Coatepec: the Great Temple of the Aztecs

Recreating a metaphorical state of dwelling

Santiago de Ordua

School of Architecture
McGill University
Montreal, February 2008
Coatepec: the Great Temple of the Aztecs
Recreating a metaphorical state of dwelling

A thesis submitted to McGill University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy.

Santiago de Ordua

School of Architecture
McGill University
Montreal, January 2008
To Camila, Marco and Antolina
Acknowledgments
This work intends to celebrate the being alive with the "other" as "oneself, or in Nahua
terms; it celebrates our existence among the others as coates, as the carnal twins we all
are.
Feeling infinitely grateful to many particular "others, I have to resume an otherwise
lengthy list:
To my teachers, Jorge Aguirre, Cristobal Acevedo and Jose Luis Barrios, for their
passion and their ideas; to Pedro Ramrez Vzquez and Octavio Paz for their craft and
writings; and specially to Alberto Prez-Gmez, whose work and life inspired me to
make the long journey.
To those who, with real concern, have made suggestions and comments on this work:
Ricardo Castro, David Boruchoff, David Covo, Louis Brillant, Marc Neveu, Christina
Contandriopoulous, Patrick Evans, David Leatherbarrow, Steve Parcell, Louise Pelletier,
Eli Friedman, Jennifer Carter, Juan Manuel Herdia, Alberto Prez-Gmez and Antolina
Ortiz.
I want also to express my gratitude to the administrative staff of the School of
Architecture, especially to Marcia King and Luciana Mukosia Adoyo for their help and
kindness.
My gratitude to CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa) for providing
me with financial means to realize this project.
Finally, to Antolina, for her strength and tenderness, for her patience and clarity, for her
love. To Marco and Camila, for providing meaning to my days on earth. To my mother
Olga and father Miguel, for their love and advice. To my sister Olga Luisa, for sharing
secrets and losses. To my sister Pilar, who left too soon but who remains always near. To
my godfathers Manolo and Meche, for their support and for showing me that
responsibility is compatible with joy.

Preface Coatepec
Abstract
The present study examines the Great Temple of the Aztecs as it has been seen through
the eyes of different people through time. It does not intend to be a comprehensive
history of the Temple's interpretations, as many important viewpoints have been
discarded for the sake of the central questions.
It exemplifies three important moments in which the Great Temple of the Aztecs was
"reinvented": sixteenth-century New Spain, the Enlightenment in New Spain and Europe,
and the Mexican post-revolutionary PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) regime in
the twentieth century. It concentrates on interests of three different groups of people
which had different visions and agendas to fulfill: the regular orders during the sixteenth
century (Franciscans and Dominicans), the early philosophers of history during the
eighteenth century, and the scholars, scientists, artists and architects involved in the
national reconstruction after the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
This dissertation contains a history of the ideas" of the Temple, revealing, among other
things, the way in which contemporary Mexicans have constructed their identity and
ways of action. The general ideas of "the Great Temple of the Aztecs" mediated by
different viewpoints -as is the scientific one, or the one of the ruling party- say more
about contemporary fields of knowledge and national politics than about the temple or
the Aztecs itself. The reading of these different interpretations does not intend to
discredit them, but to raise the broader issue of the complexity of human self-
understanding.
The challenge would be to "loosen" rigid rational understandings in order to visualize the
world as something that is given, alive, and unique. This would raise the possibility of
creating qualitative, yet modern architecture, a half-breed or "mestizo" architecture. This
may be possible when seeking the metaphorical power of architecture as poiesis,
something that may come easier to Mexicans because it is inherently rooted in the
metaphoric capacity of the Nahua language to create poetic images, still active in
Mexican mentality exemplified with the Nahua world Coatl, Serpent-Twin or Carnal-
Brother.

Preface Coatepec
Resum
La prsente tude examine le Grand Temple des Aztques comme il a t vu travers les
yeux de diffrentes personnes diffrents moments de lhistoire. Il n'a pas l'intention
d'tre une histoire de l'interprtation du Temple, puisque de nombreux points de vue
importants ont t mis de cot pour approfondir la question centrale.
Il insiste sur trois grands moments dans lesquels le Grand Temple des Aztques a t
rinvent: le XVIe sicle en Nouvelle-Espagne, le sicle des Lumires en Europe et en
Nouvelle-Espagne, et le Mexique post-rvolutionnaire du XXe sicle. Lattention est
concentre sur les intrts des trois diffrents groupes de personnes qui avaient des
visions diffrentes et des agendas remplir, savoir: les ordres rguliers durant le XVIe
sicle (Franciscains et Dominicains), les premiers philosophes de l'histoire au cours du
XVIIIe sicle, et les penseurs, scientifiques, artistes et architectes impliqus dans la
reconstruction nationale aprs la rvolution mexicaine de 1910.
Cette thse contient une histoire de l'ide du Temple, rvlant, entre autres choses, la
faon dont les Mexicains contemporains ont construit leur identit et leurs moyens
d'action. Les ides gnrales du "Grand Temple des Aztques" mdiatises par diffrents
points de vue,-comme le scientifique, ou celui du parti au pouvoir-, dit encore plus sur la
politique ou sur l'tat des domaines de la connaissance contemporaine que sur le temple
ou sur les Aztques eux mmes. La lecture de ces diffrentes interprtations n'a pas
l'intention de les discrditer, mais de soulever la question plus large de la complexit de
l'auto-comprhension de l'homme.
Le dfi serait de lacher un peu la prise sur notre comprhension rationnelle et rigide pour
visualiser le monde comme quelque chose qui est donn, vivant, et unique. Cette mesure
renforcerait la possibilit de crer qualitativement, une architecture moderne, une
architecture issue de deux mondes, une architecture mtisse. Et cela nest possible que
par la recherche de la puissance mtaphorique de l'architecture comme poiesis, quelque
chose qui peut venir plus facilement aux Mexicains puisquelle est foncirement ancr
dans la capacit mtaphorique de la langue nahua qui cre des images potiques, et qui
est toujours active dans la mentalit mexicaine illustr par le mot Coatl, du Nahua, qui
signifie Serpent-Jumeau, Frre de sang.

Preface Coatepec
Table of Contents

Illustration Index..........................................................................................................................................13

General Introduction....................................................................................................................................16
Origins........................................................................................................................................................18
About Mexican History..............................................................................................................................19
Structure of the dissertation........................................................................................................................21
Original contribution..................................................................................................................................21
Notes on terms in Nahuatl..........................................................................................................................22
Overview of Nahua Culture........................................................................................................................23
Religion...................................................................................................................................................23
Nahua Duality.........................................................................................................................................30
Coatl: the serpent-twin...........................................................................................................................32
Nahua Sacrifice.......................................................................................................................................33
The Nahua Altepetl.................................................................................................................................34

Part I..............................................................................................................................................................37

The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts................................................................................37

A. Fray Bernardino de Sahagn (1499-1590).............................................................................................38

A.1 The Ritual Precinct of Tepeapulco altepetl in the Primeros Memoriales............................................39
A.2 Calpolco, the Nahua Ritual Precinct....................................................................................................46
Teocalli, the house of the gods ..............................................................................................................47
Calmecac, monastery/school/library......................................................................................................50
Momoxtli, altar/mount.............................................................................................................................51
Quauhxicalli, the eagle vessel................................................................................................................52
Quauhcalli, the eagle house....................................................................................................................52
Teutlachtli, the gods' game.....................................................................................................................53
Xompantli, the skull rack........................................................................................................................55
Temalacatl, the gladiatorial stone...........................................................................................................56
Yopico teocalli........................................................................................................................................57
Colhuacan teocalli, recalling the origins................................................................................................58
Ytvalli, the patio......................................................................................................................................60
Coatenamitl, the Serpent Wall................................................................................................................61
Teoquiyaoatl, the sacred portals.............................................................................................................65
A.3. The ritual precint of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espaa
....................................................................................................................................................................66
A.4. The calendar, the ceremonies and the Great Temple..........................................................................70
A.5. Coatepec, the Serpent Mountain.........................................................................................................73
A.6. Teocalli and ixiptla.............................................................................................................................78
A.7. Common Ground and the re-shaping of the pre-Hispanic past..........................................................83

B. Fray Diego Durn (1537-1588): Nahua and Jews.................................................................................85

B.1. Teocalli and Babel..............................................................................................................................89
B.2. The Devil at work...............................................................................................................................91
B.3. The foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and the construction of the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli.......92
B.4. Atl-tlanchinolli, where the water is afire.............................................................................................98
B.5. The Fifth Sun and the orientation of the teocalli..............................................................................103

Preface Coatepec
 B.6. The rituals at the Great Temple as described by Fray Diego Durn.................................................109
B.7. Huitzilopochtli the solar impersonator..............................................................................................113
B.8. Tlaloc and the Anahuac.....................................................................................................................117
B.9. The Tree and the Trinity...................................................................................................................121
B.10. The apotheosis of the sacrificial mind: The consecration of the Huei Teocalli by Tlatoani Ahuizotl.
..................................................................................................................................................................124
B.11. The Images of the Temple of Tenochtitlan in Durn's manuscripts...............................................129
B.11 Notes on the Dominican Order in New Spain..................................................................................134

C. Fray Diego Valads and the mestizo paradox......................................................................................135

C.1. Teocalli and altepetl in the Rhetorica Christiana.............................................................................136
C.2. Teocalli, theaters and caves..............................................................................................................144
C.3. Eucharist and Cannibalism................................................................................................................145
C.4. Limits in Nahua, Christian and Modern visions...............................................................................150
C.5. Christian utopia or the altepetl revisited...........................................................................................154
C.6. The Missionary architectural agenda: Ritual and Theater................................................................157
C.7. Patios and pathos: place and procession in the fortress monastery...................................................161

Part II...........................................................................................................................................................165

Modernity and the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan..................................................................................165

Natural Determinism of civilizations........................................................................................................166
2.1. Visions from exile: Francisco Xavier Clavijero (1731-1787)...........................................................168
2.2 The common ground: Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci (1702-1751)........................................................169
2.3 The tripartite division of civilizations.................................................................................................171
2.4 The Historia Antigua de Mexico and the Great Temple....................................................................174
2.5 The hermeneutic blind spot: Mexica and Mexicans...........................................................................175
2.5.1 The "country" of Anahuac...........................................................................................................176
2.6 The Toltecs and the origins of architecture........................................................................................178
2.7 Corsi e Ricorsi Storici........................................................................................................................183
2.8 The Universal Flood...........................................................................................................................185
2.9 Sacrifice and Architecture 1...............................................................................................................187
2.10 Mexico-Tenochtitlan: a metaphoric state of dwelling......................................................................188
2.11 The foundation of the Great Temple according to Clavijero............................................................192
2.12 Religion of the Mexicans according to Clavijero.............................................................................194
2.13 Netzahualcoyotl and the "Creator of Heaven.................................................................................199
2.14 The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan in the Historia Antigua de Mexico............................................200
2.15 Sacrifice and Architecture 2.............................................................................................................216
2.16 Nahua Time: the calendar and the cosmic eras................................................................................220
2.17 Notes on the modern vision of Nahua ritual compounds.................................................................222

Part III.........................................................................................................................................................224

The post-revolutionary PRI regime and the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan........................................224

3.1 Revolution and the myth of the Return...............................................................................................226
3.2 Manuel Gamio and "Scientific Indianism".........................................................................................227
3.3 Ignacio Marquina and the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan..................................................................231
Tenayuca...............................................................................................................................................233
Marquina's Reconstruction of the Great Temple..................................................................................237
Notes on Marquina's reconstruction.....................................................................................................247
Notes on Scientific Indianism...............................................................................................................249
3.4 Jos Vasconcelos and the power of Beauty........................................................................................250
3.5 Diego Rivera and the re-invention of Mexican culture......................................................................254

Preface Coatepec
 The Murals at the National Palace: glorifying the Aztecs....................................................................256
The temple of the artist: the Anahuacalli.............................................................................................267
3.6 The National Museum of Anthropology: The Great Temple reinvented...........................................269
The Museum.........................................................................................................................................273
The Esplanade...................................................................................................................................276
Ornament and Technology...............................................................................................................278
The Umbrella....................................................................................................................................280
The Promenade between science and myth......................................................................................283
The Aztec Hall..................................................................................................................................284
Notes on the Museum of Anthropology...............................................................................................288

General conclusions ...........................................................................................................................292

Altepetl / Empire...................................................................................................................................292
Huei Teocalli / Great Temple...............................................................................................................294
Teocalli / Monastery.............................................................................................................................295
Teocalli / Museum................................................................................................................................296
Tree-Cross-Umbrella............................................................................................................................297
Coatepec / Tlalocan..............................................................................................................................298
National / Universal..............................................................................................................................299
Ritual /Technological............................................................................................................................300
Scientific Indianism / Revolutionary Nationalism...............................................................................301
The scientific eye / the serpent's way...................................................................................................302
Epilogue: Back from solitude...............................................................................................................303

Bibliography................................................................................................................................................305
Primary Sources........................................................................................................................................305
Secondary Sources....................................................................................................................................308

Preface Coatepec
Illustration Index
Figure 1: Ritual Precinct, Primeros Memoriales of Sahagn's Cdices Matritenses, Pl. XVI.
Manuscript. Tepeapulco, Hidalgo. Early Colonial, c. 1559-61. Real Casa, Patrimonio
Nacional, Palacio Real, Madrid, fol. 269r................................................................................39

Figure 2: Codex Borgia: fol. 33. Allegorical representation of a cosmic teocalli supported by the mythic
cipactli or crocodile as the Earth's surface. The roof the different heavens are depicted with
the huehueteteo, the ancestors and the warriors sacrificed who ascend to the house of the sun.
...................................................................................................................................................43

Figure 3: The dual principles of the cosmos as the source of life and their intrinsic association with the
Ball-Game, Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, F. 16v....................................................................54

Figure 4: Colhuacan, the curved mountain on top of Chicomostoc, seven caves, the place of origin
of the seven Nahua tribes. Colhuacan is intrinsically associated with origins and with the
ceremony of the New Fire as seen in the image. Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, 1550, fol. 16r
...................................................................................................................................................59

Figure 5: The Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli in Mexico City. Bernard Picard, 1722. Keen (The Aztec
Image, 130)...............................................................................................................................61

Figure 6: Sun Stone, The xihuacoatl serpents impersonators of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca
surround the cosmic Solar Stone. .............................................................................................63

Figure 7: Frontispiece of Codex Mendoza, early Colonial. The foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, The
scene of the foundation is depicted within a quincunx that organizes the altepetl in quarters.
The scene is surrounded by a 52 year cycle. Gruzinski (LAmrique de la Conquete peinte par
les Indiens du Mexique, Paris: Unesco, Flammarion, 1991), 104.............................................67

Figure 8: Teotihuacan, view of the site from the Pyramid of the Moon..................................................76

Figure 9: Huitzilopochtli, Engraving, XVIIc. The goat legs allude directly to Lucifer, and the
Solomonic columns may reveal this temple as the antithesis of Solomons'.............................91

Figure 10: The Aztec tribes departing from Aztlan, Codex Azcatitlan, fol. II, p. 40. Note that the island of
Aztlan is squared and that it has a high mountain at its center, a teocalli and the different
houses that represent the different Aztec factions.....................................................................94

Figure 11: First European map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Hernn Corts, Second Letter to the King,
Nuremberg 1521. ...................................................................................................................107

Figure 12: Thodore de Bry, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Note the shrines of the two gods appear
as idols themselves. In this imaginative engraving based in Durn's account, de Bry conflates
three structures in one: the Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the round temple of
Quetzalcoatl and the xompantli or skull rack. ........................................................................110

Figure 13: Diego Duran, Tota, our Father the Tree placed in the courtyard in front of Tlaloc's temple on
the feast of Huei Tozoztli. Tota is tied to four trees signifying the four cardinal directions and
the center.................................................................................................................................121

Figure 14: The teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc with its frontal patio limited by the coatenamitl or
serpent-wall and the main xompantli. Diego Durn, Libro de los dioses y ritos....................128

Figure 15: The teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Diego Durn, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-
Espaa y Islas de Tierra Firme. Three important differences between this representation and

Preface Coatepec
 the one in the Book of Gods and Rites are the gods represented as demons, the surrounding
landscape and ornamental frame. ...........................................................................................129

Figure 16: The temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Diego Durn, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-
Espaa y Islas de Tierra Firme...............................................................................................132

Figure 17: Teocalli and Altepetl, Friar Diego Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, Perugia, 1579.................140

Figure 18: Mnemonic alphabet with conventional and invented Nahua pictographs inscribed in vessels
with the shape of hearts and circumscribed in a circle and a rectangle, Diego Valads ,
Rhetorica Chtistiana, 1578. At one level Valads describes the association of hieroglyph and
phonetic writing with pedagogic ends, but what is most intriguing is the symbolic association
between speech, vessel/hearts, circles and rectangles.............................................................144

Figure 19: Allegory of the good pastor. Christ filled the fountain with blood from his wounds at his side
and feet for the sheep to drink.................................................................................................145

Figure 20: Allegory of the seven graces of Christ. The graces are represented as the dripping blood of the
heart of Christ at the center of the solar disc. Most revealing is the solar character of Christ
and the analogy between his blood with the warmth and light of the sun..............................147

Figure 21: Christian Chalice covered with the image of Tlaloc, 1540. Feathers and bark, diameter 28cm.
This unique artifact reveals the symbolic analogy between the blood of Christ and the blood
of Tlaloc..................................................................................................................................148

Figure 22: Fray Diego Valads. Engraving depicting an ideal fortress-monastery, Rhetorica Christiana,
Perugia, 1579, p. 107..............................................................................................................153

Figure 23: Lorenzo Boturini, Idea de una nueva historia general de la Amrica Septentrional, 1746. In
the frontispiece Boturini appears holding, in one hand, a Nahua calendar, and in the other, the
Catholic image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.........................................................................169

Figure 24: Athanasius Kircher, The Great Temple of the Aztecs in Odipus Egyptiacus, based on the one
published in the Voyages of Ramusio under the Anonimous Conqueror's description of the
Conquest..................................................................................................................................180

Figure 25: Genealogical Tenoch (prickly pear cactus) of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan's dynasties.
Techialoyan Codex, Garcia Granados. Len Portilla (Codices, 26a-26b)..............................185

Figure 26: Coatlicoe,"Serpent-Skirt, sculptural monolith, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, Mexico

City..........................................................................................................................................194

Figure 27: Francisco Javier Clavijero, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, Historia Antigua de Mxico.
.................................................................................................................................................200

Figure 28: Plan of the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc based on archaeological evidence,
Manuel Gamio, 1950. In Ignacio Marquina's, El Templo Mayor de Mxico..........................228

Figure 29: Ritual precinct of La Ciudadela, Teotihuacan, pre-Hispanic, reconstruction by Ignacio

Marquina, 1924.......................................................................................................................231

Figure 30: Ignacio Marquina, reconstruction of the huei teocalli of Tenayuca based on archaeological
evidence. The balustrades are descending serpents. The first basement has serpents all around
and the surface of the structure is covered with emerging serpents heads..............................233

Preface Coatepec
Figure 31: Teocalli of the Holy War, monolith, 125 cm. high. Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc are at the sides
of the solar disc, from their mouths appears the atl-tlachinolli symbol, at the balustrades, two
cuauxicalli vessels and two calendar symbols, one tochtli and two atl..................................237

Figure 32: Hypothetical reconstruction of the main ritual precinct at Tenochtitlan over a layout of the
actual city. Ignacio Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico.................................................240

Figure 33: The Ritual Precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Ignacio Marquina, 1950..................................241

Figure 34: Ignacio Marquina, The Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 1968....................................243

Figure 35: Ignacio Marquina, Model of the ritual precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Museo Nacional de
Antropologa, in Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, p.72..................................................245

Figure 36: Ignacio Marquina, El Templo Mayor, 1950. Model of an hypothetical reconstruction of the
ritual precinct based on archaeological evidence, and historic narratives, and land property
records from colonial time......................................................................................................248

Figure 37: Jorge Gonzlez Camarena, fusion of all peoples into a unique mestizo race, Museo Nacional
de Antropologa, in Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, 64. ..............................................251

Figure 38: First sketch for the National Palace mural at the central staircase where are depicted the
battles of conquest, (center), independence, (above), French and American Interventions on
the left and right, and the Revolution; all of them rotate around a teocalli whose model was
the Teocalli of the Holy War. Note the central motherly figure was eliminated in the final
version.....................................................................................................................................255

Figure 39: From the Conquest to the Future, Diego Rivera, Mural at the National Palace, Mexico City:
.................................................................................................................................................257

Figure 40: Diego Rivera, Mural at the National Palace. The pre-Hispanic world with the messianic figure
of a blond Quetzalcoatl preaching to his followers and departing on a feathered serpent.
Confronting fresco of the contemporary time of Rivera. The flying Quetzalcoatl appears
opposed to Marx in a relation of analogy while at the center, Quetzalcoatl appears confronted
with Plutarco Elias Calles in a relationship of opposition .....................................................260

Figure 41: Mural panel composed by a scene in the Tlateloco's market and an aerial view of the Valley
of Mexico................................................................................................................................262

Figure 42: Huei teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc at Texcoco, Relaciones Geogrficas, Codex
Ixtlixochitl, fol. 112................................................................................................................263

Figure 43: Anahuacalli, Studio of Diego Rivera in Tlalpan as a Mesoamerican teocalli, made from stone
from the Xitle volano..............................................................................................................266

Figure 44: General lay-out of the National Museum of Anthropology....................................................272

Figure 45: Entrance to the Museum of Anthropology from the stairs at the center of the esplanade......275

Figure 46: The central umbrella at the Museum's patio...........................................................................279

Figure 47: Cross section of the umbrella at the National Museum of Anthropology...............................281

Figure 48: National Museum of Anthropology, view of the central patio and umbrella from the Aztec
Hall..........................................................................................................................................283

Preface Coatepec
General Introduction

Although focused on architectonic phenomena, this work has been an interdisciplinary

exercise, and while grounded in Mexican culture, it intends to be meaningful to any
person who is interested in the production of meaningful cultural manifestations and in
the intermingling of cultures. It would hopefully be described as a mirror in which
anyone, from any culture, could recognize oneself, and find some form of meaning for
action in their own context.
I will start by recalling what Octavio Paz once stated; that geography creates symbols,
signs and archetypes. The oppositions reflected in nature between sky and earth, valley
and mountain, jungle and desert become symbols of historic and social oppositions.

