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Tlacaelel Remembered
Mastermind of the Aztec Empire
By Susan Schroeder UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Copyright © 2016 University of Oklahoma Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-5434-3
CHAPTER 1
THE MAN, THE OFFICE, AND THE DEITY
THE SOURCES
They came once again to pay their respects to Moteuczoma and Tlacaelel.
Alvarado Tezozomoc
The president of the kingdom, Tlacaelel, was distinguished by the title of the Cihuacoatl. Cihuacoatl means president and chief judge.
Chimalpahin
The goddess Cihuacoatl was made of stone. She had a huge, open mouth and ferocious teeth.
Durán
THE MAN
To realize the historic Tlacaelel is something of a challenge. Most important, certainly, is coming to know the man versus the deity. His name, Tlacaelel, identifies the man, although, as noted, there is a suggestion of mythmaking or apotheosis in the sources when one considers all that he reportedly accomplished during his lifetime. Moreover, at least one author claimed that Tlacaelel lived to the improbable age of 120, when it is more likely that he died at 90. That he was mortal — to the extent that we can validate the existence of any precontact human figure — is evidenced by his birth record; his affiliation with the Mexica royal dynasty over the course of five rulerships; his close relationship with his half brother, King Moteuczoma Ilhuicamina (r. 1440–69), and his interest in the king's heirs and his own wives and children; his profound dedication to developing and celebrating the majesty of Mexico Tenochtitlan; his desire for lucre; his piety; his avarice; his cruelties; his cannibalism; and the generations of heirs who continued his legacy.
THE MAN AND THE OFFICE
Tlacaelel bore the cognomen of "Cihuacoatl" (Female Serpent), a title of office that came to signify the most prestigious political position in the realm and was second in standing only to that of the king. Chimalpahin repeatedly refers to Tlacaelel the Cihuacoatl as the "President of the Supreme Council," "chief judge," "great president," and "king and emperor like his brother." He added that Tlacaelel "gloried in being called [the] Cihuacoatl, and it remained consecrated as the highest title and rank in the world after that of emperor." Fray Bernardino de Sahagún described the Cihuacoatl as the "ruler's vicar," and Alvarado Tezozomoc wrote that he was a "second king." Although the title reportedly appears elsewhere, by Tlacaelel's time it was a position tailored for him based on his audacity, influence, and accomplishments. With Tlacaelel as the Cihuacoatl, the office ostentatiously became fundamental to the optimal operation of the Mexica state. Even Sahagún lists the Cihuacoatl first among titled lords (teuctlatoque) serving the king.
Tlacaelel took the title during the early years of the rule of his half brother Moteuczoma, when the king became emperor and Tlacaelel "had himself named perpetual Cihuacoatl": solely he and his descendants subsequently enjoyed the esteem and benefits of the office of the Cihuacoatl. Their legacy endured well into the seventeenth century. It was even earlier, however, under his uncle King Itzcoatl (r. 1427–40), that Tlacaelel began to acquire his office and titles. His first title was the Atempanecatl, bestowed for his ingenuity and prowess after he almost singlehandedly made his way behind the enemy lines of the Tepaneca of Azcapotzalco and brought down Maxtlaton (r. 1410–26), their king. The Mexica had been subordinate to the Tepaneca, and, making matters worse, under the aegis of Maxtlaton the Tepaneca and Tlacopaneca had killed King Chimalpopoca (r. 1415–26), the third dynastic ruler of Mexico Tenochtitlan. Tlacaelel distinguished himself by being sly and brave. Afterward, he had much to do with the reorganization of the Tepaneca altepetl, shifting its headquarters to Tlacopan. This conquest was a turning point in Mexica history, leading to the confederation of the large, influential altepetl of Tetzcoco, to the east, a tertiary Tlacopan in the west, and Tlatelolco-Tenochtitlan in the center, along with the inexorable imperial pretensions of their kings. Soon thereafter, Tlacaelel also became the Tlacochcalcatl (Person at the Armory) of Mexico Tenochtitlan, the man in charge of the weaponry and certain military affairs for the Mexica. The office was granted after Tlacaelel and the Mexica returned from a successful campaign of conquest against Coyoacan. His brother, Moteuczoma Ilhuicamina, became the Tlacateccatl (People-Lord).
