as if the path sacred spot of Chicomoztoc is accident, shall followed by the Mexica actually went "below." see below. 34 RES 37 SPRING 2000

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Figure 3. The second Chicomoztoc, Codex Mexicanus, pages 22 and 23. Photo: ? Biblioth?que National de France.

Another variation on these conventions is found in Like the tlacuilo of the Mexicanus, the author of the the Codex Azcatitlan (Barlow and Graulich 1995) (fig. Azcatitlan likes to play visual games. Space is transformed 4). This book-shaped document, like the Mexicanus, into landscape: beside the place signs and the human we see has preserved the continuity of the line uniting Aztlan figures, mountains, trees, buildings, and rivers. one and Mexico. Yet here there is only line, consisting The path of the Mexica is fully integrated into this a of footprints inside path in the beginning, and "naturalistic" space, as can be seen where it disappears a a becoming simpler continuous line after plate 6. In the behind mountain and reappears again (fig. 4). first 5 plates, this continuity is not so apparent, because The use of artificial, depicted space is linked with a each double page depicts a single independent scene, very interesting exception to the continuity of the but it becomes systematic from page 8 of the codex footprint line. In figure 5, the Mexica are shown until the arrival inMexico. walking away inside a beautiful wild landscape. Their The emphasis on the footprint line would seems to path moves among the mountains up the page and indicate that the Codex Azcatitlan is "place-oriented" leaves it at the top, bearing right. In the opposite page, (Robertson 1959:64), and thus different from the the path enters the page from the top but moves Boturini and Mexicanus. However, itmust be stressed leftward (fig. 6). that time is still present, because near each place sign On first inspection of the actual codex page, the a there is row, or a block, of year signs representing the continuity of the line appears to be broken, but ifwe length of the stay of the Mexica at that spot. This way of look through the page against the light we can see that it one a representing time is very similar to the used in the is actually making loop. This effect is presented in Codex Boturini, except that the continuous line uniting figure 6, which shows the two pages and then the year frames is absent. superimposes them. Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 35

seems As in the case of the Mexicanus it that this frames for the year signs and provides no year names or complex play with the continuity of the line is numbers, simply signaling the number of years spent at intentional. Suffice it to say, for the moment, that the each place. Thus despite the different shape of this wilderness surrounding this mysterious loop can also be document, ifwe follow the line as itmeanders from associated with Chicomoztoc. corner to corner, we perceive the same sense of linear The fourth document depicting the Mexica migration, duration, uniting time and space into a single whole, as the Sig?enza Map (1964) (fig. 7), appears to be in the other codices. Furthermore, the places depicted to or a completely "place-centered," according Robertson's are not organized according to a spatial graticule typology. Mesoamerican codices have traditionally been geometric projection, but rather as part of the itinerary divided into place-oriented "maps," time-oriented of the migration, as in the other three codices. "annals," and event-oriented histories. This classification The other two pictographic documents dealing with was conceived by Robertson (1959:64), and has been the Mexica migration, the Codex Telleriano-Remensis further elaborated by Nicholson (1971:45-50) and more (Qui?ones-Keber 1995) and the Codex Vaticanus A or same recently by Boone (1994:68). However, the exact Vaticano-R?os (1979), are related, the latter being quite are as are conventions used in this "map" used in the likely a copy of the former (Qui?ones-Keber 1995:130). . a unites a same "time-oriented" codices First, continuous line Together, they present different variation of the a Aztlan and Mexico, and it ismade of footprints. In conventions: the year signs are aligned in continuous addition, as in the Azcatitlan and the Boturini, year row on the lower half of the page, but the footprint lines are signs placed in blocks beside each place sign, above them do not follow its chronological order but marking the length of the Mexica's stay in each place. rather move back and forward in a complicated pattern. The Sig?enza Map, however, uses circles instead of Robertson, who reconstructed this pattern, attributed 36 RES 37 SPRING 2000