Each land is a society: a world and a vision of the world and the otherworld. Each history is a
geography and each geography is a geometry of symbols. India is an inverted cone, a tree
whose roots are fixed in the heavens. China is an immense disc belly and navel of the
cosmos. Mexico rises between two seas, like a huge truncated pyramid: its four sides are the
points of the compass, its staircases are the climates of all the zones, and its high plateau is
the house of the sun and the constellations. It is hardly necessary to remind ourselves that to
the people of antiquity the world was a mountain and that, in Sumer and Egypt, as in
Mesoamerica, the geometric and symbolic representation of the cosmic mountain was the
pyramid ... The pyramid is the image of the world; in turn, the image of the world is a
projection of human society. If it is true that man invents gods in his own image, it is also true
that he sees his own image in the images that the sky and the earth offer him. Man makes
human history of the inhuman landscape; nature turns history into cosmogony, the dance of
the stars.1

The world was perceived by the Mexica as a truncated pyramid; this image was
assimilated into historical and social structures acting at all levels of human activities,
linguistic, social, political, ludic or architectural.
It is crucial to observe, however, that although Octavio Paz underlined the intrinsic
influence of geography on the way Mexicans orient themselves and how they act in the
world, a modern isotropic understanding of space and time has challenged and drastically
modified how modern men perceive reality, Mexicans not being an exception.

1
Octavio Paz, The Other Mexico, in The labyrinth of solitude and other texts (New York: Grove Press, 1985), 293.

Preface 16
After a long process of rationalization of the world, which became more clear with Ren
Descartes, the understanding of a qualitative place shifted to the understanding of space
as isotropic, abstract, absolute, and homogeneous, a neutral recipient in which we can
drop our architectonic ideas. In this context, a mountain is not the place where the gods
dwell but a topographical "accident, an "object, an obstacle or a stock of resources; its
capacity to emit symbols and to form archetypes has been drastically reduced. Place is
not anymore the living force that determines and gives meaning to architecture. The
world has lost, to a great extent, its qualitative points of reference, centers and
boundaries.
Scientific knowledge and systematic suspiciousness renders improbable or even
dangerous the return to the mythical. It seems crucial, however, to recognize the
possibility of understanding reality as traditional and modern at the same time. The
challenge would be to "loosen" our rigid rational understanding and to visualize the
world as something that is given, alive, and unique. This would raise the possibility that
modern constructions like the Olympic Stadium in Ciudad Universitaria and the Museum
of Anthropology in Mexico City integrate qualitative, yet modern spaces, a half-breed or
mestizo space.

Preface 17
Origins

After a long peregrination from Aztlan, their historic/mythical place of origin, the Aztecs
founded Mexico-Tenochtilan at the marshes of Lake Texcoco in the valley of Anahuac
and constructed a temple to their patron god Huitzilopochtli around the year 1321. The
temple underwent nine reconstructions until its destruction, after the Spanish Conquest in
1521. For centuries, since its destruction after the war of Conquest until the unearthing of
what was left of it in the twentieth century, the only sources to talk about the Great
Temple were the chronicles of the conquerors and missionaries who questioned the
indigenous about their culture and religion.
This work was driven by the hypothesis that the world of the Aztecs and the image of
their Great Temple has been distorted first by Christian and then by modern
viewpoints, and that these distorted views have configured an image by which modern
Mexicans have tried to reflect themselves, and upon which they act and inhabit the world.
I hold that the Amerindian and European civilizations intertwined and reinvented
themselves more easily and naturally during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than
they do in present times, the Fortress Monasteries of the sixteenth century being a clear
example of this. I maintain, likewise, that behind these westernized visions present in
contemporary Mexico, living threads of imagination, creation, and re-creation of mestizo
culture dwell.
I argue that the idea of technological progress contrasts radically with the Aztec vision
and also with the way in which many indigenous groups still relate to the world. This
implies that, in spite of their totally different origins, and their antagonistic positions, the
understanding of the world and of the divine was closer and more compatible among
sixteenth century European and Amerindian cultures than between modern Mexicans and
the surviving indigenous groups which still struggle to maintain their cultural identity.
I have exemplified three important moments in which the Great Temple of the Aztecs
was "reinvented": sixteenth-century New Spain, the Enlightenment in New Spain and
Europe, and the Mexican post-revolutionary regime in the twentieth century. I have
concentrated my attention, likewise, in exemplifying the interests of three different
groups of people which had different visions and agendas to fulfill: the regular orders
during the XVIIIc (Franciscans and Dominicans), the early philosophers of history during
the seventeenth century, and the scholars, scientists, artists and architects involved in the

Preface 18
national reconstruction under the post-revolutionary regime in contemporary Mexico
after 1910.
This dissertation contains a history of the ideas of the Temple, revealing, among other
things, the way in which contemporary Mexicans have constructed their identity and
ways of action. I believe that a general idea of "the Great Temple of the Aztecs"
permeated by different viewpoints, -as is the scientific one, or the one of the ruling party-,
tells us more about politics or about the state of contemporary fields of knowledge than
about the temple itself. My reading of these different interpretations does not intend to
discredit them, but to raise the broader issue of the complexity of human self-
understanding. I believe, likewise, it is possible to attain meaning in the exercise of the
theory and practice of a historic rooted architecture, and at the same time, to engage with
our contemporary condition.

About Mexican History

From the pedestal of pride, at the tip of the arrow of progress, modern Mexicans look
back at the Aztecs, and down at contemporary indigenous groups which remain
reluctant to be completely subsumed into the world of progress. Most Mexicans insist,
nevertheless, in recognizing the ancient Mexica as their ancestors, reducing and
limiting the richness and multiplicity of cultures of the Middle American world to a
single nation and rejecting, at the same time, the western component of Mexican
contemporary culture.
I believe in the possibility to better understand how ancient Amerindian nations and how
their cultural manifestations intermingled with the European cultures through the works
of missionaries, historians, anthropologists and architects, and the possibility to better
reinvent ourselves and to reinvent a world in which many different visions can coexist,
and recreate each other.
But before fully entering into the matter it is imperative to acknowledge some
hermeneutic principles and parameters. To do so we just have to look at the title of the
present work: The Great Temple of the Aztecs. This would be the necessary title for
most readers to grasp the "object" of study. But each of the terms in the title implies a
distortion of the original manifestation. The Great, assumes its supremacy among other

Preface 19
temples in Tenochtitlan and in other towns. This distorted vision, initiated first under
the eyes of the religious monotheist mind of the sixteenth century led to a false
perception of the Aztec temple as the center of a monolithic theocratic empire.
Huitzilopochtli, however, was not above other gods in the Mexica pantheon. Besides,
each town or altepetl had its own hierarchy of priests which did not depend upon the
Mexican ones. Mesoamerica was formed by approximately 287 ethnic groups which
considered themselves as separate nations. The Aztecs were just one more which had
special affection for ritual war.
To name it a "temple" implied a parallelism with western counterparts, namely Solomon's
temple. The same can be said for the different terms used through history to designate it:
pyramid, mosque, ziggurat or a skyscraper, distorting and limiting its unique
being as a teocalli.
Finally, ancient Mexica did not call themselves Aztecs, this term was chosen when the
necessity to differentiate them from modern Mexicans appeared. The Mexica were one
among seven tribes who spoke Nahuatl and recognized Aztlan as their place of origin, all
of them being Aztecs.
The actual title should, therefore, be put in quotation marks or be rephrased: "The huei
teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. But the overlapping of
categories is, to some extent, inevitable; while studying the "Aztecs" we cannot get rid of
ourselves as empiricism maintained. Our preconceptions are the way in which we frame
the world of experience and the way in which we re-incorporate the world in ourselves in
order to dwell and act accordingly. Abusing the use of quotation marks may lead to a
relativistic and unfruitful exercise leading nowhere. There is a desirable tension, which I
have tried to maintain, between the acknowledgment of my limitations and my faith in
the possibility to attain an insightful understanding of human manifestations in order to
act meaningfully here and now.
The subtitle of the work: Recreating a metaphorical state of dwelling, points towards
my hope in the possibility of understanding the poetic Nahua being in the world as a
mystery, and a way to integrate a poetic dimension in contemporary architectonic
practice.

Preface 20
Structure of the dissertation

The dissertation is divided into three chapters that correspond to three different centuries.
This is given naturally by the primary sources available that reinterpreted the Temple,
there being enough distance between them to represent radically different mentalities.
Although it appears to be a linear dissertation which examines the temple in the sixteenth,
eighteenth and twentieth centuries, in reality, due to the fact that in all of them I am
interpreting the same object under different views, the narration acquires a layered
structure, just like the structure of the Temple itself. The second chapter is built upon the
first, and the third upon the second.
In Part I, I analyze the writings and illustrations of Fray Bernardino de Sahagn and the
Dominican Fray Diego Durn that looked into the rituals and language of the Nahuas,
into their history and artifacts, revealing the essential role of architecture in their way to
relate with the cosmos.
In Part II, I analyze the work of the first modern historians of Mexico in the XVIIIc,
specially the work of Jesuit scholar Francisco Xavier Clavijero who was influenced by
the works of Giambattista Vico with respect to the universality of human institutions.
In the Part III, I analyze the works of the painter Diego Rivera and the architects Ignacio
Marquina and Pedro Ramirez Vazquez and their role in the re-invention of Mexico after
the Revolution of 1910-21.

Original contribution

What I was looking for during the process of writing this dissertation may be resumed in
one Nahua word: coatl: serpent-twin. The world coatl reveals a principle in which Nahua
are used to relate to the world and with the others that is deeply rooted in their
metaphoric language. This way of acting, implies attraction and repulsion at the same
time, reconciliation and integration, but also differentiation and exclusion. I argue that
this principle is pervasive in all Nahua manifestations, from poetry to architecture, and, it
is still present, not just in the surviving Nahua communities but also in Spanish spoken
Modern Mexico.

Preface 21
The relevance of the present work is that it takes Nahua architecture out of the field of
archeology or ethnohistory, and presents it as relevant for today's world. Nahua pre-
Hispanic architecture is presented in contrast with contemporary ways of doing
architecture, provoking an awareness of the differences and acknowledging our common
drama of being part and, at the same time, re-inventors of the world. This work may
hopefully reflect that the modern project, if taken with some modesty, can still be
revitalized and reinterpreted by cultures other than the Western one.

Notes on terms in Nahuatl

In written Nahuatl all the letters have the same phonetic value as in Spanish with the
following exceptions: the h is pronounced with a soft aspiration as in English; the tl and
tz represent a single sound and therefore should not be divided; the x has the sound of the
English sh. Practically all Nahuatl words are accented on the penultimate syllable.
How to name the Aztec culture is not a simple matter. The Aztecs called themselves
Mexica. Aztecs represents, however, a pervasive way to call them among scholars
and by the public in general, maybe because it clarifies the difference between the ancient
Mexica and the modern Mexicans. Calling them Aztecs or Mexica may be indifferent for
the Anglophone or Francophone scholars, but for the Mexican one, the term represents a
hermeneutic dilemma while feeling (conscientiously or not) as being part of their "object"
of study. Similar issues appear while naming Mexica artifacts or architecture, like the
terms assigned to the Nahua religious compounds and pyramidal temples through history:
teocalli, cu, "temple, mosque, monastery or just pyramid. Each translation implies
a dislocation mediated by the culture and language of the translator or interpreter.
The world of the Mexica has come to us through the accounts and recordings of
conquerors, missionaries, historians and anthropologists. They are, therefore, necessarily
mediated by their own beliefs. While this is more evident in the words of conquerors and
missionaries, it is not as evident in the apparently transparent interpretations of historians,
archaeologists, anthropologists and scientists in general. It is important, however, to
engage in the hermeneutic elucidation of all those accounts with the awareness that even
the most transparent renderings represent a distortion, but, also that these re-visions may
reveal our own preconceptions. To understand these distortions may help us to

Preface 22
understand something of how contemporary Mexicans inhabit the world, and how this
can be relevant for the practice of architecture.

Overview of Nahua Culture

Religion

Mexica religion was eclectic, being basically, but not exclusively, the mixture of
shamanic and Toltec beliefs. Before appropriating the Toltec institutions (ritual sacrifice,
construction of pyramidal temples, cultivation of corn, ritual ball game, ritual calendar,
and others), the Mexica venerated the living world directly: the fire, the sun, the moon,
etc. These practices were millennial and had their origins in the shamanic traditions of
Eastern Asia and North America surviving today in the practices of some contemporary
natives like the Huicholes or Wirarika (as they call themselves).
While the Mexica migrated South (around 1100 A.D.) they appropriated Toltec culture.
The forces of nature began to be impersonated by gods, (Quetzalcoatl, god of wind,
Xihucoatl, god of fire, etc.). The multiplicity of natural phenomena, manifested in a
multiplicity of gods. The Nahua had many gods and made many temples just as there
where many mountains in the surrounding landscape.
Besides the cults to the different gods, they had, from their shamanic tradition, an holistic
understanding referred to as teotl god, divine. As stated by Arild Hvidtfeldt,2 the
word derives from Tonatihu, the sun, and its primordial energy, tonalli, from which all
the living creatures took their strength to remain, to reproduce and to move. From their
Toltec tradition, they had also an holistic, but dual understanding of the forces of the
universe manifested by the primordial God-Two, Ometeotl. The God-Two transmuted
and shifted into different gods and pervaded every single thing in the world of
experience.3
The fact that Nahua religion recognized multiple deities and at the same time had an
holistic primordial principle has confused Westerners since the beginning of the colonial

Arild Hvidtfeldt, Teotl and Ixiptlatli: some conceptions in Ancient Mexican Religion (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1958), 77-78.
2

3
Ometeotl appears in different contexts as Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent, Huehueteotl, the old old god, Xihutecutli the lord
of fire, Tonacatecuhtli-Tonacacihuatl, the lord and lady of our flesh, Mixcoatl, cloud serpent, Mictlantecutli and Mictlantecihuatl
lady and lord of the region of the death, Tezcatlipoca, the smoking mirror, and others.

Preface 23
period to contemporary scholars. In the sixteenth century the Dominican Diego Durn
affirmed that:

On one hand they believe in God, and on the other they worship idols. They practice their
ancient superstitions and rites and mix one with the other, and all of this is the fault of the
ministers who are with them and do not understand them.4

In the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, it is told that the Mexica had a god
called Tonacatecuctli Lord of our own flesh whose woman was Tonacacihuatl Lady of
our own flesh who had always been in the thirteenth heaven and whose origin and
beginning was not known.5 Ometeotl was interpreted in this document as an earthly
god of maintenance. In the metaphoric context of Nahua language, our own flesh was a
beautiful metaphor for maize, corn, the main food of Mesoamerican people. Ometeotl,
maize and people were of the same flesh.
According to the same source, the primordial couple of gods "with no known origin,
conceived four sons: the two Tezcatlipocas (the red and the black), Quetzalcoatl and
Huitzilopochtli. But Ometeotl does not just unfold into other gods but also created
men. In the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca he is literally described as teyocoyani, the one
who makes or creates men.6
In the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, Quetzalcoatl was called "god of the last sky" Citlalin icue,
Citlallatonac, and Tonacacihuatl-Tonacatecuhtli "lady-lord of our own flesh,7 epithets
which coincide with the ones in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas.

4
Durn, Gods and Rites, 152-153.
5
In Angel Maria Garibay, Teogona e historia de los mexicanos: tres opsculos del siglo XVI, edited by Angel Ma. Garibay K. 3 ed.
(Mxico: Porra, 1979), 23.
6
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (ed. By Ernst Mengin), 33. Quoted and explained by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 85, 87.
7
Annals of Cuauhtitln, fol. 4. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 29.
1. And it is told, it is said
2. that Quetzalcatl would invoke, deifying something in the innermost of heaven:
3. she of the starry skirt, he whose radiance envelops things;
4. Lady of our flesh, Lord of our flesh;
5. she who is clothed in black, he who is clothed in red;
6. she who endows the earth with solidity, he who covers the earth with cotton.
7. And thus it was known, that toward the heavens was his plea directed,
8. towards the place of duality, above the nine levels of Heaven.
Translated from the Spanish version of Len Portilla by Jack Emory Davis.

Preface 24
In the Florentine Codex, the primordial double god is identified as Huehueteotl, the Old
God and Xihutecuhtli, the lord of fire and of the year:

In teteu inan in teteu ita, in Huehue teutl,

In tlaxicco onoc,
In xiuhtetzacualco in maquitoc,
In xiuhtotoatica in mixtzatzacualiuhtica,
In Huehue teutl in ayamictlan,
In Xiuhtecuhtli.8
---------
1. Mother of the gods, father of the gods, the old god
2. spread out on the navel of the earth,
3. within the circle of turquoise.
4. He who dwells in the waters the color of the bluebird, he who dwells in the clouds.
5. The old god, he who inhabits the shadows of the land of the dead.
6. The lord of fire and of time.9

According to the song, Huehueteotl would lay at the navel of the Earth (In tlaxicco
onoc), he/she is simultaneously in the sky within a boundary of clouds (In
xiuhtotoatica in mixtzatzacualiuhtica), and in the underworld, as Mitlantecutli-
Mictlantlicihuatl, the double god of the region of the death (In Huehue teutl in
ayamictlan). Ometeotl was pervasive in the whole universe. The world represented the
the mirrored reflections of the face of Ometeotl.
In the different songs recorded by Sahagn, the God-Two was identified with
Tezcatlipoca and called tloque-nahuaque and ipalnemohuani.10 In the word
8
Florentine Codex: Book VI, f. 71,v. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 32.
9
Translated form the Spanish version of Len Portilla by Jack Emory Davis.
10
In the Florentine Codex: Book VI, 7. Tezcatlipoca is named Ipalnemohuani, Tloque Nahuaque, and Yohualli-Ehecatl, "Night-
Wind.
Tlacatle totecoe: tloquee, naoaquee, ipalnemonje, ioalle, ehecatle, totecoe, titlacaoane, iaotzine: a ca nelle axcan
mjxpantzinco njnoquetza, njxpantinco naci: in titloque, in tinaoaque, cententica, ac cencamatica njmjtznotza,
njmjtztzatzitia: in jca in jpampa, in cujtlapilli, in atlapalli: in nentlacatl in aqujmatinemj, in nennemj, in nencochi, in
nenmeva: in qujnenqujxtia in motlacatzin, in moiooaltzin:
-------
O master, O our lord, O lord of the near, of the nigh, O thou by whom we live, O night, O wind, O our lord, O Titlacauan,
O Yaotzin, now in truth I arise before thee, I arrive before thee, thou who art lord of the near, of the nigh. In one word, or
two, call to thee, I cry out to thee for -on behalf of- the vassals, the useless; the ignorant; the vagabonds; those who sleep,
who arise to no purpose; those who waste thy day, thy night.

Translation from Nahuatl to English by Dibble and Anderson.

Preface 25
ipalnemohuani, nemo is a participle form of nemi, to move or/and to live, followed
by a prefix that connotes causation, ipal, by him, or by means of him, and the
participial suffix ni. Ipal-nemohua-ni, would be something like by whom one lives
and/or moves or "for whom one lives/moves. Garibay translates it as El dador de vida
the Giver of Life, and Leon Portilla as Aquel por quien se vive, the one through whom
one lives.
Ometeotl is also called by several sources as tloque-nahuaque; the compound comes
from the substantiation of tloc near, what is near and nahuac in the circuit of or in
the ring. The personal possessive suffix e, which is appended twice, (tloqu-e and
nahuaqu-e), connotes that being nearand the circuitor ring are of him. It has
been translated as: It applies to him who is the very being of all things, preserving them
and sustaining them-Fray Alonso de Molina-; he who has everything in himself
-Francisco Javier Clavijero-;the lord of what is near and of what is in the ring or circuit,
-Len Portilla-; and The one who is near to everything and to whom everything is near
-Angel Maria Garibay-.11
Besides Ipalnemohuani and Tloque Nahuaque, the dual god is described by Sahagn's
informants as nelhuayotl12 (enraizado), "to be rooted, meaning that he/she sinks its roots
at the heart of the universe and that he is well planted. The voice nel is part of the
composed voice neltiliztli: "truth" verdad. Yotl or yollotl, "heart, also synonymous of
movement. It implies that she/he is the source of all life and movement.
In the Florentine Codex the supreme divinity is called: Tlacatle, Tloque Nahuaque,
Ipalnemohuani, Yohualli-ehcatl, (Lord, Master of the Close Vicinity, Giver of Life,
Night-and-wind).13 Len Portilla points out that Yohualli-ehcatl means literally night

And in Florentine Codex: Book VI, 88.

iehoatl tonatiuh inan ita muchioa: ieoatl teatlitia, tetlamaca in topa in mjctlan: auh ie acohujc, tlalchihujc qujtta in
quauhtli in ocelutl qujmonantia, qujmotatia: ca nel oqujto ca oqujnaoati in tloque naoaque: ca amo moiucux, ca amo
mochichiuh.
-------
This one becometh the mother, the father of the sun. He provideth those above us [and] those in the land of the dead with
drink, with offerings. And the eagle warriors, the ocelot warriors revere him; they make him their mother, they make him
their father. [This] because in truth our lord of the near, of the nigh, hath said it, hath commanded it; not that [this one] hath
done it himself, not that he hath arrayed himself.
Translation from Nahuatl to English by Dibble and Anderson.
11
Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 92. Translation from the Spanish to English by Jack Emory Davis.
12
Aztec Thought, 92.
13
Florentine Codex, VI, fol.5,r and passim. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 92.