These two titles in particular, the Tlacateccatl and the Tlacochcalcatl, distinguished the leaders in military affairs, and most if not all Mexica tlatoque held one office or the other before assuming the throne. Sahagún noted, "Is not one a nobleman? Is not one a warrior? Is not one a military Tlacatecutli, one a Tlacochtecutli? ... who provide drink, who give offerings to the sun." In view of his royal affiliation and battlefield experience, it was fitting that Tlacaelel would hold the Tlacochcalcatl office. It is assumed that he relinquished the position when he became the Cihuacoatl. And it was not untypical for military titles to pass from father to son, as was the case in later years. For example, Çaca the elder the Tlacateccatl, son of Huitzilihuitl the younger and brother of Moteuczoma Ilhuicamina, was the Tlacateccatl while his brother ruled. His son, Tzontemoc, served as the Tlacateccatl during the reigns of Axayacatl and Ahuitzotl.
Another badge of honor came when Tlacaelel and the Mexica successfully conquered the long independent and resistant altepetl of Chalco in 1465. At that time Tlacaelel the Cihuacoatl also took the title of the Tlailotlacteuctli, the prestigious office of the kings of the Tenanca Chalca, Chimalpahin's own people, while likely allocating goods, women, workers, and sacrificial victims for himself from this distinguished polity. For many years, the Mexica and Chalca had maintained a reciprocal and autonomous existence, but it began to erode when Tenochtitlan initiated demands for timber and stone from Chalco. Yet, as discussed in chapter 3, Tlacaelel's primary wife and his daughters-in-law were Chalca. So his co-optation of a postconquest kingly title from there could only have added insult to injury. It should be noted, however, that the Tenanca Chalca rulers carried on as Tlailotlac lords well into the sixteenth century, in spite of the affront. Their office and status were confirmed by the viceroy, don Antonio de Mendoza (r. 1535–50), in the 1540s. The specific duties of the Tlailotlacteuctli are not stated.
Men with titles and offices served on the Mexica king's advisory council as judges, and eventually Tlacaelel the Cihuacoatl would chair this august body and occupy the position for decades. There was reportedly a Council of Four, of which the Cihuacoatl, the Tlacochcalcatl, and the Tlacateccatl were among the charter members along with the tlatoque from Tetzcoco and Tlacopan. The council could be expanded depending on the circumstances. Sahagún speaks of the deliberations of the council and the weighty responsibilities of titled judges. He states that as "great captains" they wore long labrets, leather earplugs, and headbands with two eagle-feather tassels to bind their hair. The Codex Mendoza documents with painted images selected titled personages, displaying respective title glyphs, cloaks, and headdresses. Military officers are shown wearing quetzal feather headdresses, an item also worn by Tlacaelel when he led troops into battle. It is here that we have a notion of the clothing of the Atempanecatl and the Tlacochcalcatl (Tlacaelel's first two offices), both represented as men in profile with the former displaying a title glyph with a lip, or "edge," that is surrounded by water on three sides. There is also a gloss in alphabetic characters, "atenpanecatl tecutli." The figure is without a headdress but wears a loincloth and a rust-colored cloak with a dark-red patterned border. He is barefoot (fig. 1). The Atempanecatl is described by Sahagún as a noble or general and one of the executioners who put to death individuals judged guilty of onerous crimes by the royal tribunal. In one representation the Tlacochcalcatl's title glyph depicts a palace with darts on the roof, and he wears a beautiful quetzal-feather headdress, a loincloth, and a burgundy-colored cloak with a white conch shell design. The cloak has a double border of a different color and design. And he too is barefoot (fig. 2).