4. time in the Codex 2-7. Federico Navarrete. Figure The depiction of and space Azcatitlan, plates Drawing:

this variation to an unsuccessful synthesis of Texcocan The codices as visual narratives and Mexica historical traditions (1959:109-115). Qui?ones-Keber holds that this is an anomalous version If the lines depicting time and space inMexica were so of the Mexica migration, and that itmay not be Mexica pictographic histories deliberately and carefully at all (1995:196-197). However, itmust be stressed that maintained, even in codex form, they must have been a these two documents combine a line representing time used as visual narrative devices that provided it is with one depicting space. framework for the whole migration story; helpful an a Finally, the Codex Aubin (1963) presents here to take detour into narrative theory. interesting variation on these conventions, because it Surprisingly, few historians have analyzed as consists mainly of text written in Latin script, Mesoamerican codices systematically visual narratives, as complemented with certain pictographic elements that although parallels with other similar genres, such one or even illustrate the text (fig. 8). Upon closer examination, comic strips, film, animation storyboards, have finds the same elements in the Codex Aubin as in the been suggested by several authors, including Byland and are other Mexica pictographic histories: (1) all year signs Pohl (1994:9). The comparison with contemporary visual are can represented as rectangular frames, and grouped into narrative genres, particularly comics, be quite as case blocks that represent the time spent by the Mexica in enlightening, in the of Smith's analysis of the in each place, just like in the Boturini, Azcatitlan, and pictorial conventions for identifying characters the In I Sig?enza; and (2) the footprint line is also present in the Mixtee codices (1973). this instance, will one scene on a beginning of the migration: in the four leaders concentrate single aspect of this subject: how visual of the Mexica are seen walking away from Aztlan, right narratives solve the problem of depicting time and means below the year sign for 1-tecpatl (as in the other movement by of static drawings. use codices); later the Mexica are shown walking again, Modern comics represent time through the of one a dressed as Chichi mecas. Afterward, the footprints several narrative conventions. The first is method over a to disappear, but their role is taken by the written text: of compression: frozen, privileged instant is used a a a small paragraph placed always beside the first frame of represent longer narrated time, duration (Barbieri same each block of year signs reads "In this year the Mexica 1993:225-226). This method is used in the a rower moved to such place," and a second paragraph, always codices: for example, the snapshot of lone placed below the block of years reads "In this year the traversing the lake that surrounds the city of Aztlan, to Mexica had spent so many years in such place" (fig. 8). shown in the Boturini and in the Azcatitlan, is used as a Thus the Aubin provides a clue to how the other represent much longer process, the crossing of those codices were read aloud. However, what interests us waters by the whole Mexica people. here is the way inwhich the text performs the same In visual narratives, space and time become visual and narrative function as the footprint lines. inextricably linked. Spatial contiguity usually represents Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 3 7