Preface 26
and wind, but it means metaphorically (as suggested by Sahagn himself), invisible
(like the night) and intangible (like the wind). According to Len Portilla, Yohualli-
Ehcatl is the title that most clearly implies the transcendent character of Ometotl
that goes beyond that world of experience so graphically conceived by the Nahua as the
visible and tangible.
Ometeotl was also referred to as moyucoyatzin, from yocoya, "hacer, forjar, crear,
imaginar, idear, (to make, to forge, to create mentally, to imagine, to invent) and the
prefix mo, -a si mismo-, (self, himself) and the reverential tzin. Len Portilla translate it
as Lord who mentally conceives or creates himself.
The term appears in several places in the Historia Eclesiastica Indiana by Jeronimo de
Mendieta:

And they also called him Moyucoyatzin yac oquiyocux, yac oquipic, which means that no
one formed or created him, but that he himself and by his own authority and will does
everything.14

Although Len Portilla finds the two versions of moyocoyatzin as almost synonymous,
there is a crucial difference between his own translation of moyocoyatzin, -se hace a si
mismo- he conceives or creates himself and Mendieta's -nadie a l lo formo- no one
formed or created him. The second one implies it is uncreated, complete and absolute,
the first implies it is in constant movement creating him-herself by means of its dual
character. Ometeotl is in constant movement towards its completeness. The dual god goes
from himself to herself, towards his/her twin-image reflected in a mirror. In this
unfolding Ometeotl creates the realm of the living and the dead. He/she is one with the
world. His/her movement does not resolve into unity but into diversity: He/she remains
incomplete by means of his/her irreducible double nature.
I agree with Herman Beyer15 that Ometeotl remained immanent to the world, his/her
nature, therefore, was closer to a pantheism than to a transcendent Entity. Tloque
Nahuaque, within the circuit" clearly refers to within the universe, the cemanahuac,
surrounded by water, in tlaxicco onoc, lying at the belly of the earth, omnipresent in
the world because he is nelhuayotl, the root and foundation of everything from where

14
Gernimo de Mendieta, Historia Eclesistica Indiana, I, 95. Quoted by Len Portilla in Aztec Thought and Culture, translated from
the Spanish version of Len Portilla by Jack Emory Davis, (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 95.
15
Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 96.

Preface 27
diversity unfolds, like a cosmic tree, towards the four directions of the cosmos
represented by the four Tezcaltipocas, manifested in architecture as the square
platform/altar/temple.
Len Portilla clarified that whatever pantheism there might be in the wise men's concept
of the Divine and of the world could only be described by such a hybrid term as the
dynamic omeyotization dualization of the universe.16 The idea of hybrid qualities of
Ometeotl being transcendent and yet immanent to the world at the same time seems
compelling. I sympathize with the fact that Ometeolt's being and actions have to be
qualified specifically, it is yet, closer to a pantheist understanding than to the notion of
the totally Other transcendent God of Christianity to which he has been compared since
the sixteenth century by important authors such as Ixtlixochitl, Clavijero, Garibay and
Len Portilla himself.
Sacrifice would be meaningless if Ometeotl were an absolute, self-sustainable Being.
Why should humans have to help to keep the universe in motion if the cause of things
remained absolutely complete? An almighty God does not diminish with the creative act.
He does not need help, nor even veneration. He is not better or worse with human
recognition. Ometeotl, on the contrary, would get tired, his/her regenerative power would
diminish with time, and when his/her creative force would come to an end, he/she would
collapse like an old tree. Human sacrifice was intended to postpone the cosmic collapse
by nourishing Ometeotl with the precious liquid which would concentrate the living
energy or tonalli: the human blood.
Len Portilla explains accurately how the gods were the masks which covered the dual
face of Ometeotl. With this metaphor he explained that the primordial couple unfolded
and advanced, like a tree extending its branches towards the sun, constituting the vital
source of the universe, its capacity to move and to regenerate.17
Sinking its roots in the heart of the universe, Ometeotl unfolds as a tree, reaching
upwards towards the thirteen heavens, extending its action to the four cardinal directions
in which the four Tezcatlipocas reign, and downwards, sinking his roots into the nine
levels of the underworld, to the land of Mictlantecutli and .Mictlantecihuatl.
This may be the reason of a curious permeability in the attributes of the gods that tended
to homogenize their images. Some gods were represented so similarly that it resulted

16
Leon Portilla, Aztec Thought, 99.
17
Idem., 89.

Preface 28
difficult to differentiate one from another. The God-Two unfolded and diversified
although it remained the same. Like a tree, the world was created from its center towards
the limits, making all that exists equally divine: humans, animals, and landscape.
It is to note that the unfolding process of Ometeotl is not necessarily dialectic but
metaphoric. The unavoidable proximity of primordial forces created the universe in the
same token as, in Nahuatl, meaning is created by combining different voices. Although
discernible by means of its multiple manifestations, Ometeolt remained invisible by
means of its nearness.

Where is the place of light,

for He who gives life hides Himself?18

Like an octopus leaving a cloud of ink behind, Ometeolt blinds with its light all who
wants to contemplate it frontally. He would hide in the diversity of the world, the product
of his/her own movement. That may explain why, differently than the specific
impersonators of the natural forces, there wasn't a particular cult to worship Ometeotl. He
would be sensed but never apprehended.
Ome-Teotl not only reflected how the world of experience unfolded but also reflected the
intrinsic relationship between life and death. According to Hvidtfeldt,19 the voice teotl
implied death as reflected in the word for sunset, teotlactli. There are many arguments in
Nahua cultural manifestations that reveal the symmetry between death and life that fuel
each other. A catastrophic end would come if either life or death would prevail.

Nahua Duality

Contrary to what Leon Portilla20 stated about the great differences between the world
vision of Toltecs and the Nahua-Chichimec, I argue that Nahua culture adapted
wonderfully to the Toltec/Olmec dual vision. There is enough evidence of the natural
appropriation of Toltec duality into Nahuatl beliefs. Because of their metaphoric
language, it was easy to accommodate the evasive nature of Ometeotl by the action of
poetic images. Nahua speakers pair everything, from words to temples. As has been said,
18
MSS Cantares Mexicanos, fol. 62,r. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thougth, 80.
19
Hvidtfeldt, Teotl and Ixiptlatli, 77-78.
20
Len Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture, 177-183.

Preface 29
the Nahua voice coatl, "serpent-twin" seems to clearly reinterpret the double Toltec
principle of Ometeotl.
Maybe because there was not a specific cult to worship Ometeotl among the Mexica,
some scholars like Len Portilla believe that his cult was kept just by a few tlamantinime,
or wise men, while the official religion was manifested in the multiplicity of cults and
gods.21 I believe that both world visions, the Nahua-Chichimec and the Toltec, were not
as different or incompatible. The pervasive vision of a multiple god that moves according
to a dual principle was, among the Nahua, more than a belief, a natural way to understand
the world mediated by their metaphoric language. It is clear that the action of a dual
principle, defined by Leon Portilla as omeyotization or dualization, was the result of
the specific characteristics of language. It is difficult to know what was the language of
the ancient Toltecs, but it may have been very similar syntactically to Nahuatl in order to
have structured the world in such a way. The paring of words and phrases in Nahuatl was
defined by Angel Maria Garibay as difrasismo. It is crucial to clarity that more than the
idea of movement between contraries, Nahua duality acts metaphorically; the paired
words are not necessarily oppositional: meaning appears even by contrasting elements
from the same nature.
The linguists M. Maxwell and Craig A. Hanson explain the mechanism of difrasismo:

The primary mechanism by which the images of the Metaphors are built in Nahuatl is the
couplet. A couplet is a pair of words, or phrases, which evoke a third image. The items paired
may be nouns, verbs, or phrases. Each couplet acts as a metaphor, defining a semantic space
through the shared features of each member of the pairing.22
21
Idem., 134-176.
Judith Marie Maxwell and Craig A. Hanson, ed. Of the manners of speaking that the old ones had: the metaphors of Andrs de
22

Olmos in the TULAL manuscript: Arte para aprender la lengua mexicana, 1547 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992),
21-23.
... They generally are both structurally and semantically linked, or paralleled. Nouns are paired with nouns; verbs coupled
with verbs. Moreover, the morphological makeup of the nouns and verbs are equivalent or nearly so: roots are derived by
the same inflectional affixes. Semantic linkages are established through homonymy, bracketing, and metonymy. Bracketing
is the choice of quintessential tokens from opposite end of a semantic domain which between them "bracket" the field of
reference. By naming the end points of a continuum all the intermediate values are encompassed. Metonymy names prime
exemplars of a category.
For example, the couplet te:xi:Io:yo:hua:n te:cacamayo:hua;n 'their early maize, their tender maze' shows semantic
parallelism in that both elements refer to stages in corn development. They are morphologically parallel: each consists of
the third person indefinite possessive pronoun, a noun root, the abstractive derivative suffix, and the plural possessive
suffix. Syntactically, they are both nouns standing as complete predications, with no phrase-hounding particles, such as in,
the adjunction. This complete identity in form/morphology/syntax, and the closeness of the semantic reference is "strict"

Preface 30
The highly stylized and prestigious speech of the Nahuatl court had artistic sophisticated
canons of metaphor and extensions of meaning, the inversion and the coupletting being
two of the most common techniques. Couplet and inversion gave constant potential to the
Nahuatl poet to say more that what he is actually saying, or even to say something but to
mean another.
It is my intention to elucidate the poetic principles that generate Nahua architecture. I will
analyze the elements of the different words of the architectonic elements to find meaning
in the semantic spaces through the shared features of each member of the pairing.

Coatl: the serpent-twin

As I have pointed out, snakes incarnated the double principle of the cosmos according to
Nahua mythology. The voice coatl was used as a root in many nouns, verbs and
adjectives to imply reciprocity.
It is argued by linguists that the meaning that emerged from the union of the two words
or phrases does not eliminate completely the original meanings of the roots which acted
as recessive remnant or, rather, as poetic surplus. By pairing contradictory and/or
complementary terms they produced poetic resonances. Quetzalcoatl, for example, the
god of wind, but also an historic character, appeared from the pairing of quetzal "bird,

parallelism. Strict parallelism is the most elegant, most highly prized of oratorical techniques in Nahuatl. Strict parallelism
is pervasive in oral formal speech. In those instances, then, when multiple interpretations of morphological analyses are
possible, the reading which derives from forms that would exhibit strict parallelism with the paired elements of the couples
are preferred. The same mechanisms of syntactic and semantic parallelism may also be used to link three forms, a triplet.
The linking of images is a delicate task, and one which is usually executed with great skill. Triplets often serve as bridges
between sets of couplets and their foreground domains. Unpaired forms are rare; when they do occur, they serve as
climaxes, transitions points, or bridges between images.
Words are almost always combined with different roots forming a new lexeme. This might seem to indicate that the
metaphoric force of the juxtaposition is lost, however this is not the case. The roots !/a:-// 'water' and //tepe:-// 'hill'
combined form the lexeme: //a:Itepe:tl// 'town'. There is active use of this pairing counterpoising the roots in independent
words. In Metaphor XXXVIl, for example, an unpaired usage of the compound noun a:ltepe:tl 'town' in line 2, but it closes
with the couplet yn a:tl. yn tepe:tI. 'the water, the hill'.
Metaphor XXXVII has an unpaired usage of the compound noun a:ltepe:tl town in line 2, but it closes with the couplet
yna:tl. Yn tepe:tl. the water, the hill. The Nahuatl authors regularly expect their audience to be able to revitalize
lexicalized/fossilized images, maintaining the active force of the metaphors, even those embedded in single words.

Preface 31
and coatl "serpent": "he who flies, he who creeps, as Nahua rhetoric would put it: a great
metaphor for the human condition.
Since the XVIth century the Pre-Hispanic view mingled and transmuted with Christian
symbolism. In regards to the symbolism of the serpent, Sahagn, for example, referred to
the goddess Cihuacoatl, "serpent woman, who was also called Tonanztin, "our mother"
and gave her a Christian background: "In these two things this goddess resembles our
mother Eve who was tricked by the snake.23 He concluded that the "Indians" may have
had news about Eve and how she was tempted and how she fell because of the influence
of the ophidian devil. The native ambivalent conciliatory/confrontational principle of the
serpent became associated with sin and perdition by the European mind. With
Christianity, the dual symbolism of the snake was rendered as one-sided.

Nahua Sacrifice

Sacrifice was referred to among the Nahua as (i)xtlahu(a),24 to pay a debt, to pay for
something. The derivative voice (i)xtlahui, refers to the satisfaction produced by the
payment of a debt. It is revealing, as Kartunnen clarifies, that this satisfaction involves
both, the one who pays and the one to whom is paid. This gives us a clearer
understanding of the reciprocal character of Nahua sacrifice: by making sacrifices the
debt was paid and harmony was reestablished between humans and cosmos.25
23
Bernardino de Sahagn, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espaa, Edicin by Angel Maria Garibay K. (Mxico: Ed.
Porrua, Col. "Sepan Cuantos, 1999), Lib. 1, Cap. VI, 1-4, 32-33.
Decan que esta diosa daba cosas adversas como pobreza, abatimiento, trabajos; apareca muchas veces, segn dicen,
como una seora compuesta con unos atavos como se usan en palacio.
Decan que de noche voceaba y bramaba en el aire; esta diosa se llama Cihuacatl, que quiere decir mujer de la culebra;
y tambin la llamaban Tontzin, que quiere decir nuestra madre.
En estas dos cosas parece que esta diosa es nuestra madre Eva, la cual fue engaada de la culebra, y que ellos tenan
noticia del negocio que pas entre nuestra madre Eva y la culebra.
Cihuacoatl: Woman Serpent, also known by various other names (Quilaztli, Plant Generator, Tonan[tzin], OurMother,
Cuauhcihuatl, Eagle Woman, Yaocihuatl, Warrior Woman, etc.) In the Primeros Memoriales: 123, it says that Cihuacoatl was the
Mother of the gods, like Teteoinnan and Iztaccihuatl. She exercised a significant martial role as the sister of Huitzilopochtli and the
patroness of parturient women, who were likened to warriors waging a battle. She was also an important earth/fertility goddess who
was especially propitiated in Colhuacan. Her name was bored as a title by the high priests of Azcapotzalco and Tetzcoco and by the
Mexica vice ruler. We may conclude that the dual aspect of Cihuacoatl was pervasive as a femenine potency in fertilizing generative
force but also as a confrontational martial one.
See Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 105, 123.
24
Frances Karttunen, An analytic dictionary of Nahuatl. (University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 120.
25
Karttunen, An analytic dictionary of Nahuatl, 121.

Preface 32
While for Christians, humans were at fault because of the original sin that occurred once
at the beginning of humanity, for the Nahua, humans were in debt by the very fact of
being alive. For them, humans existed by the constant sacrifice of the gods who offered
their energy for the sustenance of life.26 For the Nahua cyclical mind, the bloody offering
did not happen only once and for good but was happening constantly. The sacrifice of the
gods and the regeneration of nature occurred in the "here and now": when it rained, when
the sun rose, when the corn germinated. Humans had to contribute, here and now,
emulating the sacrificial example of the gods. Sacrifice and auto-sacrifice were seen as a
constant and unavoidable cosmic duty for the Mesoamerican people who felt an
unfulfillable sense of being at debt with the world.

The Nahua altepetl

I will begin describing some general characteristics of the pre-Hispanic Nahua settlement
or altepetl. The term altepetl has been translated, according to its different characteristics
as nacin, villa, pueblo, aldea, cabecera, municipio, (nation, villa, town, capital,
municipality, etc.).
Pueblo is the term most used in Spanish to name the altepetl, maybe because it just
means people. This goes in accordance with the fact that each altepetl imagined itself
as a group of people totally different from the others. 27 The altepetl, however, was not
perfectly definable by any kind of European understanding of human settlements. In
general, the specific character of the altepetl has eluded the western eye since colonial
times and continues to do so. I am going to weave the issue of the altepetl organization in
relation to the ritual precincts throughout the dissertation. Here I will just mention that
one of the most important characteristics of the altepetl is that it contained the "rural"
periphery or the surrounding landscape in the urban structure. In other terms, there was

26
Versions of the myth of the suns are recorded in the Anales de Cuahutitlan, the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas and in
the Aztec Calendar. See also Alfonso Caso, The Aztecs, People of the Sun (Norman: University of Oklahoma press), p. 12-15, 17-20
and Florentine Codex: Book 7, Chapter II.
In the Leyenda de los Soles (Manuscript of 1558) it is narrated how Quetzalcoatl went to the land of the dead asking Mictlantecuhtli
and Mictlanchuatl for the bones of the men who had perished in the past Sun in order to resuscitate them. They denied him the bones
so he took them and ran, but he fell down and the bones broke. Upon the broken bones Quetzalcoatl bled his member. From them the
macehuales where born, Because, for our sake, the gods did penance! Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 109.
27
Federico Fernndez Christlieb and ngel Julin Garca Zambrano, comp., Territorialidad y paisaje en el altepetl del siglo XVI.
Instituto de Geografa de la Universidad Autnoma de Mxico. (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 2006), 35.

Preface 33
no real distinction between rural and urban. That is why it was misunderstood by the
Europeans who were used to clearly differentiating between them. For Europeans, the
altepetl seemed dispersed, disorganized and unbound.28
The world altepetl was formed by the roots atl, water and tepetl, mount. The idea of
the altepetl was intrinsically related to the image of a mountain capable of supplying
water by attracting the clouds and promoting the precipitation of rain, or by the existence
of springs or caves full of water. In the different songs the altepetl is poetically called, in
atl, in tepetl, (the water, the hill). The association between the "town" and the mountain
operated at many levels. It was phenomenal, by the physical identification of the
surrounding mountains, cosmic, by its parallelism with the cemanahuac, the island of the
Earth or universe conceived as a floating mountain, and mythical, related to different
particular myths of each specific group. I will further discuss the altepetl as a metaphor of
the watery mountain.
The altepetl29 were configured by cosmological principles in which a center was clearly
marked by a ritual precinct formed basically by a "temple" or teocalli and a surrounding
wall representing the center and the limits of the cosmos. Between teocalli and
coatenamitl (temple and wall), many other supporting buildings for the administration of
the cults (including rituals and festivities) were placed.
The calpolli,30 barrios or districts were the social cells placed around the main ritual
precincts, not in a compact way but expanded throughout the altepetl's territory. The
territory of the altepetl, in all its extension was intrinsically woven into, and intertwined
with the social fabric. The term calpolco, large house,31 refers to the ritual precincts of
each calpolli or district, which were similar although, in general, smaller to the central
ritual precinct. The calpolli were organized, likewise, around the calpolco constituted
basically by a temple (or temples) and a surrounding wall.
The altepetl could be understood as an autonomous entity constituted of smaller entities,
the calpollis, arranged according analogue principles. This way of inhabiting a place had

28
Fernndez, Territorialidad, 100.
29
The plural of altepetl is altepeme; some authors like Lockhart, however, prefere the more classic way of using the same world in
singular and plural.
The plural of calpolli is calpoltin. Some authors prefere to use calpolli as singular and as plural.
30

31
In the Spanish text, Sahagn consistently used the term calpolco when he referred to the principal temple of the calpolli. It may be
clarified that it refers to a complex of buildings that constituted a whole ritual precinct rather than a single teocalli. See Florentine
Codex: Book 2, 43, footnote 6.

Preface 34
been predominant in Mesoamerica since Olmec times, and it was valid for all altepetl,
included Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
There is, however, an important characteristic of the Nahua altepetl which makes them
different form other cultures of Mesoamerica: their mobility or portability.32 The Nahua
tribes migrated during different periods from the north towards Middle-America,
bringing with them a structure divided into clans or cells. Once established, those clans
constituted the different calpolli or districts arranged towards the central ritual precinct.
If the altepetl was invaded or attacked, a surviving cell could regenerate itself again and
constitute a new altepetl in the same place, or could migrate to another place. Divided
social cells could be added to the structure of the altepetl or they could separate to form a
new altepetl, like in the case of Tlatlelolco formed by a separated cell of Tenochtitlan.
The place where the new altepetl was established had to attain certain meaningful
geographical characteristics which basically recalled the mythic/historic place of origins:
Aztlan, Tollan, Colhuacan, Chicomostoc, Tamoanchan, Tollan, etc., which were,
likewise, images of the cosmos: Cemanahuac or Anahuac. These places had to be
surrounded or located next to bodies of water and near a mountain at the center of
which the gods had their residency.
The cellular division of the altepetl gave it an incredible flexibility to adapt to different
geographic circumstances, contracting or expanding itself in the territory forming very
diverse physical manifestations but always maintaining the same analogous principle of
organization.
Private property was an alien concept in the organization of the altepetl. The leaders of
each calpolli conceded the right to inhabit and cultivate a plot of the calpolli's territory
for certain time. In Tenochtitlan, for example, the land could not be sold or leased by the
holder but the right to work it could be transmitted by inheritance. The titles over the land
were recorded on maps in the community house; if they abandoned it for two years it
was assigned to another members of the community. Some land was also worked by
members of the group for the benefit of the community, for the payment of tribute, and
for the maintenance of the temple and the priesthood.33
32
Fernndez, Terriotrialidad, 69-70.
33
Idem., 41.
For more about the Nahua altepetl see the classic text of James Lockhart, The Nahua after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural
History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992).
For Mexico-Tenochtitlan altepetl see Rudolf A. M. van Zantwijk, The Aztec arrangement: the social history of pre-Spanish Mexico,

Preface 35
Part I

The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts

During the long rule of Charles V (1516-56), the Regular Orders of Franciscans,
Dominicans and Augustinians were in charge of the indoctrination of the natives of New
Spain. Far from the hierarchy of the church and civil authorities in Spain, they had free
reign to implement often non-orthodox methods to convert the natives to Christianity.
Building churches, theater representations, ritual processions, combinations of
alphabetical and pictograph systems, among others, were part of those strategies.
The more the missionaries learned about the culture and religion of the natives, the more
they felt the need to study it in depth in order to succeed in their "conversion.
Information about Nahua culture began to be collected and written by the friars and their
indigenous assistants in Nahuatl, Spanish and Latin. An important factor in the merging
of the two cultures was the writing of Nahuatl in roman phonetic alphanumeric
characters. Most documents took the shape of sermons, manuals, encyclopedias,
dictionaries, chronicles, and treatises. These projects were heterogeneous, but all of them
were made as tools to facilitate the accommodation of the "two"34 different cultures
which had come into contact.
This section relates how the Europeans and Native Middle Americans came together and
how this was recorded in several documents configured by the mendicant friars during
the sixteenth-century.

