Aztecs gone astray: Some input from Chimalpahin

Wed Feb 25 14:58:16 UTC 2009

Dear colleagues,

To avoid prolonging the debate with Michel Oudijk unnecessarily, I would
like to share a couple of passages with him and with you that have direct
bearing on Aztec use of the term 'Azteca' and on the elusiveness of
Aztlan, Chicomoztoc, and Colhuacan.

For convenience, and since Michel recommended that I educate myself by
reading "Schroeder", something I am always happy to do, I will quote only
from one of Susan Schroeder's excellent publications, the 'Codex
Chimalpahin' (Vol. 1, U. of Okla. Press, 1997), which she ably edited and
translated together with Arthur J. O. Anderson. For the sake of brevity, I
will cite only the English translation, since the Spanish and Nahuatl
originals are easily located on the opposing pages:

First (p. 29):
    "Thus this most illustrious, great city of Mexico Tenochtitlan was
named [by] the first ancient, old, brave founders. They were a most
robust, wise, and warlike people named Teochichimeca, Azteca, Mexitin,
Chicomozteca, people of Quinehuayan. Having emerged and come from
their land in the north, called the great province and island of the
city of Aztlan, they then came out at the site of Chicomoztoc or the
Seven Caves, ... . When they left their land, they were formed of
seven barrios. ... They arrived in Culhuacan, which is next to
Itztapalapan."

Here Aztlan and Chicomoztoc are both (separate) sites from which the
Azteca "emerged", and Colhuacan is identified as the city south of
Tenochtitlan. The story of the migration is left out almost entirely and,
on their arrival in Colhuacan, we find ourselves suddenly in 1299!

Then (p. 67, quoting Alonso Franco):
    "When the Chichimeca Azteca came forth, when they emerged from their
home in Aztlan, it was the year One Flint, 1064. ...
    (p. 69) Their home was the place called Aztlan; hence their name is
Azteca. And the second name of their home was Chicomoztoc. And their
names were Azteca and also Mexitin. But now their name is really said
to [be] only Mexica. And later they arrived here taking as their name
Tenochca.
    And from the place named Aztlan in the midst of the waters came the
Mexica; from there the seven calpulli [groups] departed.
    ... He who was ruler there was named Moteucc,oma. There were two sons
of this ruler. ... The elder brother, whose name is not known, was to
be ruler of the Cuexteca. And to the younger brother, a Mexica, called
just Mexi [though] named Chalchiuhtlatonac, he gave the Mexitin. ..."

Here we have something for Michel. An instance in which, indisputably, we
have mention of non-Mexica as Azteca. The Cuexteca are usually taken to be
the Maya-speaking Huaxtecs, but I think it is more likely that the
Huaxteca Nahua are intended here. So the Aztecs did indeed regard certain
other groups as descending, like they themselves, from Aztlan. Franco
provides the useful clarification that the Azteca Mexitin have two homes,
Aztlan island and Chicomoztoc.

Franco goes on:
    "And the Mexitin thereupon performed penances there at the place named
Quinehuayan Tzotzompan. ...
    And to perform the penances they came in boats to cross the water and
laid down their fir branches there at the aforesaid place called
Quinehuayan. A cave is there, called Chicomoztoc, whence the seven
Mexitin calpulli issued.
    And when the said Teochichimeca Azteca Mexitin issued from what is
called and named Quinehuayan Chicomoztoc, they brought what was in
their keeping, their bundle.
    (p. 71) And there at Quinehuayan, what was named Chicomoztoc was a
crag hollowed [with] caves in seven places. ..."

Seven calpoltin set out from Aztlan, then cross over to the mainland,
where after performing penances the seven calpoltin "issue" anew from the
seven-part cave of Chicomoztoc in Quinehuayan seven years later (p. 73).

Franco's Nahuatl account continues (p. 71):
    "And when the Azteca Mexitin had crossed the water from Aztlan they
reached Culhuacan. On that way they took the devil, the portent
Huitzilopochtli, there. As they came, as they arrived hither when they
emerged from the seven places in Aztlan, they brought a woman named
Chimalman.
    And as the Azteca set out from Culhuacan there were four who on their
backs carried the portent Huitzilopochtli ... .
    And when they reached the foot of a tree [also a place name, Cuahuitl
Itzintlan, GW], they therefore seated themselves at its base. ... the
Azteca Mexitin spent four more years there ... ."

Franco is referring to Chicomoztoc when he speaks of the "seven places in
Aztlan", that is, to Aztlan Chicomoztoc (or Aztlan Aztatlan "the abode of
herons", as he also calls it; see p. 73), not the island of Aztlan. It is
unclear whether he then equates Chicomoztoc with Colhuacan, as the
mountain containing the seven caves of Chicomoztoc, or is simply saying
that after crossing from Aztlan island, the Azteca went on from (Aztlan)
Chicomoztoc to Colhuacan. I prefer the first alternative, but it can go
either way as written.

Then (p. 73):
    "And then and there he [Huitzilopochtli, GW] changed the Aztecas' name
for them. He said to them: Now no longer is your name Azteca: you are
now Mexitin."

And summing up (p. 75):
    "In the year Twelve Reed, 1075, when the ancient Mexitin Azteca
Chichimeca had spent seven years in Quinehuayan Chicomoztoc, they then
also emerged from Chicomoztoc; hence they are called Chicomoztoca.
Then they moved hither. ... it was twelve years after they had emerged
from their home in Aztlan that in the aforesaid Twelve Reed they then
came away and traveled hither from the aforesaid Quinehuayan
Chicomoztoc. It is thus that the ancient Azteca Mexitin Chichimeca
emerged from Aztlan, ..."

Getting back to what Michel wrote the other day: "it is very clear that
the Aztecs came from Aztlan and that the other eight groups did not".
The eight groups he is referring to are the ones named in the Codex Aubin
and the Tira de la Peregrinacion. Among them are the Malinalca. Now let's
see what Chimalpahin says (p. 181):

The year One Flint, 1064. At this time the Mexitin Azteca Teochichimeca,
now known as Tenochca, as Tlatelolca, as Malinalca, and as Michhuaque,
people of Patzcuaro, emerged from their home, Aztlan."

So, as Chimalpahin himself says, the Malinalca were Azteca! He doesn't
list the others, and the Michhuaque do not appear in all other accounts,
but the thrust of the passage is clear: The Azteca were not just
Mecitin/Mexitin/Mexica. They included other peoples. In the case of the
Michhuaque, I suspect the Nahua-speaking Michhuaque of the Patzcuaro area
are meant, not the Purhepecha/Tarascans.

I interpret the Aztlan myth cycle as an explanatory device by means of
which the Mexica were able to order their ethnic universe and landscape.
This device made it possible for the average Aztec to understand how the
various distinct Nahua peoples came into being. At the same time, it
provided a rationale for the Aztec Empire under a Mexica government,
because it places the Azteca squarely under Mexitin control and guidance.
According to this model, the Cuexteca and the Michhuaque, two distant
groups, should by right belong to the Empire because they are no more than
errant Azteca -- Aztecs gone astray.

Best wishes to all,
Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gordon Whittaker
Professor
Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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