The people who the Spanish called Aztecs actually called themselves Mexica. Those who ruled the valley of Mexico from the amazing complex of Tenochtitlan were most likely descended from nomadic people who came from northern Mexico. Records are not clear as to how and when the Mexica gained full control over the Valley of Anáhuac because, of course, even pictorial histories favor the societies who create them. Their stronghold was created through alliances with enemies through marriage and conquest of peoples with less military prowess. They gained power through a strategic geographic location in the vicinity of Lake Texcoco, which they turned into a place of ingenuity as far as engineering was concerned with canals and aqueducts created with architectural expertise. Gaining power through membership in the Triple Alliance with neighboring altepetls Texcoco and Tlacopan, they ruled the valley for a good two hundred years pre-Conquest. This was a considerable blink of an eye in comparison with many other empires throughout history of the same stature.

                The Aztec empire had many tributaries as both the Codex Mendoza and the Lienzo de Quauhquequechollan demonstrate. This was the main feat for the Mexica, expansion of empire and collection of tribute. Tribute fueled the fire of empire and allowed it to expand. The Mexica believed in the cosmological forces that their gods possessed. Time was thought of as cyclical, civilizations rose and fell and the future may be told by the supposed appearance of prophecies. This belief could be tied to the downfall of the empire under the superstitions of Montezuma II. But it is too naïve to attribute the downfall of an empire to the superstitions of a king. The fact is that the Mexica saw the cosmos and the world in a completely different way than could possibly be understood to those who were not Mexica. Perhaps this is why they were led astray when the Spanish came and “conquered” them under the word of God and the King.

After the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish expanded their quest to the south. Sometimes they took along “allies” like the Quauhquecholteca. Often the Spanish betrayed their alliances and the end result was vast subjugation of indigenous peoples in the colonial times through the present day. The Spanish attempted to the favor of the indigenous nobility by giving them positions of power like caciques who constantly tried to forge power through Spanish outlets like legal documents, but also through pictorial images that lay claims to territory such as the Mapa de Tolcayuca. So, indigenous people were taken “under the wings” of the Spanish clergy, were encouraged to first draw their memories and histories, then taught to write in Nahuatl, and then converted to Spanish. But the indigenous people did not completely lose their identities. They were fused into a new, hybrid, and complex one. On the outside, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica may have lost their past, but they did not completely lose themselves or their beliefs and traditions.

As stated above, this cartographic history shows the detailed travels of the Quauhquecholteca people in relation to their alliance with the Spaniards during and after the conquest of Tenochtitlan. It would be difficult to attempt to translate each detail of this work in the space provided here. So I will just comment on a few things that stick out in relation to my studies. This lienzo combines figures that are both European and indigenous in origin, with little writing. As many Mesoamerican documents before, this huge pictorial representation was meant to be orally and visually interpreted. The person who was interpreting the image would know where to accentuate meaning.

                The image that sticks out most is the left center, two men embracing. In the interpretive timeline on the website where I obtained this source the image is entitled, “Two Eagles Embrace.” One eagle represents the Spanish and the other their indigenous allies, one equipped with a wooden weapon and the other with steal. Malinche is seen behind Cortes, accepting the embrace and partnership with the leader of the Quauhquecholtecs. Cortes holds a red flag in his hand which is passed on to Alvarado and is seen throughout the lienzo. Below the white horse are pictographs that represent different towns. Although these are not to scale, they represent boundaries. The shield under the eagles is Quauhquequechollan and the towns surrounding it represent boundaries that are not as important as their territory. This side of the lienzo represents the conquests in Mexico, the water that borders the left and bottom sides is supposed to be the ocean. A band of Spanish and indigenous conquerors follow an artificial route paved with footprints and hoof prints that is led by Jorge de Alvarado to Guatemala on the right side.

                The right side of the lienzo depicts the seemingly chaotic and tumultuous struggles that the Quauhquecholtecs went through with the Spaniards. There are many battles along the road and through time. Most of them involving indigenous people and Spanish, side by side against the Kaqchikel and other indigenous forces in present-day Guatemala. It is remarkable that so many places and battles were depicted in one piece. This lienzo could have been used to tell the story of the brave ancestors who fought alongside the Spanish conquerors, perhaps, in their view, as equals. The numerous place glyphs along the way could be interpreted to the public through words to show their military skill and power. These people fought alongside those who conquered their conquerors.

Florine Asselbergs posits in her book Conquered Conquistadores that this piece was actually created by the warriors who took part in this conquest. If this is the case, this lienzo is largely a political tool, as cartographic representations have been throughout history. The indigenous conquistadores would have used this to gain status in their community and as a means to justify their alliance with the Spanish. Who eventually hung them out to dry as both Pedro and Jorge de Alvarado took credit for and reaped the benefits of the conquest of Guatemala. They then took control of the indigenous in the area. Who knows how many of those were actually resettled Quauhquecholtecs. Like Malinche, they were used as guides of sorts and then married off and sent in a metaphorical ship across the ocean. This lienzo represents not only passages through space and time of a historically conquered people, but their attempt to claim a piece of what they shed blood for.