(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), and for an excellent introduction and compilation of different case studies on the
Mesoamerican institution of the altepetl see Federico Fernndez Christlieb and ngel Julin Garca Zambrano, ed., Territorialidad y
paisaje en el altepetl del siglo XVI. (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 2006).
34
There is a common simplification about the encounter of the New and Old worlds. While the notion of New and Old only
makes sense from the European point of view, there were not just two worlds that encountered but two groups of nations that were
far from homogeneous and were in constant conflict among themselves.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 36

A. Fray Bernardino de Sahagn (1499-1590)35
In 1529, together with 19 other Franciscans, Fray Bernardino de Sahagn signed up as a
recruit to become a missionary as a member of the second group of Spanish missionaries
sent to New Spain. He arrived in Veracruz on August of the same year never to return to
Spain again.
In 1536 he was appointed to teach Latin at the recently founded Colegio Imperial de la
Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, a special school for the sons of the native nobility. Some of his
students eventually became his assistants in the collection and writing of native accounts
on Nahuatl religion and history.
In 1558 Sahagn was commissioned by the General of his order, Fray Francisco de Toral,
to write all that he considered useful for the conversion of the natives. He devoted the rest
of his long life to this assignment, collecting documents which were going to be
organized into a comprehensive encyclopedia of Nahua culture: the Historia General de
las cosas de la Nueva Espaa.
By its instrumental character, Sahagn's writings rendered the studied culture as
"objectively" as possible in order to act and modify it more deeply and definitely. His
procedures seemed at first sight neutral and "objective, but they started off from a strong
bias whose ultimate aim was to recognize and eradicate traces of the old traditions.
Sahagn was convinced that, only by mastering the Nahua language, could the
missionary enterprise succeed. That was why he organized his texts according to a two or
three column format, placing the original Nahua text recorded by his assistants in the first
column, the Spanish translation in the middle, and in the third his own elucidation about
Nahua words and concepts. Sahagn's marginal commentaries revealed his desire to
clarify many aspects of Nahua culture, especially those which seemed close to
Christianity.

35
The notes on Sahagn's life were taken from the Introductory volume of the English edition of the Florentine Codex by Arthur J. O.
Anderson and Charles E. Dibble: Bernardino de Sahagn, General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex (Santa Fe,
New Mexico: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1970-1982), 3-29, and from the introduction by H.B.
Nicholson in the edition of Thelma Sullivan of: Bernardino de Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales (University of Oklahoma Press, I997),
3-14. Most of Sahagn's own commentaries were taken from Bernardino de Sahagn, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva
Espaa, Edicin de Angel Maria Garibay K. (Mxico: Porrua, Col. "Sepan Cuantos..., 1999).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 37

I would like to approach the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan through the work of Sahagn's
main surviving works, the Primeros Memoriales36 made during his stage at Tepeapulco
(1580- ? ) and the encyclopedic Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espaa37
where he concentrated all the documents he had been gathering since 1547.

A.1 The ritual precinct of Tepeapulco altepetl in the Primeros Memoriales

Sahagn worked at the monastery of Tepeapulco. The monastery belonged to a large

altepetl of Texcocan ascendancy about seventy kilometers northeast of Mexico-
Tenochtitlan, in the present state of Hidalgo where the majority of the inhabitants spoke
Nahuatl.
Tepeapulco used to function as a provincial administrative center of the triple alliance
between Texcoco, Tacuba and Mexico-Tenochtitlan, later known as the "Mexican
Empire. A xochiyaotlo or "flowery war" field was located close by in which, during
periods of peace, the Mexica used to organize arranged wars, guerras floridas, against the
near communities to acquire victims for sacrifice.
Recruiting twelve of the principales as informants, and for a period of more than two
years, Sahagn interrogated them about their religious/ritual/divination system, their
history, customs, and knowledge of plants, animals, and minerals. He was aided by four
trilingual (Nahuatl/Spanish/Latin) assistants whom he had trained at the College of Santa
Cruz.38

36
Bernardino de Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, Paleography of the Nahuatl text and English translation by Thelma D. Sullivan,
(University of Oklahoma Press, I997).
37
Bernardino de Sahagn, General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex, (Santa Fe, New Mexico: The School of
American Research and The University of UTA, 1970-82).
38
Most of this material has survived in a manuscript, known as the Primeros Memoriales or Codice Matritense del Real Palacio. The
document has forty-nine paragraphs and illustrations divided into four chapters arranged in a top down hierarchy as was the case for
medieval encyclopedias. They are: I: Gods, II: Heaven and Underworld: III: Rulership: IV: Human Things. The original manuscript is
divided between two Madrid repositories, the libraries of the Real Academia de la Historia and the Real Palacio. The Primeros
Memoriales were clearly the seed from Sahagns Historia General de las cosas de la Nueva Espaa, a more comprehensive version
of Nahua culture. It's most complete copy is kept in Florence and is known as the Florentine Codex.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 38

 Figure 1: Ritual Precinct, Primeros Memoriales of Sahagn's Cdices Matritenses, Pl. XVI. Manuscript.
Tepeapulco, Hidalgo. Early Colonial, c. 1559-61. Real Casa, Patrimonio Nacional, Palacio Real, Madrid, fol. 269r.

39
Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, fol. 269r.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 39

Fray Juan de Torquemada mentioned40 that while working on the Historia General, years
later, Sahagn prepared a detailed map of Tenochtitlan's ritual precinct made by
Tlatelolca informants, close neighbors of Tenochtitlan. This map may have been added to
the text as an attachment and sent to Spain in 1548.41 The picture was unfortunately
removed from the manuscript. We have, however, in appendix II of book II, a list of the
seventy-eight buildings that existed within the precinct of the Great Temple of
Tenochtitlan. What may be the reason for the disparity between this list and the picture
made by the Tepeapulco informants? Aside from this, it is also puzzling that some
structures mentioned in the short list of the Primeros Memoriales were not even
mentioned in the longer list of the Historia as the Colhvacan teucalli.
In her edition of the Primeros Memoriales, Thelma Sullivan42 speculates that the picture
may not be an idealized scheme of the temple of Tenochtitlan but just the patio in front of
the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, like the one depicted in Durn's Gods and Rites
(See Figure 14, p.129).
The existence of a patio in front of the teocalli Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc is
unquestionable, but this is not what is represented in the Primeros Memoriales. The
surrounding walls appear clearly to be enclosing all the other buildings, suggesting a
whole precinct rather than a particular courtyard of a specific teocalli. Besides, why
would a teocalli dedicated to Xipe Totec appear in the courtyard of the teocalli dedicated
to other gods?
The map is not a simplified sketch signaling the fundamental elements of the ritual
precinct of Tenochtitlan, suppressing the other elements for the sake of clarity. Nor was it
a general outline which intended to present a schematic arrangement of buildings
common to all the different altepetl centers. I concur with Eloise Quiones Keber43 that
the Tepeapulco informants depicted an "objective" layout of Tepeapulco's ritual precinct.
40
Fray Juan de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana (Mxico: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Instituto de Investigaciones
Histricas, 1975-1983), Vol. I, 219.
41
Under Charles successor Philip II (1556-98), the mendicant orders were significantly restricted in their actions while secular clergy
was favored. The vicissitudes of the sixteenth century were reflected in the fate of the friars and of their written collaborative work.
An order sent on April 22, 1577, by Philip II to Viceroy Martn Enrquez, prohibited all writings referring to the "superstitions and the
way of life of the Indians. The works of Durn and Sahagn as well as other writings of similar character were confiscated. The case
of Fray Diego Valads was different because, as general procurator of the Franciscan Order in Rome, he could make his work
published avoiding, to some extent, the Spanish censorship.
42
Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 117-118.
43
Eloise Quiones Keber, An introduction to the Images, Rites, and Physical features of the Primeros Memoriales, in Fray
Bernardino de Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 29-30.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 40

The representation has an "objective" basis but because of its simplicity the arrangement
resulted in an almost archetypal depiction and therefore could easily be taken as a general
example of Nahua ritual precincts.
By contrasting the Primeros Memoriales and the Historia General, it is possible to
visualize the nature of the cellular organization of the altepetl and its misunderstanding
by Europeans who saw in it the religious center of a centralized "empire.
Tepeapulco was founded before Tenochtitlan, and it may have had a twin teocalli even
before Mexica influence. The Mexica and all other Aztec tribes had followed the
footsteps of the Chichimecs of Xolotl as they entered into the valley of Anahuac a
hundred and fifty years earlier as showed in the Xoltotl and Quinatzin Codex.44 They had
also assimilated Toltec culture and legitimized their lineage by marriages between their
leaders and Toltec "princesses. adopting the practice of ritual sacrifice, the ritual ball
game, the cultivation of corn and the ritual/agricultural calendar among other Toltec
practices.
In Mexica times, however, Tepeapulco, a Texcocan Acolhua allied with the Mexica, may
have adopted Huitzilopochtli as one of their patron gods. It is known that at the time of
the encounter with the Europeans Tepeapulco was a pilgrimage center for the
Huitzilopochtli cult. Motolinia wrote about the importance of this ceremonial center:

This town of Tepeapulco is built on a high hill where there was one of the big and splendid
temples of the devil, which they then tore down. As the town is big and has many others
subject to it, it had big teocalli or temples dedicated to the devil.45

The picture in the Primeros Memoriales gives us an idea of the paradigmatic elements
which used to form a ritual precinct having as its most evident characteristic its sense of
wholeness.
I maintain that the ritual precinct of Tenochtitlan was not a ritual precinct but a group of
agglomerated precincts which reflected a complex plot of spatial and ritual relationship
among different cults. It was formed by different elements which were not essentially

44
This is registered in the Maps/Codex called Xololt and Quinatzin, and recounted during the colony by one of his descendants,
Fernando de Alva Ixtlixochitl. See Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxchitl, Historia de la nacin chichimeca, Ed. Germn Vzquez, (Madrid:
Historia 16, c1985).
45
Toribio Benavente Motolina, History of the Indians of New Spain. Translated and edited by Elizabeth Andros Foster (Berkeley,
Calif.: Corts Society, 1950.), Book 2, chapter 1.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 41

different from the ritual precinct of Tepeapulco depicted at the Primeros Memoriales. In
other words: the great temple of Mexico Tenochtitlan was formed by several ritual
compounds like the one of Tepeapulco depicted in the Primeros Memoriales.
Although the drawing of the ritual precinct in the Primeros Memoriales was evidently
made by a tlacuilo,46 and although it had no evident traces of European influences,47 it
could not be recognized as an "authentic" pre-Hispanic manifestation. The mere fact that
it was the product of an inquiry made by the "other" determined it strongly.
Most pre-Hispanic representations of teocalli had an important role in ritual procedures:
family ruling lineages appeared depicted in relation to them; they usually reflected
cosmic/ritual rhythms or relate historic events. Those representations used to be part of
calendar devises like the beautiful allegoric teocalli representations of the Borgia Codex
(See Figure 2, p. 43). Those devices were strongly mediated by the natives world view.
Although they were linked symbolically and magically with a real or a mythical referent,
they were not objectified copies. They were schematic glyphs containing only the
essential architectonic elements.

46
The traditional tasks of the tlacuilos (painters/scribes) not only implied the making of the pictorial documents but its interpretation.
They were the ones that "translated" them for "priests" and "kings. The fact that the Nahua sign system was a mixture between
pictographs, ideograms and phonetic signs, implied a multivalent range for interpretation ranging from the mnemonic to the ritual.
Due to the introduction of phonetic writing during the colonial period, the activities made by the tlacuilos, were divided into painting
and writing. The phonetic sings is a pictograph that recalls the sound of a word but not its image, a phonetic referent rather than a
direct pictorial one. The scribes behold the power to make written offices, requests and complaints to the Spanish authorities. The
moment of transition between pictograph and alphabetic writing is reflected by the appearance in the indigenous documents of
alphabetic characters placed near its pictograph counterpart. With time, the percentage of phonetic signs increased with regards to
ideograms and pictographs.
47
Physical context, volume, scale, blending of colors and else. For more details in the differences between Mesoamerican and
European ways of representation see Donald Robertson, Mexican manuscript painting of the early colonial period: the metropolitan
schools (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 42

 Figure 2: Codex Borgia: fol. 33. Allegorical representation of a cosmic teocalli
supported by the mythic cipactli or crocodile as the Earth's surface. The roof the
different heavens are depicted with the huehueteteo, the ancestors and the warriors
sacrificed who ascend to the house of the sun.

The image of the Primeros Memoriales represents, however, a sketchy copy of the actual
layout of Tepeapulco ritual precinct; there is the intention by the painter of depicting it as
it "was. The representation stands in an ambivalent position between a glyph and a
picture aimed towards transparency. The issue was to communicate between two people
which did not share the same conventions. Its representation had to be as "transparent" as
possible. The drawing is an illustration, not a ritual device: it was made to inform. The
representation is closer in intention to a replica for tourists than a "real" pre-Hispanic
device.
Because Tepeapulco's ritual precinct had surely been destroyed at the time the drawing
was made, the informants may have sketched it from memory. Modern notions of one to
one representations -like representation done to scale or in proportion- were not part of
the Nahua cultural framework. We can not expect that the tlacuilos would have depicted
the teocalli with the "correct" number of steps, or the "correct" proportion between its
different parts. We can expect, however, an actual layout of the precinct.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 43

The image shows a rectangular enclosure with three openings, at right, left and bottom
sides, the top side of the enclosure had no openings. There are ten structures depicted
inside the precinct although the one at the top seemed to be a duplication of the shrine of
Huitzilopochtli at the top of the central teocalli. In the center of the courtyard is located a
double teocalli. At its topside, Huitzilopochtli's shrine appears depicted on the right side
with its characteristic spotted insignia on the roof, and Tlaloc's teocalli at the left side
recognizable by the vertical blue and white stripes. There are separate stairs for each
teocalli divided by wide balustrades. Blood was represented around the entrance of both
rooms and along the stairs all the way down. Along the vertical axis and below the
central teocalli a momoxtli or altar was represented in frontal view, below it appears the
glyph of a xompantli or skull rack used to display the severed heads of the sacrificed
victims. Below the xompantli there was a teotlachtli or sacred ballgame in its common "I"
glyph representation. The rest of the structures were concentrated in the lower part of the
composition leaving open space around the central teocalli. At the left there were two
edifices; the one at the corner seemed to be a small teocalli and the other structure may
be a calmecac or school/dormitory for priests and novices. At the lower right corner was
another teocalli related to Xipe's cult and a temalacatl, an altar used for a ritual that
Clavijero named as gladiatorial combat.
There are six "characters" depicted within the precinct: the first of them is Huitzilopochtli
impersonator or image at the entrance of his shrine at the upper part of the quadrangle.
There were two other characters holding staffs at both sides of the dual teocalli. A
"priest, with his face painted in black, appears at the top of the momoxtli or central altar
making some copal offerings. His footsteps are coming out from the calmecac at the left
side marking a ritual procession. A fifth character related to Xipe's cult is represented in a
still, upside-down position, holding a staff, near the right entrance. The sixth character is
at the entrance of a secondary teocalli placed at the bottom left corner.
In the layout the structures are represented either frontally or laterally. The tlachtli or ball
game appears depicted in a traditional plan view as a capital "I, and the temalacatl
combined the plan of the round stone with the platform depicted frontally.
The edifices at the bottom part of the composition were rotated ninety or a hundred and
eighty degrees. This revealed that their positions were sensible to their spatial distribution
and relation among themselves. Some appeared to be perpendicular to the central teocalli
and others were facing it.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 44

Although the painting represented a specific precinct, those structures were common to
most ritual precincts. To a large extent what could be said for Tepeapulco's ritual precinct
could apply to the rest of the ritual precincts of the different altepetl and calpolli of
Anahuac, including the Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Since Europeans visualized an "Aztec Empire" analogous to the Roman Empire, it was
logical to infer that the structure of the different calpolco would be the result of Mexica
influence. But it was rather the opposite: the Mexica copied other altepetl organizations
and appropriated them for themselves. Most ritual precincts, even small ones, had the
same basic elements: teocalli, calmecac, xompantli, momoxtli, teotlachtli, coatenamitl,
temalacatl and ytvalli. I will describe each of them and elucidate their actual and
symbolic functions in order to clarify the nature of the relationship between the "huei
teocalli" of Tenochtitlan and the different teocalli of the Anahuac.

A.2 Calpolco, the Nahua Ritual Precinct

Ritual precincts were compounds of structures that together represented a unit. I argue
that this unit was constituted as the image of the cosmos. In their magic vision, the ritual
precincts were more than symbolic, they were the cosmos itself; which means that any
thing that happened at the ritual compound had "real" cosmic resonances. I will unveil
this relationship between cosmos and ritual precinct when talking about the
representations of gods and its extrapolation to architecture.
Now I will explain each of the terms enumerated in paragraph Seven of the Primeros
Memoriales48 and compare them with the ones mentioned in the Historia General, that is,
with the "real" temple of Tenochtitlan.49
The list of the different elements is headed by the title in Nahuatl:

Jnic vij. Parrapho ipan moteneoa in tlein itotoca catca, y cececni tlacatecvlocalco.
Seventh paragraph, in which are told what were the names of the diverse houses of the
devil.50
48
Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 117-118, [fol. 268v].
49
Sahagn, Florentine Codex, Appendix of Book 2, 179.
50
The term Tlacatecvlocalco can not be translated in association with the devil. According to Molina's dictionary -another colonial
source- the compound Tlcatecol-tl, from tlca-tl "person, and tecol-tl, "owl, meant "devil, and "monster. The verb
Tlcatecolnotz referred to what the "sorcerer" does: invoking the devil, -idolatrar o invocar al demonio-.But these are western

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 45

Teocalli, the house of the gods51

The first and most important edifice mentioned in the list is the double teocalli dedicated
to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, depicted at the center of the compound along a vertical
axis.
A teocalli represented, above all, the primordial floating mountain or Cemanahuac. The
Earth was contemplated as a truncated pyramid as it corresponded with the geography of
Mesoamerica with the slopes towards the coasts and their wide plateaus at the center. The
porous Earth permeated water, the fluid upon which life was sustained. The insurance of
propitiatory supplies of rain for Nahua societies created a link of dependency between the
altepetl and the surrounding mountains as suppliers of water. This was mediated by the
teocalli and the ritual activities which established a close relationship with the landscape.
Being thankful for a good harvest or asking for rain to have a good one was propitiated
by sacrificial offerings. While mountains gave water, men offered blood in exchange.
Although in other representations of teocalli dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc they
are usually depicted as four superimposed platforms, that of the Primeros Memoriales is
represented as a single pyramidal structure. Huitzilopochti's shrine is identifiable at the
right by the "starry sky" ornamentation and the one of Tlaloc appears with four vertical
blue stripes. We can confidently affirm that the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli, "the
Hummingbird of the left" would be placed to the south side of the teocalli while the one
of Tlaloc to the North. Both facing west.
The world teocalli was a compound with the voices teo, usually translated as "god" or
"sacred, and calli "house": house of god. According to the linguist Arild Hvidtfeldt52,

categories unknown in pre-Hispanic times. For the Nahua, man and nature were intimately bound. The notion of persona was different
from the Christian indivisible and sufficient being. The bond between nature and man was manifested in the "totemic" concept of the
nagual: men's specific animal counterpart who varied from person to person. Tlacatecolotl may have been understood as a person
whose nagual was an owl, a night creature, a man who dealt with the occult forces of the cosmos, a shaman. (Shaman is a Siberian
word to designate a person who directly manipulates natural forces. It seems very probable that the Mexican Nagual comes from the
same tradition). In the context of the Christian colony, however, it was necessarily seen as a person who led a relationship with the
devil. Tlacateco is also referred to by Kartunnen (Analytical dictionary of Nahuatl, 252) as the residence of a member of the high
nobility, and also the name of a templo dedicado al dios Uitzilopochtli, cuya consagracin tuvo lugar bajo el reinado del monarca
Ahuizotl. It seems that Kartunnen also identifies the image of the Primeros Memoriales, called the Tlacatecvolocalco by the
informants, with the the teocalli of Tenochtitlan.
51
The teocalli where called as Cu or Cues by the Spaniards as a derivation of the Mayan word nah k'uh "house of god.
52
Hvidtfeldt, Teotl and Ixiptlatli, 77.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 46

teotl should be translated as "sacred. The word may derive syntactically from "sun" as
the compound teotlac "at sunset, suggests. An ixiptla or impersonator of the sun is
"Tonatiuh, "the bright, warming, beaming one" personified as a "god.
Teotl, therefore, implies "sacred, but here "sacred" does not refer to a relation with a
transcendental being but, clearly, to a natural force, and specifically to the warmth of the
sun, tonalli.53 According to Hvidtfeldt, the voice teo- "clearly and incontestably" involves
the semantic aspect of "high potency, intensification, excellence. In that sense, all the
gods, or teotls, were manifestations of the high potency and excellence of the solar
energy. Although Huitzilopochtli was a solar god, he in fact only partake of the sun's
energy in a higher degree than other gods: all gods were united and related to the sun's
potency.54
The main orientation of teocalli, sacred precincts, and the whole altepetl was determined,
first of all by the movement of the sun. The huei teocalli in Tepeapulco, Tenayuca and
Tenochtitlan dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, a solar deity, faced west. The orientation of the
teocalli, however, was never simple. There were factors, besides the movement of the
sun, that determined their orientation. A teocalli could face any direction. The careful
insertion of a teocalli, in a specific place was the product of ritual, during which the
selection of the site itself was crucial. Its insertion was carefully knitted into the
movement of the heavenly bodies and aligned symbolically and visually with a real
tutelary mountain in the surroundings. The existences of bodies of water, springs and
rivers, were crucial factors of its placement and orientation. Other important aspects of
orientation was directly related to the mythical narratives of each altepetl.55
Although the gods were usually represented as humans, what made them "sacred" was
not their human dimension, but their ritual investiture that gave them cosmic potencies.
What made the images ixiptlas, god impersonators or "idols, was their "disguise. The
ornamental attires used by the images invoked the force of the teotl. Sculptures, paintings
and even humans acted as receptacles for the force of a particular god while dressed with
his particular attires and garments.