can us us temporal contiguity, and movement in space be should not make forget that it is a complex used to represent movement in time (Gubern 1994: narrative convention, not a natural representation. 311-313). This is the case, of course, in the migration Visual narrative genres usually combine images with a codices and also in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, long other narrative elements, such as sound, music, and strip narrating the Norman conquest of Britain, inwhich, dialogue, in the case of film, or written words, in the for instance, the boats crossing the English channel are case of comics. InMesoamerican codices, this role was shown moving both in space and in time. played by accompanying oral narrative. In all these to can Perspective, adding depth space, also be used instances, the accompanying elements create a parallel to a represent duration within static image. Such is the narrative that complements and enriches the visual case of many vignettes in comics inwhich a character narrative: the narrative discourse is the result of the is seen walking away, with his back turned toward the combination of elements (Metz 1973:215). Thus in use viewer (Barbieri 1993:101). This narrative of modern comics, the presence of long dialogues or was as perspective frequent in Renaissance painting comments prolongs certain scenes and underlines their where scenes in well, different different planes of the importance (Barbieri 1993:247-248). The same thing were as painting read taking place in different times. may have happened inMesoamerican codices, where was not we can Interestingly, though perspective used in pre imagine the oral narrator describing at some 5 as Hispanic codices, plate of the Codex Azcatitlan (fig. length important scenes such the departure from a or 5) shows beautiful example of how it could be Aztlan, the events at Chicomoztoc, while moving into narrative as over integrated discourse, the path followed faster the succession of places visited by the Mexica a by the Mexica migrants penetrates mountain during the rest of their migration. This variable rhythm of can landscape. Escalante points out that this artificial space reading be seen clearly in the Codex Aubin, where not or some are is created, by perspective shadows, but by scenes accompanied by large texts, while placing characters with their back turned toward the others merit only brief comments. Similar differences in viewer (1996:347-348). However, Iwould argue that rhythm can also be found inwritten sources, such as the not use although painter did linear perspective, he 's Cr?nica Mexic?yotl ([1949] 1992). a may have been using type of aerial perspective, Finally, in most forms of visual narrative, there is an the more are because distant characters and mountains established direction of reading that provides a natural in smaller and painted clearer colors (Da Vinci 1980). temporal organization to the story. This basic framework In the of was means any case, effect depth successfully is further elaborated by of highly complex a achieved, and it had clear narrative meaning. The narrative devices. Inmodern Western genres, such as N?huatl text to states the left of the page "There the film and comics, the basic unity of narrative is the frame Mexica or got lost, among the mountains, the woods and shot. Itdefines a point of view and establishes a the rocks, and they wandered around." It appears that meaningful distinction between what is shown and what the spatial depth of the landscape is used to represent is not shown (Barbieri 1993:135). In turn, the frames are were a both the length of time that the Mexica there and assembled within larger narrative framework, using were the fact that they lost. techniques of montage that give the whole narrative a Another is device employed by visual narratives the coherent unity and that allow for effects such as ellipsis use of a to a or metonym represent whole trajectory simultaneity. These narrative devices originated in the one through of its parts (Barbieri 1993:224-234). Such is late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in film and the case for one the main conventions of of Mexica, and in comics (Fell 1974). In the migration codices, there are no Mesoamerican, codices: the line of footprints that stands frames and no use of montage. In fact, as we will see for a or a path journey. This convention has deep roots below, the space and time lines provided the narrative inMesoamerican tradition: one of the earliest example framework that articulated the whole story, giving it both dates back to the Olmec Monument 13 from La Venta, unity and sequence. and other instances can be found atTeotihuacan in the Tetitla Murals, and in the Palace Stone at Xochicalco The of the (Nicholson 1976:163-164). In all of these cases, the chronotope migration are to footprints used represent traveling. The fact that From a narrative point of view, then, the lines the reading of this metonymy has become automatic for representing time and space in the Mexica codices were 38 RES 37 SPRING 2000

Figure 5. The mountain landscape at Chicomoztoc, Codex Azcatitlan, plate 5, right. Photo: ? Biblioth?que National de France.

as it takes on becomes neither "natural" depictions of those dimensions nor Time, were, thickens, flesh, or visible; likewise, space becomes and simple chronological spatial grids to which the events artistically charged responsive to the movements of time, plot and history. This of the migration were added. In fact, they shaped the intersection of axes and fusion of indicators characterizes whole it a and a a migration, giving unity meaning, . . . as a the artistic chronotope. The chronotope formally peculiar chronotope. constitutive category determines to a significant degree the Mikhail Bakhtin devised the concept of the ?mage of man in literature as well. The image of man is for chronotope literary analysis, stating: always intrinsically chronotopic. Bakhtin 1981:84-85 We will give the name chronotope (literally, "time space") to the intrinsic connectedness of and temporal spatial Following Bakhtin's definition, it can be argued that that are in literature. This relationships artistically expressed these lines were meant to represent the specific shape of term is in was [space-time] employed mathematics, and time and within the and thus as . . . space migration, they introduced part of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. defined the nature of this journey itself. What counts for us is the fact that it expresses the In this case, time and space move in parallel, because inseparability of space and time (time as the fourth the Mexica leave Aztlan behind, both and dimension of space). We understand the chronotope as a temporally ... In and advance toward Mexico, which is at formally constitutive category of literature. the spatially, placed the end of their and in their future. This all seems literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators path are one concrete whole. when we are the of time fused into carefully thought-out, very natural: traveling passage Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 39

