Tenochtitlan – Tlatelolco relations

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Tenochtitlan – Tlatelolco relations
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     Tenochtitlan      Tlatelolco

The Mexica people of the Pre-Columbian Valley of Mexico were divided politically into the two altepetl (states) of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. Their citizens were known as the Tenochca and the Tlatelolca, respectively. Tenochtitlan – Tlatelolco relations were marked by mutual antagonism throughout their history, culminating in war in 1473.

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[edit] Founding and split

Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325; the Tlatelolca separated from Tenochtitlan and founded their own altepetl in 1337. Both obtained ruling dynasties from more well-established and prestigious altepetl: the Tenochca dynasty was descended from the rulers of Culhuacan, while the Tlatelolca dynasty had its origins in Azcapotzalco.

Very perverse were those who then thus settled [there]. The Tlatelolca were evil, very bad-tempered. Their grandsons are now like that, they live like evil ones.

– Crónica Mexicayotl[1]

Tenochtitlan went on to dominate much of the region as the head of the Aztec Empire.

[edit] War

The defeat of Tlatelolco, from the Codex Mendoza.
The defeat of Tlatelolco, from the Codex Mendoza.
Main article: Battle of Tlatelolco (1473)

In 1473, the Tlatelolca ruler Moquihuixtli planned to overthrow Tenochtitlan, soliciting support from several other altepetl. Notable among Moquihuixtli's allies was Xilomantzin, the ruler of Culhuacan. Word of the plot got to Axayacatl, the ruler of Tenochtitlan, who preemptively attacked Tlatelolco. Both Moquihuixtli and Xilomantzin died as a result, and were replaced by Tenochca-appointed quauhtlatoque.

Subsequent Nahuatl histories accuse Moquihuixtli of inappropriate sexual behavior, possibly as propaganda. According to Emily Umberger, his ashes may have been buried in Tenochtitlan near the Coyolxauhqui Stone, which depicts a female god dismembered and decapitated.[2]

[edit] Colonial period

Antagonism between the Tenochca and Tlatelolca continued after their incorporation into New Spain. For example, the description of the Spanish conquest in the Florentine Codex — a significant historical source on the Mexica — is notably biased towards Tlatelolco, depicting the Tenochca as cowardly.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Chimalpahin (1997): vol. 1, p. 109.
  2. ^ Umberger (2008): p. 99–101.
  3. ^ Lockhart [1993]: p. 30.

[edit] References

Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón (1997). Codex Chimalpahin, tr. and ed. by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder, Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press. 
Lockhart, James [1993]. We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. 
Umberger, Emily (2008). "Ethnicity and Other Identities in the Sculptures of Tenochtitlan", Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, pp. 64–104.