53
All natural forces were ultimately related to the sun's energy or tonalli, which Hvidtfeldt associates with the Polynesian concept of
mana: a natural force invested in an object or person. See Hvidtfeldt, Teotl and Ixiptlatli, 11-65.
54
The solar implication of the world teotl did not disqualified a dual principle as the ultimate referent of all that exists. Hvidtfeldt also
points out that teotl and some of its compounds appear to be intrinsically associated with conceptions of the dead. He argues that this
association may be connected with the belief that certain dead beings were supposed to continue living with the sun.
55
See below, Diego Durn, B.4.: The Fifth Sun and the orientation of the teocalli.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 47

An important aspect of the central teocalli was its double character. This manifestation
reflected a dualistic understanding of the worlds structure. Twin temples were not an
Aztec invention; they were common in Mesoamerica, as least, since the time of
Teothihuacan (200 BCE to 800 CE),56 but the association between Huitzilopochtli and
Tlaloc had specific implications. Huitzilopochtli, the tribal patron god of the Mexica, was
a newcomer in the Anahuac. He shared the huei teocalli with Tlaloc, the ancient Toltec
patron god of rain and thunder. The double teocalli aligned agricultural societies
governed by leaders bound to the place by genealogical ties, together with shamanic
nomadic cultures striving to accommodate themselves within an already tight mosaic of
settlements.
Just as the Chichimecs had done one hundred and fifty years earlier, the Mexica
appropriated the cultural heritage of the ancient Toltecs, the toltecayotl or "Toltec Way,"
by means of war and marriages of their leaders with the local noble families. In this way
they joined their lineages and transformed their religion according to local practices,
transforming the nature of their own gods and promoting them to the highest positions.
The dual shrine teocalli was indeed an ingenious way to deal with the "other" and with
the "self.57
An amplification of Huitzilopochtli's teocalli appeared on top of the double temple
showing the god at its entrance. Huitzilopochtli appeared depicted with his typical striped
painted face in blue and yellow. He has his shield with five feathers, his scepter in the
form of a folded snake representing a thunderbolt (xihucoatl) in his right hand and his
characteristic bird head symbol on his left leg.
The teocalli was the "house of the god" and it was, at the same time, the sacrificial altar
par excellence. The most common human sacrifice was made at the uppermost platform
opening the chest of the victim with a flint and extracting his heart in front of the god's
shrine. In that sense, the offering was made to the ixiptla which represented the natural
force. The stairs of the double teocalli clearly depicted the blood of the sacrificed victims.

56
This is clearly shown in the teocalli of Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl at the Ciudadela in Teotihuacan.
57
For more about this see Part III: 3.3., Ignacio Marquina, Tenayuca.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 48

Calmecac, monastery/school/library

The calmecac was a complex of buildings used as dormitories and schools for the priests
of the different cults, and for the sons of the pipiltin or nobles who had to undergo
religious service as teenagers. The calmecac was also a library for keeping important
documents related to the cults, such as annals, ritual calendars, genealogical records and
so on.
Edmund Seller identified the calmecac as the two-doored structure at the lower left of the
principal temple: from this building footsteps lead from the right-hand doorway to the
central altar or momoxtli.58
On the list of buildings within the ritual precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan which appeared
in the Historia General, was recorded the existence of five different calmecac. They
were: Mexico calmecac, Yopico calmecac, Uitznauac calmecac, Tetlanman calmecac,
and the Tzonmolco calmecac.
The Mexico calmecac was evidently related to the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli.59 It may be
that the Mexico calmecac also contained a double structure serving both Huitzilopochtli
and Tlaloc's cults. It is possible, also, that some calmecac served the cult of several gods
if there were related, but it is evident that the main cults had their specific calmecac
which were somehow independent from each other.
The Yopico calmecac60 was associated with the Yopico calpolli or district which had as
its patron god Xipe Totec, the flayed god, and the Uitznauac calmecac61 is evidently
related to the Uitznahuac calpolli. Tetlanman calmecac62 and Tzonmolco63 calmecac
seem to be the same, both are specifically devoted to Chantico (Xiutecutli) the fire god,
who may also be associated with one of the twenty different calpolli of the city.
58
Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 119.
Mexico calmecac: there dwelt the penitents who offered incense at the summit of the [pyramid] Temple of Tlaloc quite daily.
59

Florentine Codex, Appendix of Book II, 182.

60
Yopico calmecac: there was slaying there; very many captives died there, also at night at the time of [the feast of ] Tlacaxipeualiztli,
also every year, there at the calmecac of Youallauan. Florentine Codex, Appendix of Book II, 188.
61
Uitznauac calmecac: there dwelt the penitent, the fire priest, who offered incense, who deposited incense there at the top of the
temple which was named Uitznauac. Quite every day was it so done. Florentine Codex, Appendix of Book II, 183.
62
Tetlanman calmecac: There dwelt the fire priest, the one devoted [to the service of Chantico]. Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book
II, 184.
63
Tzonmolco calmecac: from there came the fire, which they named Xiuhteculti. There, Moctezuma took the fire when he offered
incense, and there the fire drill fell [to make the new fire] yearly, at the time of [the feast of] Uauhquiltamalqualiztli. Florentine
Codex, Appendix to Book II, 190.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 49

Each calpolli tended to have its own patron god as well as its own priesthood with its
own calmecac. This meant that, instead of all the calmecac being in the central ritual
precinct, each calpolco would have has its own calmecac to serve its specific cult. This
reinforced the decentralized reality of the altepetl organization. Each calpolco was a
complex compound with the same basic elements of the main ritual precinct.

Momoxtli, altar/mount

The fourth structure mentioned in the Primeros Memoriales is the Yxmomoztl, usually
translated as "altar. It was a square platform with stairs on all four cardinal points,
commonly placed at the center of the ritual courtyard. At its top stood a priest holding a
copal incense bag, his face painted black. The footsteps between the calmecac and the
momoxtli traced the path of the priest suggesting a ceremonial procession.
The momoxtli represented the basic structure of Mesoamerican architecture: the platform.
It raised the floor to a higher level giving humans and gods a solid meeting ground. It
may be argued that any structure from a calli (house) to a teocalli (temple) stood on top
of a momoxtli, converting all aspects of human life as sacred.
The momoxtli was the architectonic artifact that represented the fundamental structure of
the cosmos for Mesoamericans: cemanahuac, "surrounded by water, the Earth as an
island. It rose at the middle of the polished surface of the courtyards as the primordial
mountain would have risen from the waters of the origins. It was the scenario where the
cosmic elements embedded with humans ones.
The momoxtli represented, therefore, the xico, the navel of the world. Gutierre Tibn
clarified that a xico embodied in itself a dual connotation, it was a gnomon and a well, a
tree and a spring, a phallus and a vagina.64 There were rituals performed on this central
structure that pointed up, orienting and signaling the time to perform the sacrificial
offering, or rituals involving planting a tree at its center to propitiate rain. The momoxtli
mediated between up and down, North and South, East and West. It was where the gods
of life, Ometeotl and Ometecihuatl, and death, Mictlantecutli and Mictlantechuatl, met to
regenerate each other. It represented the threshold to access the watery underworld,
embodying its symbolic function of a well or a spring: the momoxtli recreated a fountain

64
See GutierreTibn, El ombligo como centro csmico: una contribucin a la historia de las religiones, 1a ed. (Mxico: Fondo de
Cultura Econmica, 1981).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 50

of life after the sacrificial offering, enacting the vertical connection towards the sun
exemplified by a vegetable germination and its growth towards the sky. It was a
sacrificial altar as well as a spring of life, a field of battle and a cornfield. It represented,
therefore, the center of the creative forces of the universe with its dual connotations of
life and death.
The momoxtli provided an existential point of reference because it represented a world in
miniature. Both the world and its minimum architectonic manifestation, were magically
bound together by a metaphoric connection. All which happened in the altar platform had
cosmic resonances.

Quauhxicalli, the eagle vessel

The fourth name on the list is not a building, but a ritual artifact that is not represented in
the picture: the quauhxicalli, usually translated as "Eagle Vessel. The word is made up
of the roots quauh, "eagle, xi (xico) "navel, and calli, "house.
The quauhxicalli was the receptacle to place the hearts of the sacrificial victims. The
Eagle was associated with the sun, it was the "mercurial" connector, and acted as the go-
between the sun and the sacrificial human offerings.
The root xi, as in Mexico, signified navel. It was not surprising that in a sacrificial ritual
described by Diego Durn,65 the quauhxicalli was placed at the momoxtli, the altar at the
center of the courtyard in front of the teocalli. It represented the navel of the precinct and
the point of connection with the sky and underworld.

Quauhcalli, the eagle house

Sullivan affirmed that Seler identified this structure with the temple situated at the
southwestern corner (the lower left corner of the ritual enclosure) of the Primeros
Memoriales, where a blackened face appears at the door. But his conclusion is doubtful.
According to Diego Durn, the teocalli dedicated to the sun was placed in the
southwestern corner of the sacred enclosure of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. As the eagle was
the solar animal par excellence, Seler identified the Quauhcalli with the teocalli of the
65
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 80. See also below, Part I, B.6.: Diego Durn, The rituals.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 51

sun. But the Quauhcalli was not necessarily the teocalli of the sun. The sun was also
associated with the figure of the "king" or tlatoani. The Quauhcalli may have been the
house of the tlatoani. The structure may have also been the headquarters of the Eagle
warriors who were a military order whose nagual was the eagle and who were associated
with Huitzilopochtlis cult.
Furthermore, Seler identifies the southwest corner of the physical ritual enclosure as the
one represented at the lower left corner of the map, assuming naively, that the top part of
the map is oriented to the north as are contemporary western maps. But the orientation of
this map in particular is clearly given by the central teocalli where the shrine of
Huitzilopochtli is placed to the right of the composition and to the left of the teocalli
itself, that is, to its south side. The temple that Seler identifies as the Cuauhcalli appears,
therefore, in the northwest side of the precinct and not to the south where he thought the
temple of the sun was.
As noted by Sullivan, the character who appears in the structure has his lower face
blackened, a typical feature of the earth fertility goddesses, probably Cihuacoatl or one of
her avatars.

Teutlachtli, the gods' game66

The seventh structure mentioned in the list is the teotlachtli; formed by the prefix teo,
"god, "sacred, and the suffix tlachtli "ballgame. It is represented with its characteristic
glyph of a capital "I" oriented along the east-west axis. With this orientation the ball
mimicked the movement of the sun.
The games performed at the teotlachtli were, rather than games, rituals. Among the
different archetypal buildings of the ritual precinct, it was the teotlachlti where the
relationship between the cosmic cycles of day and night and its human counterpart life
and death were more clearly revealed. The game of tlachtli was an ancient practice in all
of Mesoamerica. Tlachtli courts have been found from Honduras all the way to the state
of Arizona in the US. Fairly recently, the oldest known ball-game belonging to the Olmec

66
Teotlachco: there died those named Amapantzin [impersonating the god Amapan]. They died only at dawn. And [this was done]
yearly at the time of [the feast of] Panquetzaliztli. Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 186.
Tezcatlachco: there also there was slaying; there died the impersonator of Uitznauatl only at times, not often. Perchance it was at the
time of [the day count] Two Reed. Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 185.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 52

culture (1200-400 BCE) was found in Honduras.67 Olmec culture originated around the
ball-game. How the Olmecs referred to themselves is not known, but Olmec is a Nahua
world designating the "people of the rubber. In Nahuatl, the words olli, "rubber, and
ollin, "movement" are intrinsically associated. In the sap of the hule tree the cosmic
energy was believed to be concentrated. The white sticky sap may have been associated
with semen and fecundity. Furthermore, in Nahuatl, ollin "movement" and yollotl "heart"
are also etymologically related. There was an evident symbolic association between the
rubber ball's capacity to bounce, and the capacity of the heart, yollotl, to palpitate. This
may be a primordial symbolic mediation between the sacrificial offerings of hearts
implied in the symbolism of the bouncing ball as a cosmic movement. The ball and the
game itself were associated with movement, ollin, which was represented by two twisted
water flows which bent, one over the other, forming a quincunx.
Formally and symbolically the ball court was the opposite of the momoxtli. One was a
platform, the other a depression, a void, the space between two platforms, a long valley
between a chain of mountains, the underground, and a cave. It was usually oriented
towards the horizon where the heavenly bodies appeared or disappeared. On a tlachtli
court, one has the impression of being underground.
But, as exemplified in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, the tlachtli had in itself an
intrinsic dual principle. There was a self contained universe that moved between two
polarities. Two opposite teams, the day and the night, life and death- engaged in a cosmic
war/game. The tlachtli incarnated the cosmic and human drama of life and death as two
equally positive aspects of reality (See Figure 3, p.54).68

67
La Jornada, October 28, 2006, Mexico City printed edition.
68
Roughly speaking, the tlachtli was similar to a tennis game. After one of the teams "served, the ball could bounce once and had to
be answered by the other team with hips and elbows (protected with a garment of thick leather). The middle of the court was marked
by two round stone markers at the side walls that signaled a virtual line at the middle of the court. The game has survived in different
modalities in the states of Oaxaca (Pelota Mixteca), Michoacan (Pelota Tarasca), and Sinaloa (Ulama).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 53

 Figure 3: The dual principles of the cosmos as the source of life and
their intrinsic association with the Ball-Game, Historia Tolteca-
Chichimeca, F. 16v

Xompantli, the skull rack

The eighth structure mentioned in the list is the Tzunpantli (xompantli) or "skull rack"
depicted in front of the momoxtli and the teotlachtli marked by a minimalist glyph: a
basement with three posts and a fourth one closing the frame. At the top, two human
skulls appeared strung into the bar. In many archaeological sites, what has survived from
the xompantli is just the basement adorned with a relief of skulls.
There were six xompantli recorded in the list of the structures within the precinct of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan associated with the different cults.69 There were not, however,
enough for all the cults, which suggests that not all of them used the xompantli for their
69
Mixcoapan Tzompantli: Mixcoapan Skull Rack: there they strung up the severed heads of those who died in the Temple of Mixcoatl.
Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 180.
Tzompantli: Skull Rack: there were sacrificed those named the Omacame [impersonators of Omacatl]. And also very many captives
died there. And there was slaying every two hundred and sixty days. Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 185.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 54

ritual practices. It is also likely that the different cults were distributed among the
different calpolco or district ritual centers beyond the walls of the central ritual
compound. Each calpolli or district had a specific god as their patron god. This would
lead us to think that each had their own particular xompantli as well.
The conqueror Andrs de Tapia made a detailed description of the huei xompantli
dedicated to Huitzilopochtli at Tenochtitlan.70 He determined the accurate number of
heads (one hundred and thirty six thousand) noting that there were the same number of
bars between the columns and the same number of skulls in each bar. The xomplantli
resembles a cosmic abacus keeping the accurate records of sacrificial victims. It is not
improbable to think that the exactness reflected in the accuracy of the astronomic
calendar was also observed in the recording of sacrificial duties. The xompantli
represented a practical way to count the number of victims offered to the gods, a
threatening strategy for all those who watched it and a physical proof of their being
dutiful towards the cosmos. It was, with the teocalli, the tlachlti, and the momoxtli, a
pervasive structure within the ritual precincts of all Mesoamerican altepetl, at least from
Toltec times.
The ninth, eleventh and twelfth items of the list do not represent paradigmatic structures,
but seem to be specific to some ritual compounds.71

Vey Tzompantli: The Great Skull Rack: there also used to be slaying; very many captives died there, by day, not by night. [This was
done] likewise at the time of [the feast of ] Panquetzaliztli, also yearly. Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 186.
Iopico Tzompantli: Yopico Skull Rack: there they strung up the severed heads of captives and those whom they stripped [slew in
gladiatorial sacrifice] at the time of [the feast of] Tlacaxipeualiztli. [This] also [they did] yearly. Florentine Codex, Appendix to
Book II, 189.
Tzompantli: [This] Skull Rack was the skull rack of [the Temple of] Yiacatecutli. And there they strung up the severed heads of
captives who died above on the [pyramid] Temple of Yiacatecutli at the time of the first day of [the month of] Xocotl uetzi. Florentine
Codex, Appendix to Book II, 189.
70
Germn Vzquez, ed., La conquista de Tenochtitlan, (Madrid: Historia 16, Crnicas de Amrica. 40, 1988), 108-109.
71
The twelfth and thirteenth names corresponded to two standing banners or guardians: Macuilcuetzpalli, "Five Lizard" to the left and
Macuilcalli, "Five House, to the right. Edmund Seler (Primeros Memoriales: 120) interpreted them as the stand banners at the gates
of the temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc which acted as guardians mentioned in some chronicles. Both had shields with insignias: a
flower (Xochipilli) and a Yollotopilli, a banner topped with a heart with sprouting blood resembling flower petals or feathers. Here we
see represented pictographically the metaphoric pairing of death and life commonly used in Nahua poetry. The flowers and hearts,
fruits and severed heads commonly appeared associated metaphorically.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 55

Temalacatl, the gladiatorial stone

The tenth structure is the temalacatl. The word itself derives from the abbreviation of
tenoch, "stone" and malacatl "rope. It was depicted in front of the Yopico teocalli near
the south entrance. The temalacatl consisted of a momoxtli with a round flat stone at the
top from where a malacatl or maguey fiber rope was tied at its center.

The temalacatl consisted of a momoxtli with a round stone at the top of which a rope was
tied in the middle. The gladiatorial victim's foot was tied to the rope. He was to engage in
(cosmic) battle only with a wooden stick against a fully armed warrior. In the image the
rope resembled an umbilical cord, or a germinating plant sprouting from its center,
revealing the metaphoric relationship between life and death.
According to this image, the gladiatorial sacrifice or tlahuahuanaliztli, was specifically
related to Xipe-Totec, the flayed god of vegetable fertility. He appeared depicted in the
image beside the temalacatl, holding a chicahuaztli, a "rattle staff.72

Yopico teocalli

The ninth structure is the Yopico Teucalli dedicated to Xipe-Totec, the flayed god.
Yopico was also a calpolli of Tenochtitlan, which had Xipe as their patron god. The
Yopico Teucalli or Xipe Totec's temple must be the one in the south west corner near the
image of Xipe with his red and white cap yopinzontli, his aztamecatl or heron-feather
cord and his rattle-staff or chicauaztli.
The Historia General relates about Yopico:

Florentine Codex, Appendix to Book II, 190.

72

Temalacatl: at that place there was the stripping [gladiatorial sacrifices]: there they stripped very many captives. And thus
were stripped indeed all men who came here from all the lands about us, whom they slew as sacrifices there upon the stone
of gladiatorial sacrifice. And there, their functionary was the Bear Man; he set them up on the stone of gladiatorial
sacrifice. And when he set a captive up there, thereupon he gave him a pine club, and he gave him a feathered staff. And
then went an impersonator to strike him repeatedly perhaps an eagle or an ocelot [warrior]. Then [the warrior] repeatedly
struck the captive, as if a battle were fought. And there, his functionary was the one named Chalchiuhtepeua. And when the
captive fell, thereupon the Bear Man dragged him off. Thereupon [a priest] slashed open the captive's breast. And when
they had slashed open the breast of the captive, thereupon they cast him down below. And this was done each year at the
time of [the feast of] Tlacaxipeualiztli.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 56

 there was slaying there; very many captives died there. And there (also) died the ones whose
names were Tequitzin and Mayauel. And when they died it was by day, not by nigh. And they
died at the time [of the feast] of Tlacaxipeualiztli: and [this was done] each year.73

The accounts of the rituals of Xipe narrated by Sahagn's informants are some of the
most disturbing sacrificial rituals. After having been sacrificed in gladiatorial combat the
warriors had their skin flayed off. Their skin was then worn by the god's priests for a
period of twenty days, after which, they partook in a solemn ceremony which coincided
with the harvest of the corn. This is maybe the best example of their belief that there
could not be life without death, or that from death life regenerated. The priest coming out
from the dead skin also recalled the corn being peeled form its leaves.
Xipe Totec's cult was one of the most antique cults in Mesoamerica and it was the main
god of the Yopi/Tlappaneca people which lived in the actual border between the states of
Guerrero and Oaxaca whose temples characteristically bore this name.
The Yopico calpolli of Tenochtitlan may certainly have had Xipe-Totec as their patron
god, and it may be constituted from Yopi groups integrated as a calpolli into Tenochtitlan
and other altepetl like Tepeapulco.