Figure 6. The loop in the path followed by the Mexica, Codex Azcatitlan, plate 5, Navarrete. right, and plate 6, left. Drawing: Federico

is parallel to our movement in space. As Bakhtin pointed In this way, the chronotope establishes the unity of the out, "in the chronotope of the road, the unity of time and journey of the Mexica over and beyond the many space markers is exhibited with exceptional precision stopovers made by them. By drawing a continuous line and clarity" (1981:98-110). uniting Aztlan and Mexico, the artists defined these spots But the chronotope of the migration ismore complex, as the only departure and arrival points of the journey, because it involves not only the displacement of the automatically demoting all the other places along the way Mexica in space and time but also the many stopovers (Chicomoztoc, Coatepec, and , to mention the in their journey. Each place where the Mexica stop has a most important) to mere stopovers, to temporary homes spatial dimension (its location in an itinerary) and a that could not, and should not, be compared to the original temporal dimension (the length of time the Mexica spent homeland they left behind and the new, definitive one they there). Thus the chronotope describes the rhythm of a would find in the Valley of Mexico. The importance of this single, yet discontinuous, journey. Not surprisingly, the ideological argument for the Mexica lies in the fact that it same rhythm is clearly expressed in the written histories legitimized their possession of Mexico, and that it denied of the migration. For example, the Dominican friar the legitimacy of other possible homelands, such as Diego Duran wrote: Coatepec or Chapultepec, where apparently many of them had wanted to stay (Navarrete 1998). The left the Seven Caves and embarked upon their The lines show that there was a from journey in order to seek the land promised them by their single journey Aztlan to Mexico and that all the time gods, according to traditions left by their priests. I find in during elapsed between their and the of the their painted manuscripts and in their oral traditions that the departure arrival, history people made long stops on the migration and lived for years Mexica consisted of nothing but traveling, following a at time in peaceful, fertile places abounding inwater and their god and guide, Hutzilopochtli, in a quest for the In some in forests. places they stayed twenty years, others land he had promised them. Thus they convey a and in others more or less. . . . fifteen, ten, complex narrative message that gives sense and unity to Duran 1994:21-22 the whole history of the migration. 40 RES 37 SPRING 2000

