Tlacaelel`s Descendants and the Authorship of the "Historia Mexicana"`

Stephen A . Colston
Tlacaelel's Descendants
and the Authorship
of the "Historia Mexicana"'
Fray Diego Duran (1537 ? - 1588 ? ) e s c r i b i ó su " H i s toria "basada en un manuscrito e s c r i t o en Nahuatl al
cual el cronista s e r e f e r í a c o m o la " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a na" . La posición heroica que l a " Historia" atribuye al
Cihuacoatl. T l a c a e l e l , dentro del m a r c o de la historia
de los Tenochca claramente pertenece al c a r á c t e r p a r tisano de la " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " . Aunque la identidad
del autor de la " h i s t o r i a mexicana" s e queda d e s c o n o c i d a , es probable que esta historia Nahuatl fuera e s crito p o r uno de los numerosos descendientes de T l a caelel.
T l a c a e l e l (1398 ? - 1487 ? ) , the Cihuacoatl (or principal advisor)of the T e nochca rulers f r o m Motecuhzoma I to Ahuitzotl (1), e m e r g e s f r o m the pages
of Duran's " H i s t o r i a " as c l e a r l y the greatest figure in Mexica history (2). Indeed, much of that chronicle assumes the nature of T l a c a e l e l ' s biography
rather than a history of Tenochtitlan. Duran r e v e a l s the reason his " H i s t o r i a " enumerated the feats of Tlacaelel so extensively: his m a j o r s o u r c e ( a nonymously written and regrettably l o s t ) , which he r e f e r s to as the " h i s t o ria m e x i c a n a " , " m a d e long mention" of the importance of Tlacaelel in T e nochca history (Duran 1967,11: 573). In f a c t , s o highly does the " h i s t o r i a m e xicana" p r a i s e Tlacaelel that he a s s u m e s the qualities of an idealized f i g * T h e author wishes to e x p r e s s his gratitude to P r o f e s s o r H . B . N i c h o l s o n of
the University of California, L o s Angeles, f o r his helpful c r i t i c i s m s of an
earlier version of this paper.
69
u r e , placing all individuals, including the Tenochca r u l e r s ,
of his omnipotence (3).
in the shadow
Although there is no c o n c r e t e evidence which might explain the p a r t i s a n ship of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " , 1 concur with Nicholson (1964: 1409) that
the most probable explanation is that the author of this history was a d e scendant of T l a c a e l e l (4). Certainly, there is a well-known historical p r e cedent of familial glorification in the mestizo Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's
attempt to further his own position through the exaltation of his T e t z c o c a n
ancestors,
Other than their genealogies, s c a r c e l y little m o r e is known of T l a c a e l e l ' s
descendants, the notable exception being his g r a n d s o n , T l a c o t z i n . The " C r ó nica Mexicayotl" (CM), which has been variously attributed most recently
to T e z o z o m o c by León (CM 1 9 4 9 : " I n t r o d u c c i ó n " ) a n d t o T e z o z o m o c a n d C h i malpahin by Kirchhoff (1951: 225 - 227), contains the most detailed g e n e a l ogical account of T l a c a e l e l ' s descendants extending to three generations
(counting f r o m the f i r s t generation of niiestizo descendants) following the
Conquest (CM : 122-130), A modicum of genealogical information is also
found in Duran's " H i s t o r i a " (II: 369, 573). Y e t , these s o u r c e s by no means
contain material pertaining to all the p o s s i b l e candidates f o r the putative d e scendant-author of the " historia mexicana" . Of the eighty-three children r e portedly fathered by T l a c a e l e l (CM:129), only seventeen are known by name
(CM : 122 and passim); additionally, genealogical data is found f o r only two
(Cacamatzin and Tlilpotoncatzin, CM : 122-127) and dates a r e sadly wanting
f o r all known children and their known descendants.