But elsewhere, in a more elaborate painting, the Tlacochcalcatl is identified by the gloss "valiente tlacochcalcatl," his quetzal warrior insignia with a shield and spear, and a stunning uniform and headdress that is highly suggestive of an association with Tlacaelel. The headpiece is a skull with a gaping maw topped with plumes of quetzal feathers. The warrior suit is white with red stripes on the forearms and lower legs, and from a red and gold stripe across the chest dangles a pectoral of a liver. The liver, from the Nahuatl el-, is an essential element of Tlacaelel's name. The liver image, suggestive of both the man Tlacaelel and the deity Cihuacoatl — who is often depicted with a skull for a head and an open mouth and said to be ravenous for the human hearts that her human counterpart produced by the thousands — is in truth related to Tzitzimitl images and appears in various pictorial codices. It is perhaps coincidental that the liver image was a part of the Tlacochcalcatl warrior suit that in all probability was also worn by Tlacaelel (fig. 3).
THE DEITY
The deity Cihuacoatl was called the sister of Huitzilopochtli, the great god of Mexico.
In addition to the man and the office he held, a third aspect of Tlacaelel the Cihuacoatl relates to the deity Cihuacoatl. Sahagún's Tlatelolca informants were silent about the man, although there is an occasional reference to the office, notwithstanding that an entire book in the Florentine Codex is devoted to the topic of Nahua kings and lords. Rather, the all-important Cihuacoatl in the codex is the deity described as one of the "highest of the goddesses." It was Cihuacoatl who gave humans the digging-stick and the tumpline, which is to say work and hardship. Believed to be a prognosticator of war, she brought great misery and suffering, and for that reason there were many offerings and sacrifices on her feast day. She was clad in white and covered with chalk, "like a court lady," while wearing obsidian earplugs (figs. 4 and 5). Her appearance is described elsewhere in greater detail:
THE ARRAY OF CIHUACOATL
Her facial paint; the lips are painted with rubber; [her face] is half red, half black.
Her headdress of eagle feathers.
Her gold ear plugs.
On her is her evening primrose shift.
Her undershift has her fringes.
Her white skirt.
Her small bells.
Her sandals.
Her shield is covered with eagle feathers.
Her batten.
Perhaps most important, it was Cihuacoatl that Nahua midwives invoked during pregnancy and parturition. The goddess was an important agent in preserving the well-being of the mother, whether she was blessed with a healthy infant or suffered the agony of having her fetus dismembered in utero, but was also conjured if the mother died.
Moreover, Sahagún included a song about Cihuacoatl that emphasized her political and military attributes, surely deriving from her role as patron of Colhuacan, although eagle plumes, deer, and a war woman also appear in the lyrics:
The eagle
The eagle Quilaztli
With blood of serpents
Is her face circled
With feathers adorned
Eagle-plumed she comes
To sweep up the path
Chalmecan cypress
Colhuacanian
Fir tree of our sustenance
Corncob of the godly field
On rattle stick upraised
The spines
The thorns fill up my hand
The spines fill up my hand
Like corn of the godly field
Like rattle stick upraised
The broom fills up my hand
Like corn of godly field
On rattle stick upraised
Thirteen Eagle is our mother
Chalmecan lady
His shaft of cactus is his glory
May he sate me
He
My lord of cloud-snake land
Our mother
War woman
Our mother
War woman
Deer of Colhuacan
In plumage arranged
The sun proclaims the war
Let men be dragged away
It will forever end
Deer of Colhuacan
In plumage arrayed
Eagle plumes are no mask
For he rises unmasked
Possibly foretelling the arrival of the Spaniards and Mexica doom, during the reign of Moteuczoma Xocoyotl fray Bernardino de Sahagún states that Cihuacoatl "[the demon] went about weeping, at night. Everyone heard it wailing and saying: My beloved sons, now I am about to leave you." It is Durán, though, who has the most to say about Cihuacoatl. According to his sources, she was the principal deity in Xochimilco (and Colhuacan), although most major altepetl had temples in her honor. In Mexico Tenochtitlan, there was a large room at the top of her temple, "Tlillan," which was painted black, perhaps to emulate a cave, with images of all of the "gods of the land" lining the walls inside. No one was allowed to enter the room, other than the priests who occupied an antechamber and whose charge it was to guard the deities. The priests were covered with a black substance and were always available to keep a sacred fire burning in her honor. Her visage, made of stone, had a gaping mouth and huge teeth. Her hair was long and disheveled. Durán states too that she was outfitted in women's attire, all white (see fig. 5).