This can the of the two help explain meaning The imperial chronotope exceptions to the continuity of the lines in the Codex The of the space and time lines in these Mexicanus and the Codex Azcatitlan. It is no accident, meaning as a codices chronotope specific to the migration is to begin with, that these apparent violations of the confirmed by the fact that after the foundation of convention take place in or near Chicomoztoc.4 This Mexico, the conventions used for depicting space and place was mentioned in the histories of many different time were modified in all Mexica a radically the Mesoamerican peoples5 and was considered place of pictographic histories (the Codex Boturini and the origin and transformation inwhich migrating peoples Sig?enza Map deal only with the migration period). acquired new identities. It could be argued that this In the case of the Codex the idea of transformation is the of Azcatitlan, year signs expressed by position a disappear altogether, and new temporal organization the place sign, and the movement of the time and centered on the ascension and death of each successive footprint lines, below the main time line in the Codex Mexica is the of each Mexicanus, which could indicate a to the adopted: reign sovereign trip a is depicted in double page. The footprint lines also underworld (fig. 3). Similarly, the loop made by the disappear, and the only place signs shown are those of path in the Codex Azcatitlan between plates 5 and 6 the towns conquered by the Mexica. The exact same (fig. 6) may be interpreted as a representation of the conventions representing the crowning and death of metamorphosis experienced by the Mexica when they each tlatoani and the of the Mexica are were conquests lost in Chicomoztoc: they leave that page in one employed in the Codex Mexicanus, and in the direction and enter the following page in the opposite Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticano-R?os. Interestingly, the direction, because have been transformed by their they latter two documents the but in the wild lands. This can also be preserve year signs place wanderings loop on them first three sides around the page (during the read in a more "literal" fashion as representing the fact period inwhich the Mexica were subject to that the Mexica traversed the mountain range and and then in rows at the of on ) top the page: emerged its opposite side. This reading, however, they are no longer at the bottom of the page as they involves a complex pun with the materiality of the were in the also are red which is used to the of the migration period. They painted page, represent materiality as and blue, and not red and yellow, before (fig. 9). The mountain range. Codex in the in vertical The of this visual should come as no Aubin, turn, rearranges years complexity pun rows placed at the left of each page, and no longer in surprise to anyone familiar with the Mesoamerican and the ascension and death of each tradition. In art and for there is blocks, depicts Maya writing, example, tlatoani and the of the Mexica a continuous between and literal conquests (fig. 10). play metaphor a Significantly, the Codex Mendoza, document dealing meaning (Schele 1986:326), between representation and only with this period of Mexica history, uses the exact identity; and the same is evident in the esoteric Zuyu? same conventions. from colonial times (Roys 1967). Of course, language These reflect and confirm the historical this had roots inMesoamerican changes punning deep transformation the Mexica after the which considered that no similitude was experienced by cosmology, foundation of Mexico. From that moment their accidental and that in different cosmic levels onward, beings was no that of a in and were related to, history longer people wandering (including signs images) magically a search of homeland, but that of people firmly and influenced by, their counterparts. implanted in their new city and reaching out to combat with and conquer other cities; the protagonists of this no history were also different, longer the migrating and their but the rulers. 4. The mountain landscape in the Azcatitlan is placed right after people guiding god, In conventions a new the page depicting Chicomoztoc, though Robert Barlow and Michel fact, these define "imperial" is a Graulich have suggested that there page missing between them chronotope for Mexica history. A comparison between it (1995:58-60). However, the wild landscape depicted in this codex and the elucidates more the a migration chronotope fully corresponds to Tezozomoc's description of Chicomoztoc as wild, meaning of both. When they lived in Aztlan, the Mexica mountainous place (1992:17-18). (or their had a cosmic center, 5. See, for example, the Historia Tolteca- (1989) from predecessors) symbolized in Cuauhtinchan, and the Maya Quiche Popol Vuh, inwhich it is called in the codices by the temple the middle of the island Pec seven 1985: Uucub (meaning caves) (Tedlock 360). of Aztlan or by a tree growing on it (both symbols of an Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 41

Figure 7. The depiction of time and space in the Sig?enza Map. Drawing: Federico Navarrete.

axis mundi). When they left that town, the Mexica lost All this has the ring of a highly elaborated, and their center, so the objective of their migration was to ideological, version of the past. The codices do not a a find new one; hence the migration is represented as present a direct depiction of the facts (no history ever was a continuous journey. That the foundation of Mexico does) but do present coherent, highly complex new seen as the establishment of the cosmic center of narrative. And, as Hayden White has pointed out, an the Mexica is confirmed by itswell-known depiction in narrative histories provide image of life that has a the Codex Mendoza, inwhich the city is clearly coherence, an integrity, a fullness and a closure that can depicted as an axis mundi. The Codex Aubin includes a only be imaginary (1992:38). similar representation of Mexico and then, significantly, In this sense, it can be argued that the lines depicting begins a new year count (with vertical rows of years) time and space actually construct the migration: by a beside the image of temple (fig. 10). Once their center linking directly its beginning and its end, they establish had been established again, the task of the Mexica was the unity of an event that lasted several centuries, to expand their dominions around it and to increase its involved many generations (none of the migrants that magnificence, which iswhy the codices depict the left Aztlan were alive when Mexico was founded), and towns some they conquered and why they also represent the included many stopovers, of them lasting decades successive expansions of the Templo Mayor (the main (and quite likely considered by many Mexica at the time temple of Mexico and the physical manifestation of the to be their definite homeland). It could be argued that if, axis we mundi).6 to this day, speak of the Mexica migration as a single

a 6. Boone proposes similar interpretation of the ideological of Mexica "What the Aztecs have done or message history: effectively by specifically indicated" (Boone 1996:204). Her reflection applies the annals is to make theTenochca and later their to using year-count perfectly the imperial period, but clearly not to the migration central to all that occurs. In theTenochca the Mexica empire annals, period, which she considers to be an "exception." However, Iwould and the of Tenochtitlan are the unmarked are it more to see as an city categories, they argue that is fruitful Mexica history aggregation of considered so fundamental to the that need not be named history they different chronotopes. 42 RES 37 SPRING 2000

