Calling attention to the French...

[Jerry Offner]

With regard to the post of 12 March, 2009, wherein Lee expresses continuing confidence in the article by published by Lee in Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl, volume 37, 2006, I have these comments.  
 
While 2001--the latest year for sources that Lee's cites in the ECN article of 2006--was a productive year for Lesbre with seven articles, through 2000 Lesbre had published seventeen articles plus reviews, and was not an obscure figure, especially when there were at the time only a handful of active Texcocan and Nezahualcoyotl specialists in the world.  Lesbre did publish by then in well known and available journals such as L'Homme and Journal de la Soci?t? des Am?ricanistes and these excellent pieces should have led to a rapid and thorough investigation by Lee.  Several key articles were published by 2000 and should have been consulted.  

I agree that people should read, for example, Lesbre's “Nezahualcoyotl entre historia, leyenda y divinizacion », Colloque international  El h?roe entre el mito y la historia, Mexico novembre 1998. Publi? dans El h?roe entre el mito y la historia, (Federico Navarrete, Guilhem Olivier eds), M?xico : CEMCA, UNAM, 2000, pp. 21-55, or his surpassingly subtle "Oublis et censures de l’historiographie acolhua coloniale : Nezahualcoyotl », C.M.H.L.B.Caravelle n°72 , Toulouse, Juin 1999, pp. 11-30, or his "Coyohua itlatollo : el ciclo de Coyohua », Latin American Indian Literatures Journal, vol. 16, n° 1, Penn State McKeesport, spring 2000, pp. 47-75 to determine which author does or does not  make authentic claims to knowledge regarding Nezahualcoyotl. 
 
Later works should also be consulted, such as:
 
"Nezahualcoyotl, portrait inhabituel d’un tlatoani pr?hispanique », Destins, destinations, destinataires. H?ros et images, Universit? de Nantes : Centre international des langues, 2001, pp. 16-28 and Lesbre's excellent, thought-provoking new article on leaf 2 of the Mappe Quinatzin in the latest ECN. 
 
This calls for a great deal of work as Lesbre is no quick read.  He  presents many ideas at once, requiring the reader to exercise patience and contemplation along the way.  
 
My objections to Lee's article do not rest only on the failure to include important research from Lesbre, although this is a significant matter and Lee's explanation is both odd to have been offered and insufficient.  They are generated by the lack of use of the key Texcocan pictorial historical manuscript, the Codex Xolotl in the analysis of early Texcocan history, misinterpretations of key pictorial pictorial information in the Codex de Xicotepec but especially in the Mappe Quinatzin, leaf 2 and leaf 3, and failure to link accurately and completely the content of these key pictorial documents to the alphabetic texts.  These are basic skills required to generate proper and genuine understanding in a researcher, prior to the researcher being able to generate responsible and accurate conclusions to present to the public. With a defective foundation, the conclusions reached have little probability of providing authentic information about Nezahualcoyotl and Texcoco. 
 
I will demonstrate the errors in handling the Mappe Quinatzin, leaf 2 and leaf 3 in one or two future posts—real world allowing--over the next two weeks. These can be handled in a brief manner suitable for this medium.  In the meantime, readers should record how many errors in basic interpretation of pictorial content and the relation of such content to alphabetic texts they can find in the single paragraph dealing mostly with the Mappe Quinatzin, leaf 3 that spans pages 246-47 of Lee's essay or in the paragraph dealing with the Mappe Quinatzin, leaf 2 on page 243.  



Jerry Offner
ixtlil at earthlink.net
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