Colhuacan teocalli, recalling the origins

The eleventh structure mentioned is the Colhuacan teocalli. It was identified by Seler as
being the structure located behind the main teocalli on the top of the diagram, a replica of
Huitzilopochtli's teocalli.74 I believe that the structure above the main teocalli was an
artist's license" enlarging the shrine of Huitzilopochtli's allowing him to paint the god's
impersonator at the entrance. The Colhuacan teocalli could be, therefore, any of the other
teocalli within the precinct depicted in the map.
According to Sullivan, no teocalli of this name is mentioned in any other source. One
possible explanation for the existence of this particular structure within Tepeapolo's ritual
compound was the possible migrations of Colhuaque groups into Acolhuacan.75

73
Florentine Codex: Appendix to Book II, 188.
74
Sahagn, Primeros Memoriales, 119, 120.
75
Idem., 120.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 57

As all Nahua groups, the Colhua came from the North and became Toltequized; they
adopted the "Toltec Way. The Colhua recognized Chicomostoc as their place of origin,
The place of the Seven Caves. The Aztec Nahua groups, specially the Mexica, adopted
the Toltec institutions from the Colhuas, adopting also the myth of Colhuacan-
Chicomostoc as the "place of origins. In some sources, the Mexica inserted the myth of
Chicomostoc within their histories as a place where they spent some time after leaving
Aztlan. In other sources they even conflated Aztlan and Chicomostoc as being the same
place.
The Colhuas legitimized their Toltec lineage by marriages between their chiefs and
members of the Toltec nobles. The Mexica claimed, likewise, Toltec lineage by means of
marriages with the Colhuas.
Colhuacan was represented by a curved mount associated symbolically with the
humpback of the ancient god Huehueteotl. In the beautiful image representing
Chicomostoc in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca76 (See Figure 4, p.59), the humpbacked
mount appears in opposition to the entrance of the Seven Caves, which has to be read as
being situated exactly on top of them. The curved mountain was the external
manifestation of the generative caves of origins, which was believed to be a place of the
creation and re-creation of life. The image represented a cross section to the underworld
revealed in resemblance of female reproductive organs. From each of the caves one of the
seven Colhua-Chichimec tribes originated.
As we have stated before, each teocalli had as its referent a real/mythical mount, like was
the case of the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc associated with Coatepec and Mount
Tlaloc. The Colhuvacan teocalli was not just associated but impersonated and re-created
the Colhuacan mount on top of Chicomostoc/Aztlan, the place of origins.

Paul Kirchhoff, Linda Odena Gemes, Luis Reyes Garcia, ed. and trans., Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, (Mxico, D.F., Instituto
76

Nacional de Antropologa e Historia-Secretaria de Educacin Pblica, 1976).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 58

In the Anahuac or valley of Mexico, the Colhua identified Colhuacan as the Citlaltepetl
Mount or Cerro de la Estrella, recreating on it their mythical place of origins. In this
mount all the communities of the Anahuac used to celebrate every 52 years, when the
solar and ritual calendars coincided, the biding of the years also called the New Fire
ceremony.

Figure 4: Colhuacan, the curved mountain on top of

Chicomostoc, seven caves, the place of origin of the seven
Nahua tribes. Colhuacan is intrinsically associated with origins
and with the ceremony of the New Fire as seen in the image.
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, 1550, fol. 16r

Ytvalli, the patio

The fourteenth name was the Ytvalli (aitualli), "patio" or "courtyard. The aitualli was
the place of participation in ritual activities. The aitualli was formed by the place

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 59

between teocalli and coatenamitl. It corresponded, in the cosmic model, to the watery
matter at the origins of time, the teocalli being the primordial islands.

Coatenamitl, the Serpent Wall

The fifteenth structure mentioned was the coatenamitl or "serpent wall, which formed a
rectangular enclosure defining the ritual precinct. The association between serpents and
walls may be an analogy between the elongated physiognomy of the limbless reptiles that
remain close to earth as walls do.
Different colonial sources describe the coatenamitl either in front or surrounding the
teocalli. According to the chronicles, in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, both kinds of walls seemed
to have existed, one limiting the particular courtyards in front of each teocalli and one
surrounding the whole ritual complex.
In some European representations of the "Great Temple" based on the chronicles of the
conquerors, the buildings within the precinct other than the teocalli appeared attached to
the surrounding wall forming an internal portico giving the appearance of a Renaissance
or colonial square plaza. These images recreated the pre-Hispanic precincts as Western
colonial institutions recall easier the contemporary Zcalo of downtown Mexico City
than a Mesoamerican ritual precinct (See Figure 5, p.61).
It is difficult to understand the symbolism of the serpent unless we acknowledge its
ambivalent dimension. As said before, in Nahuatl, the voice coatl, "serpent, also means
"twin, and it has incorporated into Mexican Spanish as "very good friend" or "carnal,
meaning "from my same flesh.
The association between serpents and twins may be because of the reptiles double
tongue. In Nahuatl there are dozens of compound words derived from the root coatl. This
root implied in general a sense of reciprocity, but not necessarily. Serpents were not
always reconciliatory, much to the contrary; they were also associated with threatening
thresholds to the underworld. Many doors of temples and ritual precincts were made in
the shape of confronting serpents with open fangs. Crossing the threshold was equivalent
to being swallowed by a monstrous double snake; it was the access to the dark realm of
the death, the Mictlan. The serpent's powerful venom made this analogy more than just a
metaphor.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 60

The fact that snakes change skin constantly also represented a powerful image of life
after death, resurrection and regeneration. For the Nahua mind, serpents were related to
the earthly and watery regenerative forces of nature associated with death and its double
counterpart: life. This symbolism was clearly shown in one of the images of the "Great
Temple" made by the tlacuilo or painter that worked for Fray Diego Durn (See Figure
14, p. 128). The coatenamitl is named as coatepantli by Durn, and it is clearly depicted
in front of the huei teocalli as a chain of serpents emerging one from the mouth of each
other: eating and being eaten, constituting a destructive/regenerative chain of life/death.
Serpents were also connectors between the sky and the earth. That was clearly
exemplified in the balustrades of temples of the "classic" period as it is strikingly shown
in the pyramid of the toltequized Maya altepetl of Chichen Itza. Every equinox the
serpents of the balustrades brought the sun down to earth in order to fertilize it. The
serpents acted not just as connectors but as catalysts that permitted the miracle of the
fertilization of the earth to occur. This event recalled the cosmic attraction that
regenerated and fertilized the earth by means of the seminal insertion of the tonal, the
warmth of the sun into the earth, which signaled the beginning of the rainy and dry
seasons.

Figure 5: The Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli in Mexico City. Bernard Picard, 1722. Keen (The Aztec Image, 130).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 61

There is also an interesting relationship between the coatenamitl and the Sun Stone better
known as the Aztec Calendar (See Figure 6, p.63). Two serpents surrounding the calendar
meet face to face at the bottom of the stone. These representations have been interpreted
by Alfonso Caso77 as the xihucoatl, "fire-serpents" or carriers of the sun, in their journey
throughout the sky. Nahua's multivalent and metaphoric culture, however, accepts several
interpretations of the same phenomenon. The two serpents in the calendar clearly
symbolized the limits of the world; they enclosed all that was known, the four past suns
and the actual fifth represented at the center.
Time and space were not different entities in Nahua vision. If the Sun Stone reflected the
totality of time, it also reflected the totality of space. The stone was, therefore, a
spatial/temporal analogy of the universe whose limits were represented by serpents. If we
were to translate this mythical understanding to architecture we would find that the
god/serpents surrounding the calendar were also the serpent walls of the precinct, the
coatenamitl, forming the space of the precinct and at the same time, protecting its
entrance with their open fangs. In that sense, like the ritual precinct, the calendar was a
map of the cosmos and an outline of the generative forces that structured the city of
Tenochtitlan. The idea of serpents as limits in the Sun Stone and in the structure of the
ritual precincts was reinforced in the Histoire du Mexique, an early colonial account that
has only survived in a French translation from an early Spanish manuscript.78 According
to the story, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca observing the goddess of the Earth wandering
on top of the water, transformed themselves into two serpents and descended from their
heavenly kingdom to the watery surface. They took the goddess by the limbs and
stretched her out towards the four directions, thus conforming with her body the Earth or
cemanahuac.
Comparing the Sun Stone with the myth of creation of the Histoire du Mexique, the
surrounding serpents appeared as the expansive and limiting principle of the universe that
disseminated the earth on top of the sea towards the four directions to form the Earth. It
seemed revealing that, from the open fangs of two confronting serpents in the Sun-Stone,
two anthropomorphic faces appeared: those of Quetzalcoatl and of Tezcatlipoca from the
myth of creation.

77
Alfonso Caso, The Aztecs; people of the sun, 1st ed. (English Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1958), 33.
78
Angel Maria Garibay K., ed. Teogona e historia de los Mexicanos: tres opsculos del siglo XVI. 3th ed. (Mxico: Porra, 1979),
105,106. See also in the same book another version of the myth: Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, 32.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 62

 Figure 6: Sun Stone, The xihuacoatl serpents impersonators of
Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca surround the cosmic Solar Stone.

The existence of limits for Nahua, as for most cultures, was as essential as the existence
of a cosmic-ethnic center, they were existential points of reference. The wall that
surrounded the ritual precinct was as important as the teocalli itself. These walls were not
necessarily defensive but corresponded with a vision of a limited cosmos. In the case of
Cempoala, the first altepetl visited by the conqueror Hernn Corts and his soldiers, the
surrounding wall was a continued platform no less than a meter high and about two
meters wide. The access to the precinct was marked by stairs attached to the stout wall at
specific points along the platform. This manner of going up and down to enter the
precinct could also be observed in the Ciudadela at Teotihuacan (SeeFigure 29, p.231),
and in many other archaeological sites. The up and down movement was a favorite
strategy in Mesoamerican architecture to mark limits and to cross thresholds. It was also
a corporeal reminder of the wavy movement of the serpent, which mimicked the
mountainous surface of Anahuac.
Traditional societies conceptualized the world as limited. It was not until space was
isotropic, undifferentiated and homogeneous, that an unlimited universe was conceivable.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 63

A limitless universe was reflected by a limitless architecture. The surrounding walls of
cities and ritual precincts became irrelevant for modernity.
Although the limits of the ritual precincts were clearly defined by a wall or a platform,
the limits of the altepetl itself were elusive. The reason is that the altepetl integrates the
landscape as a part of its own urban being. That doest mean the altepetl had no limits,
the limits were clearly identified by the "citizens" with parts of the landscape or marks
placed specifically. These limits were the reason of constant negotiations and animosity,
not only between altepetl, but even between the different calpolli of the altepetl.

Teoquiyaoatl, the sacred portals

The sixteenth name in the list refers to the Teoquiyaoatl yc exc callacovaya, "Sacred
portals in three places": Teuquiyaoatl comes from teu, god and quiyaoatl, entrance.
There is no mention of an explicit orientation of the map of precinct but we can assume
that the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli faced West. The precinct is, therefore, closed to the
East and open to the other three cardinal points.
Teoquiyaoatl meant "sacred entrances" or the "entrances for the gods. In Nahua context
it was not only implied that by passing them one entered a sacred place, but also that he
who crossed them became "sacred" as well. In the Historia General, while explaining the
attributes of Huitzilopochtli, one of the informants made a very revealing slippage about
the nature of the god of war and of the people who worshiped him. He said that
Huitzilopochtli was the Mexica people. The Mexica and Huitzilopochtli identified with
each other; they were Huitzilopochtli's ixiptla, and they were possessed by
Huitzilopochtli's teotl while entering into the ritual precinct and also (primarily) while
engaging in ritual battle. The Mexica felt they had no option but to behave like the god,
sharing his glory and responsibilities towards the cosmos: a glorious pride and a heavy
burden.
As I observed before, in the Solar Stone, the heads of the two serpents formed a threshold
by facing each other at the lowest part of the stone. Serpents facing each other with open
fangs forming a single frontal monstrous face were an ancient iconic motif in
Mesoamerica since the time of the Toltecs. The open fangs symbolized the thresholds
between life and death, between the world and under world, the inside and the outside
ritual compounds. The Serpents facing each other at the Sun Stone would symbolize a

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 64

portal, an entrance from this world to the unknown, from the island of the earth to the
turbid waters of the beginnings of time. This represents a striking example of how duality
resolved into unity without eliminating the original iconic elements clearly showing the
mediation of language in sculpture and architecture.

A.3. The ritual precint of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the Historia General de las

Cosas de la Nueva Espaa79

In 1561 Sahagn moved back to the college of Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco where he worked
with a group of twelve informants of noble origin. Between 1563 and 1565 he organized
the material into chapters and paragraphs in a three-column layout. From 1565 to 1568
Sahagn moved again to the monastery of San Francisco in Mexico City. By the end of
this period he had chosen to organize all of the material he had collected over the years in
an encyclopedic format. The Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espaa
consisted of twelve books subdivided into chapters and paragraphs. The books were
devoted to different basic topics that went progressively, like the medieval encyclopedias,
from the most "sacred" to the most "profane" matters. They were: 1: The Gods; 2: The
Ceremonies; 3: The Origin of the Gods; 4: The Soothsayers; 5: The Omens; 6: Rhetoric
and Moral Philosophy; 7: The Sun, Moon, Stars, Binding of the Years; 8: Kings and
Lords; 9: The Merchants; 10: The People; I1: Earthly Things; and I2: The Conquest of
Mexico.
The Historia General makes references to the huei teocalli (great temple) all throughout
its twelve volumes, enumerating the different structures, describing the rituals, and
narrating the battles that occurred there during the Spanish invasion. I will extract some
fragments from this primary source and elaborate upon the most central observations.
Fray Bernardino attached a list of sixty-eight buildings that were encompassed by a plan
of the complex of the Great Temple that was removed from the text at some point.80 The
79
Fray Bernardino de Sahagn, General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex. Translated from Nahuatl into English
by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. 13 v. (Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research and the University of
Utah, 1970-1982). There were several versions of the Historia General being the most complete of them the one kept in the laurentian
library of Florence, the Florentine Codex.
80
Florentine Codex, Book II, apendix II, paragraph 1, 158.
Relacin de los edificios del gran templo de Mxico:
Era el patio de este templo muy grande: tendra hasta doscientas brazas en cuadro.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 65

list of structures survived. It clearly reveals a cellular arrangement of structures like
teocalli, calmecac and xompantlis which repeat in each cell. Each of the different
elements of the compounds was placed with regards to the teocalli's patron god.
It seems surprising, at first sight, that some structures belonging to calpolco or district
ritual precincts were mentioned in the list. In theory, those elements belonged to calpolli
ritual precincts, that is, religious centers of the different districts of the city which should
have been placed beyond the walls of the main ritual precinct at the middle of each of the
calpollis territory. My argument is that these elements belonged to the ritual precincts of
the original calpolli which were settled in a small island at the middle of the lake. That
means that the whole original altepetl fit in what later was only the ritual precinct,
households included. With time and the growth of the "Mexica Empire, and the
increasing administrative and ritual demands, the buildings also grew in size, forming,
apparently a single massive compound. In summary, what was understood by the
conquerors and missionaries as the house of the devil or, as Hernn Corts would call
it, the Mosque, and today we regard as The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was in
reality a complex structure formed by well differentiated cells, each of them belonging
and serving different districts.
The households of these calpolli were evidently displaced outside the ritual precinct by
the construction of chinampas or "floating gardens. Under this light, the "Great Temple"
was an organic compound of semi-autonomous cells rather than a massive theocratic
organization analogous to the Roman Catholic church to which it has been often
compared.
In the Mendoza Codex a scene of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was represented
within a quincunx (See Figure 7, p. 67). The leaders of the different calpolli were

Era todo enlosado (y) tena dentro de s muchos edificios y muchas torres; de estas torres unas eran mas altas que otras, y
cada una de ellas era dedicada a un dios. La principal torre de todas estaba en el medio y era ms alta que todas, era
dedicada al dios Huitzilopochtli o Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin.
Esta torre estaba dividida en lo alto, de manera que pareca ser dos y as tena dos capillas o altares en lo alto, cubierta
cada una con un chapitel, y en la cumbre tena cada una de ellas sus insignias o divisas distintas.
En la una de ellas y mas principal estaba la estatua de Huitzilopochtli, que tambin la llamaban Ilhucatl xoxouhqui; en la
otra estaba la imagen del dios Tlaloc.
Delante de cada una de stas estaba una piedra redonda a manera de tajn que llamaban tchcatl, donde mataban los que
sacrificaban a honra de aquel dios; y desde la piedra hasta abajo estaba un regajal de sangre de los que mataban en el, y
as estaba en todas las otras torres.
Estas torres tenan la cara hacia el occidente, y suban por grada bien estrechas y derechas, de abajo hasta arriba, a
todas estas torres.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 66

depicted in the four quadrants: two at the North, South and East sides, and three at the
West side, giving a number of nine original calpolli. At the West side quadrant appears
Tenoch "Stone the founder of Tenochtitlan and leader of the altepetl or tlatoani,
signaled by the glyph of "speech" coming out from his mouth. He appears on a different
"chair, a kind of throne, signaling his hierarchy as leader of all.

Figure 7: Frontispiece of Codex Mendoza, Early Colonial. The

foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, The scene of the foundation is
depicted within a quincunx that organizes the altepetl in quarters. The
scene is surrounded by a 52 year cycle. Gruzinski (LAmrique de la
Conquete peinte par les Indiens du Mexique, Paris: Unesco,
Flammarion, 1991), 104.
According to Mexica duality each calpolli may have been represented by two leaders as
the whole altepetl was also led by two people, the cihuacoatl "serpent-woman" and the
tlatoani "he who speaks. Instead of nine calpolli there would be just four, one on each
quadrant, represented by two leaders each. Sahagn named the four main original
calpolli as: Cuepopan to the North, Moyotla to the South, Zoquiapan to the East and

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 67

Atzacoalco to the West. Based on a wide array of ethnohistorical sources, Rudolph van
Zantwijk affirmed,81 however, that there were seven original calpolli at the time of the
foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (1325 aprox.), a number which had increased to
twenty by the arrival of the Spaniards (1519), formed by the separation of some groups
from the original ones or by the addition of incoming groups.82
I assume that although the actual households of the districts had been displaced beyond
the walls, their ritual centers or calpolco remained in the same place contributing to form
a compact and massive complex of the Mexica religious/cosmic apparatus. Although
those calpolco were physically placed within the precinct, they may not have lost their
character of calpolli religious centers. A strong sense of identity and autonomy among
the different calpolli was needed for the system to work. Each altepetl had a patron god,
such as Quetzalcoatl for Cholula or Tezcaltipoca for Tlatelolco, and at the same time,
each calpolli had its own god or calpulteteo, as Xipe was for the Yopico calpolli. Each
profession and each household had, likewise, their own profession and/or family patron
gods.
Analyzing the ceremonies which took place at the Great Temple, it is evident that they
involved the collaboration of one or several calpolco. There was a rotation of the
responsibility to organize and supply the means for the ceremonies during the calendar
cycle, creating an intense sense of belonging towards their respective calpolli and also
causing rivalry between them. This meant that, although the calendar was filled with a
large number of festivities, the members of each calpolli partook to different degrees in
each of the ceremonies according to their ties with the different cults. There were
festivities that involved one or more calpolli, and there were others that were celebrated
by the whole altepetl.
The list of the buildings together with the description of the ceremonies revealed a
complicated net of relationships, synchronizations and diachronic manifestations between
architecture and the rites performed. Contrary to modern planning, where the idea is
actualized regardless of the transformation of cultural processes, the architecture of the
81
See Rudolf A. M. van Zantwijk, The Aztec arrangement: the social history of pre-Spanish Mexico, 1st ed. (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, c1985).
Zantwijk signals the original founding calpolli as: Tlacatecpan, Tlacochcalco, Huitznahuac, Yopico, Chalman, Izqitlan and
Cihuatecpan. The new calpolli were Chililico, Coatlan, Apanteuctlan, Acatliacapan, Tzonmolco, Tezcacoac, Tlamatzinco, Molonco
Itlillan, Tecpantzinco, Xochicalco, Coatlxoxouhcan, Cuauhquiahuac and Atempan.
82
The coat of arms of Mexico-Tenochtitlan represented on the Mendoza Codex, just below the glyph of the foundation is a circular
shield with six shells arranged around a central one, maybe representing the seven original calpolli of the original altepetl.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 68

ritual precinct and its organization was the product of a web of changing and regenerative
relationships which integrated the different groups distributed in calpolli intertwined in a
system that encompassed the cosmic order recorded in the calendars and integrating in
itself the surrounding landscape. The idea of the complexity of the organization of the
ritual precinct, composed by individual and semi-independent social and religious cells,
organized around their own patron gods, contrasts heavily with the clean and symmetrical
representations of the Great Temple by Ignacio Marquina, the still most "current"
reconstruction of the Great Temple which reflects a ritual precinct as if planned "from
scratch" (See Figures 32, p. 240 and 35, p.245).

A.4. The calendar, the ceremonies and the Great Temple

Long before the Mexica came into the Anahuac (the Valley of Mexico), the
Mesoamerican calendar system was a pervasive and complex system of recording the
cycles of nature. It was constituted by several calendars each regulating different
activities, not only religious but also civic life: elections, commerce, war and death. The
calendar system represented an overwhelming desire to encompass all aspects, visible
and invisible, in a totalizing system.83
In Book II of the Florentine Codex, the monthly ceremonies were explained one by one.
Most of the festivities were regulated by a double calendar. The astronomic calendar was
composed of a cycle of 360 days, divided into eighteen metztli moons or months,
translated by Sahagn as veintenas, of twenty days each, and five "wasted" days or
nemotemi. This calendar regulated the "fixed" ceremonies.
The name of the festivity was likewise given to the month: Panquetzaliztli, "festivity of
the raising banners, for example, was also the name of the ninth month of the year.
Although each month had a main patron god to be honored, there were other gods to be
honored during the same period. Major gods, likewise, used to be honored during several
months.
The religious calendar, known as the tonalamatl, consisted of 260 days composed of
twenty periods of thirteen days which ruled the "movable" festivities which fell on
different days every year with regards to the astronomic calendar and also had their
83
The Mexica attributed the creation of the calendar to the Toltecs. See Part II, 2.16. Clavijero, Nahua Time: the calendar and the
cosmic eras.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 69

specific deities to be honored. On the whole, the calendars determined a frenetic rhythm
in which life was divided between festivals and their preparations, leaving little time for
cultivation and ritual war.
In addition, the years were arranged into four groups of thirteen years each, constituting a
third calendar cycle.84 The three calendars formed a complex mechanism which recurred
every fifty-two years in the most important festivity known as the "binding of the years,
alluding to the coincidence of the calendars and the ritual act of bringing them together in
order to maintain all the cycles of the cosmos in motion as one. This ceremony was also
known as the New Fire ceremony, when a fire was lit at Citlaltepetl (Star-Mount) for the
renewal of the cosmic order. It was believed that the sun would collapse at the end of
every cycle, unless it was prevented by human sacrifice invigorating the cycles of nature.
To have a better idea of the activities within the Great Temple and the relationship
between the rituals performed within the calendar year and the buildings, I will analyze
the festivity of Panquetzaliztli in honor of Huitzilopochtli, where Sahagn made a brief
but direct reference to the ceremonies performed in the Great Temple.

