Introduction

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Portraying the Here it is told and put forth how the ancient ones, those called and named Teochichimeca, people of Aztlan, Mexitin, Chicomoz- Aztec Past toca, as they sought and merited the land here, arrived and came into the great altepetl, the altepetl of Mexico Tenochtitlan, the place of renown, the sign, the site of the rock tuna cactus, in the midst of the waters; the place where the eagle rests, where the eagle screeches, where the eagle stretches, where the eagle eats; where the serpent hisses, where the fish fly, where the blue and yellow waters mingle—where the waters burn; where suffering came to be known among the sedges and reeds; the place of encountering and awaiting the various peoples of the four quarters; where the thirteen Teochichimeca arrived and settled, where in misery they settled when they arrived. Behold, here begins, here is to be seen, here lies written, the most excel- lent, most edifying account—the account of [Mexico’s] renown, pride, history, roots, basis, as what is known as the great altepetl began, as it commenced: the city of Mexico Tenochtitlan in the midst of the waters, among the sedges, among the reeds, also called and known as the place where sedges whisper, where reeds whisper. It was becoming the mother, the father, the head of all, of every altepetl everywhere in New Spain, as those who were the ancient ones, men and women, our grandmothers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandparents, great- grandmothers, our forefathers, told and established in their accounts and exemplified for us on paper what was done in their accounts, what they left for us who now live, who have issued from them.1 Rajagopalan_5408_BK.indd 1 7/23/18 2:29 PM Portraying the Aztec Past The passage above, drawn from the writings of a While the Tenochca Mexica occupied Tenochtitlan, Nahua noble named don Fernando Alvarado Tezozo- later capital of the Mexica Empire, the dissidents moc, reflects an early seventeenth-century perspec- (Tlatelolca Mexica) established Tlatelolco on the tive on the purposes of recording Mexica migration northern part of the island. history.2 As he summarizes, the migration story Taken as a whole, the Mexica migration narratives existed as a record produced by the ancestors for offered a vision of Mexica identity that set this group their descendants. It provided them with an under- apart from all others. The Mexica were the only standing of who they were and where they came from people that claimed Aztlan as a homeland. While (“those called and named Teochichimeca, people of the makers of Mixtec and Puebla-area manuscripts Aztlan, Mexitin, Chicomoztoca”). It recorded a phys- emphasized longevity in a certain region, the tlacuilo- ical journey wherein the Mexica earned their right to que (artist-scribes; singular tlacuilo) that produced the land (“as they sought and merited the land here”) manuscripts in the Basin of Mexico chose the con- and the process of transition from a period of suffer- cept of a migration to represent where their people ing (“where suffering came to be known . where in came from and how they got to their new homeland. misery they settled when they arrived”) to greatness In Acolhua histories this journey was referenced only (“It was becoming the mother, the father, the head of through a record of the arrival of Chichimecs in the all, of every altepetl everywhere in New Spain”). Basin of Mexico.4 In Mexica histories, however, it was The Mexica migration history, sometimes the journey itself that forged their identity. As the last described as a rags-to-riches tale, is recorded in sev- of several groups to enter the Basin of Mexico region, eral sixteenth-century central Mexican indigenous the Mexica used migration history to emphasize that manuscripts that take alphabetic, pictorial, and they had earned their right to the land. This history hybrid forms. In this history the Aztecs, of Chichimec helped to legitimate the Mexica political position in ancestry, depart from their homeland of Aztlan, in the Basin of Mexico by recording the early battles, the twelfth century.3 They leave this island city at the alliances, and claims to land. At the end of the migra- behest of their god Huitzilopochtli, who will lead tion history, the foundation of Mexico Tenochtitlan them through a 200-year journey. Upon landing at (and Tlatelolco) marked the point at which the Colhuacan or Teocolhuacan, a place that is some- Mexica came into their own. These histories, often times conflated with Chicomoztoc and Quinehuayan, coupled with ruler genealogies and accounts of early they meet up with other tribes. Huitzilopochtli causes conquest events, provided an ideal platform for dif- the Aztecs to separate from the others and offers ferent altepeme (city-states; singular altepetl, literally, them a new identity, renaming them the Mexica and “water-hill”) to establish their claims to the land, the providing them with the things that they need to sur- legitimacy of their ruling dynasties, and their identity vive the peregrination. In exchange for this support, as