Mfl?.

m

Figure 8. The depiction of time and space in the Codex Aubin. Drawing: Federico Navarrete.

event, it is because of the narrative effectiveness of this And indeed, the chronotope of the Mexica migration a chronotope. This is, of course, the ultimate success of seems to invalidate the traditional division of narrative history: to become so transparent that its Mesoamerican codices into place-oriented "maps," reconstruction and organization of the past is time-oriented "annals" and event-oriented histories. The indistinguishable from the past itself. codices dealing with the migration, however, combine the depiction of time, space, and events into a single whole: to separate the Sig?enza Map from the other Chronotopes and genres documents just because it is square in shape, and not A narrative analysis of the codices, and Bakhtin's oblong, seems quite arbitrary. Therefore, Iwould argue we concept of the chronotope, have allowed us to that ifwe call this document a "map," should also understand both the function and the meaning of the call the other Mexica histories "maps," because they devices used to represent time and space in the depict space as well; or ifwe call the others annals, we migration. This line of analysis can also lead us to then could also speak of the Sig?enza Annals. question the traditional classification of historical genres The fact that historical codices were called xiuhamatl inMesoamerica. in N?huatl, literally meaning "paper of years," should Bakhtin himself stressed the importance of the not lead us to consider them as equivalent to annals, in chronotope in the definition of genres: "The chronotope the traditional Western sense of the word: simple lists of an no in literature has intrinsic generic significance. It can events organized chronologically with further are even be said that it is precisely the chronotope that narrative elaboration (White 1992:20). We dealing defines genre and generic distinctions" (1981:84-85)7 with a fully narrative genre that organizes and gives coherence to the events it describes, and not with a a simple collection of events placed along fixed time line. the codices with the 7. In his article, Bakhtin defined several specific chronotopes Therefore, dealing migration to from the Greek adventure to as a pertaining different genres, novel, should be considered specific genre, which Ovid's to Rabelais's It is Metamorphoses, anthropocentric chronotope. combines our Western genres of maps, annals, and to interesting point out that his definition of the chronotope of the event-oriented histories. Greek adventure in which an endless series of incidents takes novels, we a never or If accept that the of the migration place in frozen time inwhich the characters age experience chronotope defines a historical then the transformations, is very close to the description of the plot structure of specific genre, imperial most comics Fresnault-Deruelle one. at modern by (1977). chronotope should define another Hinting this, Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 43

nra ?x?tio tfv ot^?fta?^com^^y?V i?\t(r ?chitvla maipcpa??--y

Y?aron.?s mexicanos, qiicno scjciuk I qiuiiocoa ma&.cdo&Mas'capcL. cafco ypa?t (??enioQ?esiaeMsfcahrcct?ae \ qm?aton -yaaqui

y fierra zcCfaJf

Figure 9. The imperial chronotope in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, folio 31 r. Photo: ? Biblioth?que National de France. 44 RES 37 SPRING 2000