While ascribing the authorship of the " h i s t o r i a mexicana" to a particular
individual of T l a c a e l e l ' s lineage is futile in the f a c e of available historical
r e s o u r c e s , Duran's "Historia" and the CM at least suggest s e v e r a l clues as
to his p o s s i b l e relationship to T l a c a e l e l . S i n c e the " h i s t o r i a mexicana" was
" w r i t t e n " in Nahuatl (Duran, 11:158, 175), the earliest probable terminus
post quem of that document would be c . 1531, allowing time f o r an a d o l e s cent o r adult Indian at the time of the Conquest to acquire a functional knowledge of the Roman alphabet, while the terminus ant¿ quem fell no later than
1579-1581, the time during which t h e " H i s t o r i a " was c o m p o s e d ( 5 ) . This
would suggest that the author of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " could have been any
one of T l a c a e l e l ' s descendants beginning with his grandchildren (the " g e n e r a t i o n " of T l a c o t z i n , the Cihuaco^tl at the time of the Conquest), s i n c e one
can assume that most - if not all - of his children, who were presumably
born during the first half of the fifteenth century (considering T l a c a e l e l ' s
birth date of c . 1398), had died b e f o r e the arrival of the Spaniards.
Duran noted that the person who wrote the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " was "un
indio "(II: 546) .There a r e two possibilities which can explain the c h r o n i c l e r ' s
use of this word. Either Duran knew the author to be an Indian, which would
then exclude T l a c a e l e l ' s mestizo descendants beginning with his g r e a t - g r e a t grandchildren (CM : 123-127), o r he assumed the author to be an Indian s i n c e
the text of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " was written in Nahuatl. Judging f r o m the
70
number of T l a c a e l e l ' s known mestizo descendants, it is certainly p o s s i b l e
that the enigmatic author of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " may well have been a
mestizo who, like Alva Ixtlilxochitl, wrote a history in Nahuatl glorifying
his Indian f o r b e a r .
The author of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " may have stated his relationship to
Tlacaelel in his manuscript, although such information was not r e c o r d e d in
the " H i s t o r i a " by Duran. Perhaps the author did not include this data b e cause his relationship to T l a c a e l e l may have been s o widely known that f u r ther r e f e r e n c e s to his filiation would not s e e m n e c e s s a r y .
All that can be presently said of the author of the " h i s t o r i a mexicana"
must, of c o u r s e , remain speculative, save that his identity is unknown. O n ly the fruits of future archival r e s e a r c h will afford us the opportunity to shed
light on the mystery surrounding this figure and s p e c i f i c a l l y define his r e lationship to T l a c a e l e l .
NOTES
(1) While Duran (1967,11:369) and T e z o z o m o c ( 1 8 7 8 : 5 5 8 ) place T l a c a e l e l ' s
death early in the reign of Ahuitzotl (1486-1502), T o v a r (1878: 67) r e c o r d s his passing as immediately following the a c c e s s i o n of Axayacatl
(1469).
(2) A brief biography of T l a c a e l e l was sketched by von Winning (1964) who,
following L e ó n - P o r t i l l a ( e . g . , 1966), advances the Cihuacoatl's l a r g e r than-life attributes.
(3) The c h r o n i c l e s of T o v a r , A c o s t a , T e z o z o m o c (" C r ó n i c a Mexicana") and
Duran, all related ultimately to a c o m m o n s o u r c e which was partisan to
T l a c a e l e l (Dyckerhoff 1970: 17, 19; Colston 1 9 7 3 : 6 5 - 7 2 ) , are the only
s o u r c e s which a s c r i b e to the Cihuacoatl this exalted r o l e . That such d e scriptions of T l a c a e l e l ' s h e r o i c status are found in no other p r o s e o r p i c torial s o u r c e (discounting the single r e f e r e n c e in Chimalpahin's " Annales" to T l a c a e l e l as "the C o n q u e r o r of the W o r l d " ) suggests the e x a g g e r ated ascriptions of these four c h r o n i c l e s .
(4) Dyckerhoff ( 1 9 7 0 : 2 9 ) , following B a r l o w (1945 : 73 and passim) and equating the hypothetical " C r ó n i c a X " with the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " (the v a lidity of which I question in C o l s t o n , 1974), has proposed that the author
of Duran's principal s o u r c e may have been an individual who was not d i rectly related to T l a c a e l e l but was a son of Motecuhzoma X o c o y o t z i n ,
Don P e d r o de Motecuhzoma Tlacahuepantzin. Y e t , had the author been
Don P e d r o o r any m e m b e r of the tlatoani line, one would expect g r e a t e r
emphasis to have been a c c o r d e d to the deeds of the second M o t e c u h z o ma (rather than Tlacaelel) than appears to have been presented - via Duran - in the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " . F o r Durán's faithful rendering of the
contents of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " , s e e Colston (1974).
(5) A m o r e detailed d i s c u s s i o n of the dating of the " h i s t o r i a m e x i c a n a " a p pears in Colston (1973 : 6 2 - 6 5 ) .
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