distinctive peoples with unique histories. he requires sacrifice. After a long and dangerous jour- Before the arrival of the Spanish, Mexican his- ney punctuated by many lengthy stops, they arrive at tories like the one described here would have been Chapultepec in the Basin of Mexico region. Despite recorded using a pictographic (iconographic) writing continuing hardships, they manage to intermarry system. The glyphic images presented information with the Acolhua people of Colhuacan, a group that through pictorial representation (images that bear a claimed prestigious Toltec ancestry. Eventually the resemblance to what they depict), ideograms (images Mexica see the eagle on the nopal cactus and sacred that convey ideas or abstract concepts), and pho- springs, which indicate that they have reached the netic referents (language-based or rebus writing). promised land (an island in Lake Texcoco that was At times the glyphs carried multiple meanings and located at the center of present-day Mexico City). functioned in more than one capacity. Thetlacuilo - Soon after settling on this site, the Mexica quarreled. que were generally men and often passed down their 2 Rajagopalan_5408_BK.indd 2 7/23/18 2:29 PM Introduction skills from father to son. They produced painted In the aftermath of the conquest, Cortés destroyed manuscripts in temples and palaces and used them in the religious structures of the former city as he a variety of circumstances and settings. The manu- rebuilt on its ruins, ordering that “the temples be scripts were not bound books (codices in the true demolished, the idols broken, the city razed, and the sense of the word) but were painted on hide, paper, canals filled in.”6 Although the role of the tlacuiloque and cloth. They frequently took the form of a screen- probably continued in areas outside the city center, fold or accordion-style document. Thetlacuiloque the social structure that supported the artist-scribes were often the primary users of the books that they in Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco had been irrevocably painted, interpreting them for audiences that desired altered. access to the historical, calendric, economic, social, Few manuscripts could have survived the whole- and religious information contained therein. Painted sale destruction that the Spaniards visited upon the histories of the Mexica migration were not created capital of the Mexica Empire, and those that did as static, unchanging records but as visual anchors would have been subjected to a new force of opposi- that partnered with a vibrant oral history tradition. tion in the persons of the arriving mendicant friars. Later alphabetic records of these oral accounts sug- The first friars, including Pedro de Gante, arrived in gest that trained orators honored the crucial thrust Mexico in 1523. A group of twelve Franciscan friars of the narrative but adapted it to suit their audience. arrived in 1524, followed by the Dominicans in 1525, They could, for example, emphasize or expand cer- and the Augustinians in 1533. Like Diego de Landa tain aspects of the history or delight their audience in Yucatan, Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of by inventing dialogic exchanges between long-dead Mexico, sought to destroy indigenous manuscripts. ancestors. Even some Nahua participated in the destruction Though some pre-Hispanic manuscripts still of the emblems of their former cosmology as they seemed to be circulating in the sixteenth century, embraced Christianity. As Durán writes, “The Chris- many were destroyed during the Spanish conquest tian religion began to grow and the Indians took to it (1519–1521). As Dominican friar Diego Durán with love and willingness. After the Christian fathers described in his historical account, the Spanish had preached to them, they began to abandon their conquest of Mexico ended in 1521 with a long and idols. They broke them, mocked them, stepped on drawn-out battle fought against the fiercely resistant them, and demolished the cúes [temples] where these inhabitants of the city and their ruler Cuauhtemoc. images had been.” Religious opposition, coupled with Although Hernando Cortés ordered the Spanish con- the pestilence and poverty that ensued after the con- quistadors and their allies to release all captives after quest, severely undermined the surviving tlacuiloque.7 his victory, the city had been devastated. As Durán Nonetheless, oral histories continued to be reports: recounted, tlacuiloque continued to produce painted manuscripts, and cultural narratives like the Mexica The dead on that day were over forty thousand migration story continued to circulate among Nahua men and women, who, rather than fall into the intellectuals in central Mexico. Although Spanish hands of the Spaniards, knowing of the cruel death Christian hostility toward native manuscripts per- they could meet at the hands of those men and sisted to greater and lesser degrees throughout the their Indian allies, threw themselves and their sixteenth century, indigenous and mestizo tlacuilo- children into the canals.

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