Mapa de Tolcayuca

Jumping ahead a century or so we find the Mapa de Tolcayuca. This piece, although painted a long time after the Conquest, bears striking similarities to the Lienzo de Quauhquequechollan. The town depicted in this unconventional map was located in the state of Hidalgo, northeast of Mexico City. Although this was made well after conquest, it does appeal to methods that were used in mapas centuries before. The town whose territory is defined by footprints is at the center of the map. These footprints pass through neighboring towns that maybe did not exist before this map was made and perhaps usurped their territory. This may not be its exact geographic location, but this puts emphasis on its importance. Each town is represented by a church and box shaped buildings, but San Juan Tolcayuca is the only one that has people in it. There are three glyph like images with blue in the center that are meant to represent water and triangular shapes spread throughout the piece that may represent pyramids or places that are sacred, indicated by the cross next to some of them. There are also hills that are drawn to border the piece on the both sides. These go against the view we are used to in western maps. They seem to be drawn sideways acting more as a protective border than a landmark.

The figures in the center of the town are a padre and a cacique sitting around a table with a group of indigenous women gathered around them, seated on the ground. In her essay “Female Town Founders, Female Town Defenders: Women and Gender in the Kislak Techialoyans of Late Colonial Mexico,” Stephanie Wood theorizes that these women played a greater role in the indigenous community than history has let on. As the role of the cacique undoubtedly is there to tie the indigenous lineage back to the foundation of the town, why are the women included in the presence of these important members of the community? If the text describes the town’s founding as purported by the dates, that “would always be verified”, were the women in the community important witnesses? This is a question that remains to be answered and may be as indecipherable as some of the glyphs presented on other Mesoamerican documents.

Maybe the makers of this “survey” map held on to the ideas of their predecessors just as the creators of the two other documents did a few centuries before. Although women were not central in Mexica society, there were some known female caciques. Especially before the dominant Aztec state enveloped smaller, egalitarian communities with stricter gender roles. The layout of the map also goes against European norms, as mentioned before, the mountains or hills encase the community vertically on their sides and people are drawn in to the land, as well as off-scale hills and bodies of water. Furthermore, the map fits political purpose. It was apparently drawn as a survey, but was drawn with the emphasized town at the center with important members of the community performing an outdoor public meeting. The map is not just a map, it has many interpretations.

To end at the cyclical beginning, I will attempt to decipher some of the meanings behind the images of folio 2r of the Codex Mendoza (a pictographic description of the founding of Tenochtitlan). Perhaps the image that stands out the most, and remains on the flag of the Republic of Mexico today, is a legend passed down from an Aztec myth. They were told to build a city on the site where an eagle perched upon a cactus coming out of a rock. The serpent may have been added by following generations. Either way, this image symbolizes myth, the creation of, and the physical place of Tenochtitlan. The ten figures surrounding the eagle are probably the city’s founders, each one with a name marked on their bodice. If this had not created for European eyes, it would not have been necessary. The one with black body paint is apparently Tenuch, the main founder.

                The Mexica features represented by the crossing of four waterways are likely representations of the four sections of the city. According to sixteenth century sources, the glyphs in them may represent a temple and the skull is probably a skull rack. The four sections may all stand for the four corners of the world described in the Chicimec myth of the four arrows shot by the warrior Xolotl, which would be subsequently conquered by great leaders. The scenes at the bottom of the page depict conquest with place glyphs describing the places being conquered, again, defined above the glyph by alphabetic writing. The border of the page is surrounded with a repetition of four images, each with a different number of circles surrounding them. Rabbit, Flint Knife, Reed, and House were symbols for years in the Aztec calendar. According to David Carrasco, the number of years repeated after each thirteen year cycle. There are fifty-two years in this image which would account for four cycles.

                Aside from the obvious European influence through slightly European bodily representations and writing, this image represents many values held dear to the Mexica people. It is balanced, with the main focus on the site of Tenochtitlan. It tells the story of its founding through a genealogical example, as well as it’s the Mexica driving force of conquest and, consequently, tribute. The cycle years are not linear, the last of the years ends closest to the first. This could not have been understood by the European viewer. Although the codex was hastily produced for the King of Spain, the images that it details did turn out to be a valuable source for Mexica history. Especially since most of their previous examples had been destroyed by the same people who were incorporating western letters into their forms of communication that were thought to have been “books,” invaluable with the word.

While all of the representations I describe here were made post-Conquest, they provide a link to a different kind of understanding of the “reading” of documents. They shed light on the many translations of “writing” and how it should not be restrained to a narrow perspective that places everything in a box or “book” that is limited by words. Just as oral histories and ethnographies provide a vantage point not offered by the conventional history book, the documents that force us to “read” between the “lines” are ever valuable. They offer a chance to discover that meaning and learning are not something to be found only in the halls of academia or in a word or in a book. Conversely, academia should open its respective eyes and see that knowledge and “development” are not limited to the confining corners of western thought. It is the communication of those ideas, whether in words or in images yet to be understood, that results in growth.