Uitzilopochtli's feasts came three times a year, when they used to celebrate his feast day. The
first time was [in the month] of Panquetzaliztli. And this was when they ascended [to the top
of the pyramid] together, this Uitzilopochtli [and another] named Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin.
And when they took the image of this Uitzilopochtli up, indeed all the offering priests, the
youths carried it in their arms. And the image of Uitzilopochtli was [made] only of amaranth
seed [dough]. It was very large; it was as tall as a man.
And the name of the second one was Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin. His image also was [made] only
of amaranth seed [dough].
And when the image of Uitzilopochtli was made, when it took human form, it was there at a
place, called Itepeyoc. And the second one, Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin, was made, took human
form, there at a place called Uitznauac calpolco. And during one night they gave them form,
they gave them human form.

84
In reality, the calendar system also contemplated the cycles of Venus and the Moon. Their mechanism was too complicated and
Sahagn couldn't realize that all of the cycles of the calendars had a phenomenal basis. He argued that the only one worth following
was the solar one, because it was based "on nature, while the others were inventions from the imagination or inspired by the devil.
But, as Gutierre Tibn pointed out, the 260 days calendar matched almost exactly with the 261 period of the human gestation, in
which the moon comes back nine times to the initial face. He also noted that the only common denominator between 365 and 260 is 5.
(The number of the universe represented by the quincunx). The solar and ritual calendars coincided after 18,980 days, that is, 52 solar
years or 73 ritual ones. If the solar period is 5 times 73 days, the one of Venus is 8 times 73; 5 plus 8 equals 13, multiplied by 73 and
then by 20, gives again the 18,980 days of the "large cycle" in which the solar, ritual and Venusian cycles were "bound together.
Tibn, Historia del nombre, 751

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 70

 And when it dawned, they were already shaped. Thereupon offerings were laid before them.
And when it was already afternoon, thereupon there was dancing, there was going round [in
procession]. And when the sun had entered his house [at sunset], they took [the figures] up [to
the top of the pyramid ]. And after they had gone to set them in place, thereupon they
descended. [The images] were there all night. And the offering priests who guarded them
were called Yiopoch.
And when it dawned, thereupon Paynaltzin came forth, who was himself the representative of
Uitzilopochtli. [A priest] carried him in his arms. And the image of Paynal was only of wood
[formed] to go as a man. And he who bore it in his arms was titled Topilzin Quetzalcoatl; he
was richly arrayed with his feather device from shoulder to flank. And the image of Paynal
was thus adorned: it had its hummingbirds disguise, its anecuyotl device, its golden banner,
its green stone necklace. And over the small of its back went hanging the mirror device for
the back, all fine turquoise. And he who led [the god] went carrying his serpent staff covered
with turquoise.
And when [the priest with] Paynal came to Teotlachco, then there was the slaying [of
sacrificial victims] before him. Those who died were [both] named Amapantzin; both were
only impersonators. And many more captives [also] died.
And when there had been the slaying, thereupon Paynal was taken in procession. He arrived
in Tlatelolco, and when he had arrived, thereupon the common folk met him; there offered
him incense and beheaded many quail for him. And thereupon they started, they reached
Popotlan; similarly the common folk met him; they offered him incense an beheaded many
quail. And then again they started, they reached Chapultepec; similarly the common folk met
them; they offered [the god] incense and beheaded many quail for him. Thereupon they
started, they reached Tepetocan; the common folk also met them, offered him incense, and
also beheaded many quails.
Thereupon they started forth, they reached here at Acachinanco; the common folk also met
them; they offered him incense; they also beheaded many quail.
Thereupon the insignia started forth. And when the insignia came to arrive, thereupon they
mounted to the top of Coatepetl, where was [the image of] Uitzilopohthli. And when they had
gone up, thereupon they laid out the blood banner. When there had been circling about,
thereupon they descended.85

85
Florentine Codex: Book II Appendix I, 175-176, Translation from the Nahuatl by Anderson and Dibble.
VITZILOBUCHTLI ITEUCAL COATEPETL. 1.
In vitzilobuchtli, expa in qujaia ilhujuh, in qujlhujqjxtiliaia, yn ipan ce xivitl.
Injc cepa ipan in mjtoaia panquetzaliztli: auh ynin vncn acoqujaia, in iehoatl vitzilobuchtli, ym omextin yn jtoca
Tlacauepan cuexcochtzin. Auh ynic qujtlecaujaja in iehoatl vitzilobuchtli ixpitia, vel ixqujch in tlamacazquj, in telpuchtli in
qujnapaloaia: auh yn ixiptla catca vitzilobuchtli, an tzoalli, cenca vey, cennequetzalli.
Auh ynjc vme in jtoca Tlacauepan, cuexcotzin, an no tzoalli in jxiptla catca.
Auh in muchioaia, in tlacatia Vitzilobuchtli ixiptla: vmpa yn itocaiocan Itepeioc: auh ynic vme, in tlacauepan cuexcotzin,
vmpa in muchioaia, in tlacatia, itocaiocan Vitznacoac calpolco: auh ceniooal in qujmicuxitiaia, in qujntlacatiliaia.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 71

A.5. Coatepec, the Serpent Mountain

In the title and in the final paragraph of the quoted text the temple of Huitzilopochtli is
called Coatepec (Serpent-Mountain).86 Coatepec refers to a specific Mexica myth: Fray
Bernardino wrote in Book III, that the goddess Coatlicue (coatl: serpent, tlicue:
skirt), who lived in "Coatepec near Tula was sweeping, doing penance, when a small
ball of feathers descended upon her. She took it and placed it on her belly (en el seno
junto a la barriga). Thereupon she was miraculously pregnant. Coatlicoe had already a
daughter and "sons, Coyolxauhqui (a lunar goddess) and the Centzon Huitznahua, "four
hundred southerners" who were angry with their "dishonest" mother:

And their elder sister Coyolxauhqui, said to them: "My elder brothers, she has dishonored us.
We [can] only kill our mother, the wicked one who is already with child. Who is the cause of
what is in her womb?"87

Auh in otlatujc, ie otlacatque: njman ie ic ymixpan tlamanalo: auh in ie teutlac, njman ie ic netotilo, necocololo: auh an
ic oncalaquj, in tonatiuh, in qujntlecaujaia: auh yn oqujmontlalito, njman ie ic oaltemoa, vmpa ceioal cate: yoan qujnpiaia
tlamacazque, yn jntoca Iopuch:
Auh yn otlatujc, niman ie ic oalquja, in paynaltzin, in an no ie yxiptla Vitzilobuchtli, qujnapaloa: auh yn ixiptla paynal,
an quaujtl tlacaietiuh: auh in qujnapaloa, itoca topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: cenca mochichioaia, yiapanecaiouh: auh yn
ixiptla paynal ynjc muchichioaia, yvitzitzilnaoal, yianecuiouh, yteucujtlap, ychalchiuhcozquj: auh yn icujtlapan pilcatiuh,
iehoatl in cujtlatezcatl, an muche in teuxivitl: auh in qujiacana qujtqujtiuh ycoatopil, xivitl ic tlaqujmjlolli.
Auh yn onacic, in teutalchco in paynal, njman ie ixp mjcoa: iehoantin in miquja yn jntoca Amapantzitzin, an vmtin
teixiptlatoan: auh ieh cenca mjequjntin in mamalti miquja.
Auh njman ie no cuel vmpeoa, vmpa onaci in chapultepec, an co iuh qujnamjqujin maceoalti, qujtlenamaqujlia: yoan
miec olin qujcotonjlia. Niman ie ic vmpeoa onaci in tepetocan: no qujnamijquj in maceoalli, qujtlenamaqujlia, yoan no
mjec olin qujcotona.
Auh yn onmjcoac, njman ie ic vnpeoa, yn tlaiaoaloz Paynal: vmpa onaci in tlatilulco, auh yno onacic, njman ie ic
qujnamjquj in maceoalli, qujtlenamaqujlia yoan miec olin qujcotonjliaia. Auh njman ie ic vmpeoa, onaci in popotlan, an
no iuh qujnamjq'a in maeoalli, qujtlenamaqujlia: yoan miec olin qujcotonaia. Niman ie ic oalpeoa, valaci in vncan
acachinco: no qujnamijquj in maceoalti, qujtlenamaqujlia, no mjec olin qujcotona.
Niman ie ic oalpeoa in machiotl, auh yn oacico im machiotl, njman ie ic tleco, yn jcpac coatepetl: in vmpa ca
vitzilobuchtli: auh yn otlecoc, njmI ie ic conteca, in ezpanjtl, yn otlaiaoalo: njman ie ic oaltemo.
86
Linda Schele and Julia Guernsey Kappelman say that the notion of Coatepec, Serpent-Mountain, was the result of an enduring
Mesoamerican Myth that came from Olmec times. Without discarding the general understanding of Coatepec as an ancient

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 72

The conflict between the siblings and the mother finished with the slaying of
Coyolxahuqui and the Centzon Huitzinahua by the new born Huitzilopochtli shortly after
his birth in mount Coatepec.

Alfonso Caso gave a cosmological interpretation of the myth:

We have seen that she (Coatlicue) gave miraculous birth to Huitzilopochtli (the sun), at the
very moment when the stars (the Centzon Huitznahua), led by the moon (Coyolxauhqui),
doubting the miracle of divine conception, attempted to kill her. We have also seen that the
sun, Huitzilopochtli, sprang forth from her womb armed with a ray of light and killed the
moon and the stars.88

This contrasts with other possible readings of the myth from a historical perspective: it
can be also interpreted as a real historic fight between parented Aztec groups during their
pilgrimage south, each of them associated with the different gods and incorporated into
the Aztec memory as mythical accounts.89 It is important to consider both interpretations
if we want to penetrate the Nahua imagination, because for them, there were no divisions
between cosmological and human realms; war and rain, Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc,
partook equally of both realms and contributed in generating cosmological and social
events.
There is no doubt that the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli incarnated that historic/
mythological foundational event of the conflict between close relatives which appeared in
many agricultural cultures.90 The existence of a great sculpture of Coyolxauhqui found in

symbolization, it seems evident that the central figure of the serpent as a dual cosmic principle appeared with the Toltecs who
introduced the figure of the serpent as a cosmic dual principle. The understanding of a teocalli as Coatepec was also specific to a
Mexican myth which referred to Huitzilopochtli's place of birth. See Linda Schele and Julia Guernsey Kappelman, What the Heck's
Coatpec? in Rex Koontz, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Annabeth Headrick, comp., Landscape and power in ancient Mesoamerica,
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2001), 29-54.
87
Florentine Codex: Book 3, Chapter 1, 2.
88
Alfonso Caso, The Aztecs; people of the sun. (English Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1958), 37.
89
Huitzilopochtli and the Centzon Huitzinahua are not just parented in the myth but they are also related etymologically. There may
be a symbolic relationship between the left, the south and the death warriors that come back to Earth as birds.
90
For analogies between the myths of Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remo, Isaac and Ishmael, Huitzilopochtli and Coyolxhauqui, see
Ren Girard, Violence and the Sacred, Translated by Patrick Gregory (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkns University Press,
1979).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 73

1978, at the base of the stairs of the Great Temple, by Huitzilopochtli's side,91 confirms
the identification of the Great Temple with the Coatepec of the myth.92
Huitzilopochtli's temple was known as the "Coatepec" by the Mexica. This word is
composed by the prefix coatl, "serpent" and the suffix tepetl, "mountain. As I have
noted before, coatl also meant "twin, and it was used as a root in terms which involved
duality and reciprocity. By extension, coatl also meant "brother" and in contemporary
Mexican Spanish coate means "very good friend" and more precisely, "like my own
brother" or "blood brother.
In general the root coatl implies any act that involves reciprocity clearly reflected in the
terms coanotz(a) "to invite someone" and coatequitl, from coa-tl and tequi-tl work,
"communal work.93 This reciprocity was exemplified by the two main Mexica gods,
Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, who shared the same teocalli.
In another historical/mythical account that narrated the foundation of Tenochtitlan it was
said that Tlaloc, the ancient Mesoamerican god of rain and thunder, called Huitzilopochtli
from the mist of the lake to be his guest, his coate, and to settle beside him in the marshes
of the lake.94 So, there are two dimensions of the term coatl that clearly regard the huei
teocalli of Tenochtitlan. First, the mythical conflict between siblings and close relatives
before and during the foundation of the city, which probably came from a real historic
conflict between two Aztec95 factions, and also, the positive and reciprocal welcome of
the paternal figure of Tlaloc, supported, maybe, by a historical alliance with the
Colhuaque or Tepanec communities at the shores of the lake. This ambiguous
relationship was materialized in the double structure of the Coatepetl sheared by both
gods. This association implied alternatively, or even simultaneously, reciprocity and
conflict, communion and violence, hospitality and hostility, debt and fulfillment, birth
and death, both sides of the relationship being equally positive to the Nahua mentality.
In Coatepec teocalli, the suffix tepetl, "mountain, revealed, likewise, a profound
identification between the teocalli and a sacred mountain, and this identification was not
91
See Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, Coyolxauhqui, (Mxico: Secretaria de Educacin Pblica, 1979).
92
The twins face each other with their open fangs annihilating mutually on a mechanism that Rene Girard would describe as "mimetic
violence revealed in Mexica culture as the symbols of "flowery war, atl-tlachinolli, literally, "water in fire."
93
Karttunen, An Analytical dictionary of Nahuatl, 36.
94
Codex Aubin, fol. 24-25
95
The Aztecs were a group of seven tribes that, according to their tradition, departed from Aztlan. One of these tribes was that of the
Mexica. Francisco Javier Clavijero is one of the first historians to call the Mexica "Aztecs. See Chapter II, 2.4, The blind spot:
Mexica and Mexicans.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 74

only symbolic. Each teocalli was an ixiptla of a real mountain, which was alive and had a
protective god that inhabited it. As happened with the ixiptlas of the gods, the teocalli
were not like sacred mountains, they were sacred mountains themselves.96
In the case of Tlaloc's teocalli, for example, its clear referent was Mount Tlaloc, a
volcanic formation that belonged to the same string of volcanoes as Popocatepetl and
Ixtlacihuatl that lay to the east just standing behind Tlaloc's teocalli, remaining a visual
referent in the background. The precipitation of water that came from this group of
mountains was, in fact, the main source of water of Lake Texcoco. The identification of
Tlaloc's teocalli and Mount Tlaloc was revealed not only by their physical alignment but
also by the ritual activities that took place simultaneously in both places during the
festivities in honor of Tlaloc as described by Sahagn.97
Mount Tlaloc incarnated also the Tlalocan, a mythical paradise-like place where Tlaloc
and the Tlaloques, his servants lived and where nothing was lacking to maintain life.
Tlaclocan, or Tamoanchan, was an ancient belief present in Teotihuacan, wonderfully
represented in the murals of Tepantitla, that may have come from the first Olmec
settlements. As we saw before, the term for town "altepetl was composed by atl "water"
and tepetl mount. The notion of town was, therefore, intrinsically associated with a
specific water supplying mountain which guaranteed the success of the agricultural
activities. The referential mountain in the landscape could not be just any; it had to have
the capacity to gather clouds and precipitate rain and/or to have springs of water. This
was necessary to convey a sense of permanence and identity related to the specific site.
There was an intimate relationship between the cult of Tlaloc and the physical landscape
of Anahuac. Sahagn described how an altar on Tlaloc's teocalli was shaped in the
"image" of the valley of Anahuac, placing ixiptlas or gods images that impersonated each
mountain around Tlaloc's image. The altar was arranged in analogy to the valley of
Anahuac, reenacting the intrinsic association between people and place.98
The orientation and location of the teocalli not only corresponded, therefore, with the
movement of the heavenly spheres, but they were also intimately related to the
surrounding landscape. Accurate adjustments in the orientation of buildings were taken
into consideration to correspond with certain elements in the surroundings. This is
96
For more about the difference of dwelling between Mesoamerican natives and Europeans of the sixteenth century see Philip P.
Arnold, Eating Landscape, Aztec and European occupation of Tlalocan, (Colorado, University Press, 1999).
97
Florentine Codex: Book II, 42-46,78-90.
98
Florentine Codex: Book II, 42-46, 78-90

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 75

strikingly clear in Teotihuacan(See Figure 8, p. 76).99 This also may explain the seven
degrees orientation right of north of the huei teocalli of Tenochtitlan. Anthony Aveni100
argues that this rotation aligned the teocalli of Tlaloc with Mount Tlaloc as seen from the
temple of Quetzalcoatl.101 It was to be expected, as happens in Teotihuacan, that from
some specific points, the silhouette of the teocalli would correspond with the silhouette of
the surrounding landscape.
In the case of Huitzilopochtli's teocalli, however, its referent was not a mount directly
perceivable within the valley but the mythical Coatepetl, "near Tula, which was,
according to the myth, the place of "birth" of Huitzilopochtli. The identification of the
huei teocalli of Huitzilopochtli with a mount that cannot be seen directly was a special
case related to the nomadic background of the Mexica.
This created a paradox, a clear dichotomy materialized in the huei teocalli between
Tlaloc, a local deity of Anahuac directly related to the phenomenal place, and
Huitzilopochtli, the wanderer, the newcomer. This tension created by the insertion of an
alien reference in an already symbolically charged place resembles the paradox that

Figure 8: Teotihuacan, view of the site from the Pyramid of the Moon.

99
The relationship between the Calzada de los Muertos, the teocalli of the moon and the Cerro Gordo (from where a spring of water
that supplied the city sprouted) aligned in the same North-South axis which traces the whole layout of the city. The other important
alignments with the surroundings was the one between the Patlachicue mount and the teocalli of the Sun as seen from the teocalli of
the Moon.
100
Anthony F. Aveni, Skywatchers of ancient Mexico; foreword by Owen Gingerich (Austin: University of Texas Press, c1980),
281-2.
101
It is not very probable for reasons I will discuss later, (Part III, Ignacio Marquina, The modern reconstruction of the Great Temple)
that the round temple of Quetzalcoatl would be situated right in front of the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, as Aveni assumes.
This, however, does not contradict Aveni's hypothesis about the phenomenal orientation of the Mesoamerican architecture, he is,
however, taking for granted Marquina's misunderstanding of the ritual precinct depicted in the map of the Primeros Memoriales.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 76

existed between the biblical Tabernacle in the desert and the Temple of Solomon. I will
elaborate on this analogy in the section on Fray Diego Valads while comparing the
intentions behind the construction of the fortress monasteries and their insertion on top of
Mesoamerican ritual precincts.
If the roots that from the word altepetl were inverted, we end up with the word
tepehuah102, "citizen or resident of the altepetl, which literally means the one with
mountain, the one with water. This seems to me a poetic way of qualifying a citizen as
someone who belongs to a place, with its mountain at the core where the gods lived in
constant and reciprocal communion/conflict, marking an existential point of reference
with the cosmos.
The teocalli reconciled the Nahua people with the overwhelming forces of nature through
their physical alignment and the performance of ritual duties. Being a tepehuah
represented a radical difference with the original shamanic Chichimec life of the Nahua
tribes, signaling those who were no longer in exile, those who were at home.
Tepecoyoc-tli, "cave, is formed by tepe-tl "mount. and coyoc-tli "hole. The notion of
mountain implied the existence of caves. Mountains were porous receptacles of water.
They were believed to be connected with the watery underworld through the thresholds
of open caves. Subterranean rivers were also believed to connect with the ocean. This
understanding of the porous and watery mountain was extended to the teocalli. The
amount of sea offerings discovered embedded in the structure of the huei teocalli in
archaeological findings, which ranged from sea shells, sponges, coral, fish and
crocodiles, is revealing. All of them related not with the fauna of the lake of the high
plateaus, but with sea fauna.103 This may give us an idea of the wholeness that a teocalli
was meant to encompass. The sea was the limit of the Mesoamerican cosmos. The huei
teocalli as any teocalli, represented its navel.
It has been argued in the introduction of this dissertation that the altepetl is a human
institution that incorporates the landscape within. But it can also be seen the other way
round, as the incorporation, or even the melting of the social groups into the landscape.
That is why it is difficult to grasp it for the western men, who wants to transform the
landscape to ideas of place.

102
Kartunnen, An analytic dictionary of Nahuatl, 229.
103
See Johanna Broda, Davd Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan: center and periphery in
the Aztec world, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 77

The people of Mexico-Tenochtitlan had an intimate relationship with the surrounding
mountains, that does not mean necessarily the landscape was friendly. It was believed to
be protector and supplier, but also mysterious and threatening.