several authors, such as Nicholson (1971:47-48), have Interestingly, other migration histories, such as the seem one pointed out that Mexica histories to be collections depicted in the Codex Xicotepec (Stresser-Pean use of heterogeneous parts. 1995), from the highlands of Puebla, conventions However, the plurality of chronotopes, and genres, different from the Mexica codices. In this case, there are no within Mexica history does not mean that these formed footprint lines, and the stops in the migration a an incoherent whole. Bakhtin pointed out that several are organized in frames (marked by red lines) with on chronotopes could coexist, and interact, within a single year sign their top left corner and the place sign on literary work (1981:252). In fact, this heterogeneity gave the bottom. the whole of Mexica history itsmeaning: the shift from As for the already mentioned Tira de Tepechpan the migration chronotope to the imperial chronotope did (Noguez 1978), which combines local Tepechpan not mark an absolute discontinuity but a historical history with that of the Mexica, presented above and sense a row transformation, a change of eras. The ideological below central of year signs, respectively, it is of this transformation is clear, and itwas in the Mexica's possible that the time line is used to create a common, interest to maintain that itwas irreversible: having found neutral chronotope for the parallel depiction of two their home at last, they were not going to lose it again. distinct histories. Significantly, the part dealing with the So the Mexica may have conceived their whole history Mexica migration uses none of the conventions we have a as a series of eras, each defined by peculiar discussed above. chronotope and necessitating a distinct historical genre A systematic analysis would quite likely reveal that to a for its expression.8 each historical tradition, belonging specific ethnic Ifwe look beyond the Mexica, we also find different group and lineage, had its peculiar chronotope, its genres in the histories of other Mesoamerican groups. peculiar way of solving the conundrum of representing Robertson recognized these differences and suggested time in space and space in time. One possible more that Acolhua (Texcocan) history was place explanation for this plurality is that the holders of each orie?ted and more "rational" (1959:62-64). Once again, historical tradition developed their own solutions and his classification should be qualified: though the Codex distinguished them from those of neighboring and rival Xolotl and the Quinatzin and Tlotzin Maps are traditions as a sign of particularity and authenticity. This are not organized around depictions of space, they would help explain the plurality and ethnocentricity of our necessarily maps, according to definition Mesoamerican histories, which have been well known (synchronie, isometric, emphasizing topography and since the sixteenth century. human settlements), because they include depictions of time. In the codex that bears his name, Xolotl moves The resilience of the moves chronotopes along the map as he along the events of his so as attention is nature glorious life, and does Nezahualcoyotl he flees Another problem that deserves the from the evil Tepanecans. The same thing can be said for of the adaptation of the Mesoamerican tradition to other Mesoamerican "maps," such as those from Spanish colonization during the sixteenth century. were Cuauhtinchan and the many extant lienzos from the Though all the codices analyzed in this article the Iassume that the Mixtee region.9 made after conquest, chronotopes of Mexica history are of pre-Hispanic origin for two reasons. The first one is that their deep coherence and systematic nature does not correspond to the piecemeal 8. On the division of N?huatl into eras, see the reflections history experimentation and adoption of European styles, forms, of Graulich and Guilhem Olivier (1997) based on (1982) mythical and conventions that took the sixteenth . place during analysis use a The second one is that I have not found 9. Mundy has proposed that Mesoamerican maps "human" century. any visual narrative devices in the Western or "social" projection, because they depict the relation among equivalent a not humans, their history, and the territory (that is, chronotope) and tradition. The Bayeux Tapestry and other European visual 1996). Leibsohn, in turn, just spatial relationships (Mundy proposes histories use completely different conventions (Smith that "the establishes a nexus where and map history landscape 1973:20-21). (1995:270). and Pohl have demonstrated how the conjoin" Byland The of the codices as visual narratives "event-oriented" Mixtee codices include very accurate depictions of analysis a new for the landscapes and very precise dates (1990). provides perspective understanding Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 45

10. of Mexico Figure The foundation and the beginning of the imperial chronotope, Codex Aubin, pages 48 to 55. Drawing: Federico Navarrete.

colonial in in changes style, and the conventions for the (1996:166-169), have pointed out that it has elements of depiction space, landscape, and the human body, of colonial origin: the lack of color and the extreme that have been so documented meticulously by simplification of the human figures. Itcould be argued Robertson more (1959) and recently by Escalante that this simplification was meant to stress the basic It is contention at case (1996). my that, least in the of message of the history: the chronotope. Indeed, it is Mexica the of and even histories, adoption European forms possible that the continuous line uniting the year was techniques subordinated to the chronotope that frames was a colonial innovation used to stress the them and gave generic validity. unity linearity of time during the migration.10 This is quite clear in the case of the Codex Boturini. Though this documents has been considered a pre several as Hispanic document, authors, such Escalante 10. Carmen Aguilera suggested this possibility to me. 46 RES 37 SPRING 2000