Cihuacoatl's feast day was Huey Tecuilhuitl, the eighteenth day of July, following Durán's calendar, and the eighth festivity of the Mexica liturgical year. A female slave was purchased and dressed as Cihuacoatl and feted during the celebration before her death. Called Xilonen, she was kept tipsy, presumably an anodyne in anticipation of her fate. Four captives were slain as well, and all five had their hearts extracted and their blood given as an offering, with some of it sprinkled on the stone idol. Fire sacrifice was incorporated into the gruesome ritual (fig. 6).
The community, outfitted in their finest attire and wearing jewels and feathers and carrying bouquets of flowers, celebrated with a festival lasting ten days. There were banquets with all manner of delectables, including chocolate, pinole, and pulque, all furnished by subject altepetl trying to outdo one another, the Chalca always being the first to provide what was required. In addition, a captive was sacrificed every eight days to nourish Cihuacoatl. Durán asserted that Cihuacoatl was so preeminent that as the "sister" of Huitzilopochtli her temple was adjacent to his and serviced as lavishly. Fray Diego, though, reported that in his time the ruins of her temple were thought to be haunted because of all the idols that had once inhabited the place. The natives continued to call the site Tlillan, while local boys thought of it as the "House of the Devil."
According to Ferdinand Anders, Maarten Jansen, and Luis Reyes García, the importance of Cihuacoatl in Mexica life and religious ritual can hardly be overstated. They have found Cihuacoatl to be the centerpiece of the New Fire ceremony as it was celebrated by the Mexica and as the deity and calendar cycle were depicted in the Códice Borbónico. Moreover, they have renamed the codex El libro del Ciuacoatl. Cihuacoatl's image appears at least six times in the book, with her signature skeletal maw, ornate shield of eagle feathers, and machete, as they describe it, held aloft in her right hand (fig. 7). The machete, or batten, reportedly is suggestive of weaving and her role as patron of women. She has long, dark, curly hair common to the images of malevolent creatures; a quetzal headdress distinct from that of the Tlacochcalcatl and others in that it has a row of hearts and a crest of banners (and as seen in the Tzitzimitl figures mentioned earlier); and long skirt that appears to combine features of leather back-aprons ending in shells with beautiful feather overlays. This image, or aspects thereof, depicts accoutrements familiar to several other deity representations. Initially, she is paired with Moteuczoma Xocoyotl, and her image is glossed "papa mayor," indicating her preeminence. Subsequent figures are avatars of her various religious functions. Most notable is Cihuacoatl standing on a tzompantli, "a skull-embellished platform," in front of a temple, ostensibly presiding over at least fourteen other deity representatives processing in a courtyard in her presence. Doubtless the temple is Tlillan and the gods the constituency housed therein as described by Durán. H. B. Nicholson, with Elizabeth Hill Boone in agreement, believes that the Codex Borbonicus likely originated in Colhuacan, where Cihuacoatl was the primary deity along with a strong emphasis on the New Fire ceremony.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Tlacaelel Remembered by Susan Schroeder. Copyright © 2016 University of Oklahoma Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
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