On the other hand, the Codex Mexicanus and the So strong was this loyalty, that it could be said that the Codex Azcatitlan prove that the adoption of the genres of Mexica pictographic history died whole, European codex format did not lead to the instead of dissolving gradually into the genres of or abandonment fragmentation of the time and space European painting, or visual narratives, as has been a lines but to painstaking effort by the tlacuilome to traditionally argued. By the end of the sixteenth century, new maintain the lines' continuity around the page the Mexica stopped drawing codices altogether, but the new breaks. However, the format did lead to the last ones they made preserved the fundamental elements a new emergence of narrative unit, the double-page, of the pre-Hispanic chronotopes. which became a sort of vignette. The tlacuilome In this article, my intention was to present a new way sometimes to at used this frame emphasize the unity of of looking and understanding Mexica pictographic scenes. certain In the Codex Mexicanus, the divisions histories. I hope that this proposal may inspire a between pages were sometimes awkward, as in the first renewed interest in the codices as visual narratives and was to a Chicomoztoc, which divided in two; nevertheless, lead healthy debate about their nature and working more as the clearly important second Chicomoztoc narrative genres. a appears in double page, so that the unity of the whole Naturally, I have raised many more issues than Icould scene is not lost. In the Azcatitlan, the tlacuilo exploited hope to address fully. One of them is the relationship this resource to the fullest, and all important scenes between the codices and the oral tradition that were assigned a double page.11 Itmust be stressed, accompanied them. I stated that the whole historical nevertheless, that this new unit did not entail the discourse was the result of the combination of the visual dissolution of the chronotope but gave it a new rhythm. documents and the oral traditions, but the way inwhich to were a The ability of the tlacuilome adopt European visual they articulated deserves much deeper analysis. conventions and techniques and to use them to However, I hope that this article has made clear that the were strengthen their narrative message is particularly clear in codices full-fledged narratives and not merely the mountain landscape in plate 5, right, of the Codex mnemonic aides used as prompters for oral discourse. an Azcatitlan (fig. 5). In this instance, the depiction of Indeed, the showing of these visual histories may have a serves as as artificial space in full-fledged landscape several been important the reciting of the oral lore. purposes deeply rooted in the indigenous chronotope Another important subject is the transformation of the and narrative tradition. Thus it could be said that the pictographic and oral histories into texts written in Latin was tlacuilo of the Azcatitlan willing to experiment script. The modifications to the chronotopes during this formally but remained loyal to the traditional meanings metamorphosis and their eventual assimilation to the and conventions of his genre. Similar examples of conventions and chronotopes of European Christian experimentation with traditionalism are found in the history, exemplified by the works of Alva Ixtlilxochitl, maps of the Relaciones geogr?ficas, where the deserve a full study. tlacuilome used European techniques, such as Finally, Iwould like to stress that the kind of narrative perspective, to better render their traditional symbols analysis Iam proposing does not invalidate or contradict (Mundy 1996:78-80). the pictographic and art-historical analyses of these a new Equally impressive, from this point of view, is the way documents but adds dimension to our inwhich the Codex Aubin managed to incorporate understanding of the Mesoamerican codices. Indeed, written text while preserving the main conventions of this perspective does not reveal any hidden aspects of us the pictographic chronotope. This proves, beyond doubt, the Mexica codices so much as it allows to perceive the importance attributed by the Mexica tlacuilome to in a different way, and perhaps to comprehend more these conventions and, naturally, to their deep meaning. fully, some features that had been so evident as to escape our attention. By adding a further level of complexity to our 11. This unit became so in fact, that one of the important, understanding of the Mesoamerican pictographic Graulich to demonstrate that there is a arguments adduced by page a histories, I hope to be doing justice to highly missing in the Azcatitlan in plate 5 between the left page depicting one and ancient tradition and to aid in the Chicomoztoc and the depicting the mountain landscape is sophisticated a sense precisely the fact that these two pages do not seem to constitute appreciation of the ingenuity, skill, and of humor scene single (Barlow and Graulich 1995:58-60). of the tlacuilome who painted these visual stories. Navarrete: The path from Aztlan to Mexico 47

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