A.6. Teocalli and ixiptla

The term ixiptla, "impersonator" that appeared in Sahagns text has been translated as
"image, or "statue. Image implies a copy of an original referent. For Catholics, God, the
Father, is not really representable; he is totally "Other. Christ and the Saints, however,
were worldly people, they were representable. Saint images were meant to mediate
between humans and the divine, but there is the acknowledgment of the "distance"
between the image and what it represents. Christ is not his image, and the saints are not
their images either. The distinction between "idol" and "image" was an important issue
for the missionaries during the colony and was the source of many ambivalent and
contradictory interpretations.
While in Spain the cult of saints was especially promoted as a reaction to the attacks of
the iconoclast Protestants, in New Spain, on the contrary, the use of ixiptla was
prohibited and persecuted by Spanish religious authorities. To have a better picture of the
turbulent world of the sixteenth century, we merely have to realize that, while the English
Protestant iconoclasts were destroying Catholic images in English territory, in New
Spain, the first archbishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, was demolishing "temples,
destroying "idols" and burning codex indiscriminately.
Ixiptla literally means "substitute" or "impersonator. Impersonator was a more
appropriate term for the translation of ixiptla, though; "impersonator" did not necessarily
imply that the image was that which it represented. But the ixiptla was that which
substituted and its sacrifice was as valid as the sacrifice of its referent. The condition for
the substitution to work was the belief in the real investment of the ixiptla by the natural
force, the teotl.
In the text by the Nahua informants, the formula and when the ixiptla of Huitzilopochtli
was made, when it took human form is constantly repeated. Something not human,
without form, an impersonal energy was acquiring human form. The shape and matter of
the ixiptla gave form to the teotl. The material receptacle of the teotl could be a person, a
dough effigy or a sacred bundle. Its function was to contain the divine and its shape
varied with regard to its role in the ritual, as an edible "image" made of seed dough, or an

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 78

actual scarified living being which allowed the people to perform a communion with the
god.
The teotl, as we mentioned in the introduction, was not a transcendent being. It was a
malleable, impersonal natural force that could be invoked and manipulated when using
the proper ritual. The ixiptla conveyed a partial but crucial identification of the teotl or
"god" with his "image. Although the ixiptla didn't contain the teotl in its totality, it was
invested with the "real" force of the teotl and maintained a relationship of dependency
with it. There was a reciprocal relationship between the original teotl and its ixiptla;
whatever was done to the ixiptla, magically affected its referent. The sacrificed victim
dressed with solar elements invigorated the sun by a magical link of correspondence.
There could not be ixiptla without a teotl, but, the teotl could not survive either without
the ixiptla's sacrifice. This made a crucial difference with any possible sacrifice to a
transcendent God who did not depend on his creatures for his survival.104
Due to its lightness and malleability, the tzoalli, a dough made of amaranth seeds, was
used to make ixiptlas for processions. The tzoalli is curiously known today as alegra,
"happiness, and was, together with corn and beans, the basis of Nahua nutrition before
the colony. The ritual processions of Huitzilopochtli used to end with the breaking of the
ixiptla into small pieces to be shared and eaten by the whole population. This
"communion" transferred the teotl's primordial force to the Mexica population, resulting
in a shocking similarity with the Christian festivity of Corpus Christi.
Although the term 'idol' has a pejorative connotation, it may be the best term we have in
English to designate the Nahua voice ixiptla. Ixiptla, however, were never completely
independent entities as "idols" may be understood. They had a natural force as a referent,
like the sun or the wind. The magical procedure of investing a form with the tonalli was
the ritual of "dressing. To dress was to invest. The different devices and insignias
attributed to the teotl truly invoked it while being used by the ixiptla. The impersonator,
while invested, became the teotl. Huitzilopochtli was his impersonator. It is accurate to
say that Huitzilopochtli's ixiptla was Huitzilopochtli for the Nahua just as the Holy Host
is Christ for Catholics.

104
Teotl, usually translated as god, derives from Tonathiuh, the sun. In that sense, all the gods had a solar principle. Arlid Hvidtfeldt,
has compared the teotl of the Nahua with the manna of the Polynesians understood as a natural impersonal force personified as a god.
The manna had to be manipulated with great care in order to have benefits from it, provoking terrible disasters otherwise. Hvidtfeldt,
Teotl and Ixiptlatli, 25

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 79

During the sacrifices the victims acted as the ixiptla of the teotl. But ixiptlas were also the
tlatoani and the sacrificer priests. The force of the teotl permeated all the actors of the
ritual. Both sacrificer and sacrificed were ixiptlas of Huitzilopochtli. This was evident in
all sacrificial rituals, like the festivity of Toxcatl, in which the tlatoani and the sacrificial
slave were both dressing as Tezcaltipoca. The ixiptla dressed as Tezcatlipoca was
sacrificed by the tlatoani, converting the ritual, by means of their mutual sharing of the
teotl's tonalli, into a self immolation or auto-sacrifice.
The teocalli of Huitzilopochtli was, likewise, not merely an image of mount Coatepec: it
was Coatepec. The ritual precinct, formed basically by the teocalli, the ytvalli and the
coatenamitl, were indeed an ixiptla of the cosmos. And, just as there was a
correspondence between the teotl and the ixiptla, there was also a relationship of
interdependence between the cosmos and the calpolco (ritual precincts), with their
teocalli and the coatenamitl, the serpent wall which limited them. Anything which
happened to the architectonic precinct directly affected the cosmos. In that sense, not
only holocausts and sacrifices renew it, but also the periodical renovations of the ritual
precincts and their regular daily maintenance. Any activity that implied cleaning, or
renewing -like sweeping, plastering or painting- were ritual and cosmic. Not
metaphorically, but in "real" terms: to clean their teocalli and their cities was to clean and
renovate the cosmos. That is why such an important deity as Coatlicue, mother of
Huitzilopochtli, was sweeping the temple when she became pregnant. Sweeping was not
a servile activity, but a ritual cosmic generous act which had a cosmic counterpart. It
could be said that all the ritual duties of the Nahua, small and big, were intended to
maintain, reestablish and balance the world. Order was crucial.

A.6.1 The Great Temple and the sacrificial reflection of the self

In the enumeration of the temples in Appendix III of Book II of the General History it is
said that:

BEHOLD HERE A TRUE [RELATION] OF ALL THE [BUILDINGS] WHICH WERE

THE MEXICAN'S TEMPLES
All which was [in] the courtyard of [the Temple of] Uitzilopochtli was like this:
As it appeared, it was perhaps two hundred fathoms [square]. And there in the center of [the
square] were very large temples; they were the temples of the devils.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 80

 The one which was taller, which was higher, was the house of Uitzilopochtli or Tlacauepan
Cuexcotzin. This one very large, very tall.
And this one was in the middle [of the square].
And with it was the house of Tlaloc. They were indeed together; they were indeed joined to
each other. And at the very top, [one] stood a little higher perhaps by a fathom. Of both of
these, [one] stood a little higher perhaps by a fathom.
Of both of these, [one] was the taller, the higher. Only they were quite similar. And at the top
of each was a temple; at the top was a house.
There was the image of Uitzilopochtli, also named Ilhuicatl Xoxouhqui. And in the other
[temple] there was the image of Tlaloc.
And also at the top [of the pyramid] were circular stones, very large, called techcatl
[sacrificial stones], upon which they slew victims in order to pay honor to their gods. And the
blood, the blood of those who died, indeed reached the base; so did it flow off. All were like
this in each of the temples which were of the devils.
And this Temple of Uitzilopochtli and Tlaloc faced towards the setting of the sun. And its
stairway was very wide; it was reaching there to the top. There was ascending there. And of
all the temples that there were, all were like this. Very straight were their stairways.105

There is not enough evidence in the text to speculate what role was played by Tlacauepan
Cuexcotzin and Painal in the festivity of Panquetzaliztli. The "mercurial" Painal (the
swift) was represented as Huitzilopochtli. He seemed to be, rather than a different deity,
Huitzilopochtlis impersonator when engaged in ritual processions. The same could be
said of Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin, although it was likely that he played the role of a deified
adversary/sacrificial victim. In Huitzilopochtli's birth myth, his mythical brothers, the
Centzon Huitzinahua were related with Huiztinahua calpolli, one of the oldest of the
twenty calpolli of Tenochtitlan. The Cenzon Huitzinahua were the mythical brothers of
Huitzilopochtli who wanted to kill their "dishonest" mother. These mythical characters
may have been identified as part of the Mexica or as an Aztec faction that accompanied
the Mexica during their pilgrimage. The myth told that they had been slain together with
their sister Coyolchautli by Huitzilopochtli at Coatepec. It was also said, in the
description of the festivity of Panquetzalistli, that Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin's ixiptla was
made in the Huitzinahua calpolco, the ritual precinct of Huitzinahua calpolli. We could
speculate, therefore, that Tlacauepan Cuexcotzin was a mythical rival of Huitzilopochtli.
Mythic "mocking" battles were enacted between Mexica factions during some festivities.
It is interesting to note that the mythical adversary of Huitzilopochtli did not belong to an
alien group, not even to another altepetl, but belonged to a Mexica faction. Furthermore,
105
Sahagn, Florentine Codex: Appendix to Book II, 179.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 81

Huitzilopochtli and the Centzon Huitzinahua, the Hummingbird of the South, and the
Four Hundred Southerners, were etymologically related with the word Huitzti, which
means simultaneously left handed, south, and hummingbird. The Mexica did not
identify the enemy as other but as one of themselves.

A.7. Common Ground and the re-shaping of the pre-Columbian past

Sahagn found many similarities between the religion of the natives and Christianity. He
noted, for example, that the festivities of Huitzilopochtli on Panquetzaliztli coincided
with the Christian celebrations of the nativity of Christ. He also noted the coincidence
between the miraculous conception of Coatlicoe and Mary. He also made comparisons
between other "nations" of Anahuac and some European ancient pagan civilizations:

This renowned and great city of Tula, very wealthy and with very wise and brave people had
the misfortune of Troy. The Cholulans who are those who escaped from [Tula], have had the
legacy of the Romans, and like the Romans they built their capital as their fortress. Thus the
Cholulans built that mound, which is near Cholula, by hand. It is like a mountain or a large
hill and is full of mines or caves within. Many years later the Mexicans built the city of
Mexico, which is another Venice. In knowledge and conduct they are as the Venetians. The
Tlaxcallans seem to have followed the fate of the Carthaginians.106

Sahagn also wrote a long note in the margin of the Primeros Memoriales naming
Huitzilopochtli as "otro Marte, Painal, "otro Mercurio, Tezcatlipuca, "otro Jupiter,
Quetzalcoatl, "otro Hercules, Ceres as Chicomecoatl; Venus as Cihuacoatl; Bacchus as
Tezcantzoncatl, Artemisia as Teteoinan, Vulcan as Xiutecutli, Neptune as Tlaloc, Cupid
as Tlazolteotl, etc.107 Sahagn did not comment explicitly on the causes of these
similarities, but his work did open a door to the understanding of similarities between
cultures with far reaching consequences. The comparison of the Nahua with other
civilizations, started off with the sixteenth century missionaries, establishing the basis for
a proto-scientific vision of history that would eventually lead to articulate a general
theory such as the one of Giambattista Vico.

106
Idem., Vol. I, 48.
107
Quoted by Garibay in the introduction of the Historia General, 26.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 82

The lack of biblical references in Sahagn's writings was remarkable. It seems to imply
that Nahua culture escaped from the authority of the Sacred Scriptures. Sahagn felt that
it was crucial to understand Nahua culture through its own language, and yet, although he
described Nahua culture accurately, he was totally immersed in the Christian scholarly
tradition. Although his work conveys a deep understanding of Nahua culture he could not
but distort it. The hierarchical organization of the encyclopedia was a direct result of
Christian medieval traditions flattering the multiplicity and diversity of the
Mesoamerican cultural manifestations and converting it into a monolithic nation.108

108
There is an evident Christian numerology in the work of Sahagn revealed in the structure of his texts. The Primeros Memoriales,
for example, has four chapters and forty nine numerated paragraphs. He also had twelve "apostolic" informants and four "evangelist"
assistants. For the Historia he also had at his service twelve informants and the text was divided into twelve books. Sahagn reshaped
Nahua religion with Christian structure. But structuring the Nahua world under Christian numerology would have meant that Nahua
culture relied upon universal (Christian) principles. Sahagn, however, never expressed himself in those terms. In all likelihood the
structure of his encyclopedia was simply the result of his Christian education without further intentions.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 83

B. Fray Diego Durn (1537-1588): Nahua and Jews

Born in Seville, the Dominican Diego Durn came to New Spain as a small child. He was
raised in the city of Texcoco where he learned Nahuatl. In 1556, at the age of nineteen, he
entered the Dominican Order and around 1570 he was sent by his superiors to undertake
the project of writing about the customs of the "Indians, presenting an overview of their
ritual practices, so that missionaries could better Christianize them.
Durn was indeed preoccupied by the responsibility of missionary work and its
transcendental justification:

This is our principal aim: to warn them (the clergy) of the confusion that may exist between
our own feasts and those [of the Indians]. These, intending to celebrate the festivities of our
God and of the Saints, insert, mix, and celebrate those of their gods when they fall on the
same day. And they introduce their ancient rites in our ceremonies... I would not dare to make
such a rash assertion here if I would not be so certain and did not have under my protection
some who strive for their salvation and who trust in God.109

Durn became a vicar at the convent of Hueyapan in 1563, a town high on the southern
slope of Popocatepetl volcano. There he question the natives about their customs and
search ancient documents. Durn wrote three separate treatises. In El Libro de los Dioses
y los Ritos, written between 1574 and 1576, he described the rituals performed in the
Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and accompanied these descriptions with
illustrations, some of them of the different teocalli within the ritual precinct. His second
book was an extensive explanation of the Nahua calendar system, finished in 1579. His
third treatise, the Historia de las Yndias de Nueva Espaa y Yslas de la Tierra Firme,110
was written in 1581 while he was still vicar in Hueyapan. Among other issues, he
described the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and the construction of the teocalli
dedicated to Huitzilopochtli.

109
Diego Durn, Book of the gods and rites and the ancient calendar. (English Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971),
Chapter II, 71.
110
Diego Durn, The History of the Indies of New Spain, (Norman and London, USA: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994). The
biographical notes about Durn are taken from the introduction of the Book of the gods and rites and the History of the Indies by Doris
Hayden.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 84

Durn's works, like that of Sahagn, were confiscated by order of Philip II and were kept
in the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid,111 remaining unnoticed until the 1850's when the
Mexican scholar Jos Fernando Ramrez found it.112
Although the works of Durn and Sahagn may seem similar, especially regarding their
instrumental dimension, they were indeed very different. While Sahagn was reluctant to
give his opinion on the origin and history of the "Indians, Durn was concerned with
inserting them into a universal history.
As his investigations about the culture of the "Indians" went on, Durn became deeply
puzzled by the enormous quantity of similarities of characters, rites, and events between
the Bible and the religious life and mythology of the natives. 113 Doubts assailed him. He
could not lead himself to believe that "Indians" were outside the universal Christian
project. His understanding was framed by the analogical thinking of pre-Cartesian
Europe. Knowledge was bound by the Holy Scriptures; therefore, the cause of the
similarities had to be found in them.114 Durn's work was, therefore, not only an
instrument for understanding and indoctrinating the indigenous people, but his concern
about the origin of the "Indians" was also a quest to find a common origin for
humanity.115

111
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, section of Manuscripts, cataloged as Vit. 23-II. It is composed of 344 leaves folio-size, which
measure 32 cm high by 22 cm wide. The Jesuit Juan de Tovar read Durn's work and wrote a Segunda Relacin sent to Spain in 1583.
In 1590 Jose de Acosta published the Historia natural y moral de las Indias based heavily on Tovar's account. The works of Durn
were not completely published until the twentieth century, and although known through Acosta's pen they appear considerably
transformed, specially in the nature of the civilization of the natives.
112
A copy made by Ignacio Ramrez is preserved in the Archivo Histrico of the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropologa e Historia in
Mexico City (No. 556 [15585]). An incomplete edition came out in 1867 and the rest of it was published in 1880. The original
remains in Madrid and was not published in English until 1964 by Doris Hayden and Fernando Horcasitas.
113
For a detailed account of the similarities that Fray Diego Durn found between the Bible and the religion of the Nahua please refer
to an abstract in the introduction of Gods and Rites, 23-31.
114
Diffusionism emphasizes the role of diffusion in the history of culture rather than independent invention or discovery. This is most
radically exemplified in the racist-diffusionist interpretation of pre-Hispanic architecture by the nineteenth century French historian of
architecture Viollet-le-Duc. According to Benjamin Keen, Viollet-le-Duc had convinced himself that the Aztecs were degenerate
descendants of a mixture of white colonizers that raised those immense monuments which surprise us today by their grandeur and
strangeness, and the inferior native race of Mexico.
Viollet-le-Duc offered a sociological-racist interpretation of architectural style. Monumental architecture always
originated under the same social conditions. In Mexico, as in India, Assyria, and Egypt, a conquering race imposed the task
of constructing such monuments on the native peoples. The conquerors contributed their traditions, tastes, and special
genius; the natives gave their labor and material resources. Construction processes offered a clue to the nationality of the
builders. The absence of dry masonry in Mexico and Yucatan, the fact that mortar or plaster was employed everywhere,

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 85

In the Libro de los Dioses y Ritos, Durn gave a detailed account of the ceremonies
dedicated to Huitzilopochtli:

Much is remarkable about this feast and its rites since it was a mixture of diverse ceremonies.
Some resembled those of our Christian religion; others, things of the Old Testament; and still
others, diabolical and satanical, were invented [by the Indians].116

Durn believed in the possibility that the hero-god Ce Acatl Topitzin Quetzalcoatl was
the apostle Saint Thomas who had begun to instruct the ancient Toltecs on Christianity.
He dedicated the first chapter of his first treatise on Gods and Rites to the history of
Topitzin Quetzalcoatl, and the similarities he had found with a Christian saint or prophet:

I would not dare to affirm that Topitzin was one of the blessed Apostles. Nevertheless, the
story of his life has impressed me greatly and has lead me and others to believe that, since the
natives were also God's creatures, rational and capable of salvation, he cannot have left them
without a preacher of the Gospel. And if this is true, that preacher was Topitzin, who came to
this land. According to the story, he was a sculptor who carved admirable images in stone.
We read that the glorious apostle Saint Thomas was a master craftsman in the same art.117

almost certainly proved that the builder had Turanian or Finnish blood in their veins. Only Aryans and Semites,' declared
Viollet-le-Duc, are capable of building in dry masonry; but the indications, in the structure of buildings and certain
architectural members, of a tradition of timber construction in Yucatan, gave evidence of a strong infusion of Aryan
elements, for the use of carpentry was always associated with Aryan blood.
Keen concludes that the fact that these erratic speculations could be published and taken seriously suggest how powerful was the
influence of racism in Western thought in the nineteenth century.
Keen, The Aztec Image, 437-438.
115
As a good Dominican that appreciated study and books, Durn was deeply sorry for the destruction of the Nahua documents by the
first Franciscan missionaries. The Dominicans were the first who came to defend the rationality of the "Indians. Francisco de Vitoria
settled the bases for the International Law in which the "other" civilizations, and in specific, the Amerindian ones were recognized
with the same civil rights as the European ones. Fray Antonio de Montesinos, archbishop of Santo Domingo, defended the "Indians"
arguing they were as human as the Spanish, and they should be treated as such. The struggle continued between Fray Bartolome de
Las Casas defending his vision of the "Noble Indian" against Gonzalo Fernan de Oviedo's "dirty dog" opinion, and again, Fray
Bartolome de Las Casas in the famous scholastic debate in Seville witnessed by Charles V himself, about the rationality of the
"Indians" against the Aristotelian philosopher Gines de Sepulveda's suit to serve opinion.
See Keen, The Aztec Image, 78-85.
116
Durn, Gods and Rites: Chapter II, 70.
117
Idem., Chapter I, 59.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 86

In that sense, the missionary work would have been the fulfillment of the saint's holy
enterprise. In his third treaty, however, Durn seemed to be more inclined to think that
the similarities between the cultures were simply because the Indians were Hebrews:

However, lacking that revelation, we can only speculate and conjecture about these
beginnings, basing ourselves on the evidence provided by these people, whose strange ways,
conduct, and lowly actions are so like those of the Hebrews. Thus we can almost positively
affirm that they are Jews and Hebrews, and I would not commit a great error if I were to state
this as a fact, considering their way of life, their ceremonies, their rites and superstitions, their
omens and hypocrisies, so akin to and characteristic of those of the Jews; in no way do they
seem to differ. The Holy Scriptures bear witness to this, and from them we draw proofs and
reasons for holding this opinion to be true.118

Durn quoted King David in Psalm 105 to provide a proof of the Semitic origin of the
"Indians":

And they served their idols; which were a snare unto them. Yea, They sacrificed their sons
and daughters unto devils. And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their
daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Cannan: and the land was polluted with
blood.119

As proof thereof, we know that this newly arrived nation, late-comers from strange and
remote regions, made a long and tedious journey, searching and finally taking possession of
this land. They spent many months and years in coming to this place. The truth of this matter
can be found by drawing on their traditions and paintings and by talking to their elders, some
of whom are very old. There are some people who tell fables about this subject. Some say that
the Indians were born of pools and springs; others that they were born of caves; still others,
that they descended from the gods. All of this is clearly fabulous and shows that the natives
themselves are ignorant of their origins and beginnings, inasmuch as they always profess to
have come from strange lands. And they have portrayed great periods of hunger, thirst, and
nakedness, with innumerable other afflictions that they suffered until they reached this land
and settled in it.
All of these confirm my suspicions that these natives are part of the ten tribes of Israel...120
118
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter I, 3.
119
Idem., Chapter I, 10.
Psalm 106:36-38 (King James Version). The accusations of idolatry which Durn attributes to the Jews are precisely the accusations
the Jews attribute for the gentiles or non-Jewish. Idolatry as an aberration was the result of the conceptualization of a totally
transcendent non-representable God.
120
Idem., Chapter I, 4.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 87

Durn was sure, as archaeologists are today, that the "Indians" were ignorant of their own
origins and that he knew better. He wanted to believe that the "Aztec" pilgrimage from
Aztlan to Tenochtitlan was not just a parallel history with that of the Jewish Exodus, but
was in fact the same story narrated imperfectly. The Nahua were not like Jews, they were
Jews that had sinned out of pride and idolatry, and therefore had lost their way. The
missionary enterprise was seen as the return of the lost sheep of Israel onto the path of
salvation. The architectonic metaphor of the patios in the fortress monasteries named
corrales (stables) by the missionaries, the place of gathering and redemption for the lost
herd of Israel, was therefore, not a gratuitous one. The conversion of the Indigenous
peoples, seen by Duran and others as the lost tribes of Israel, were believed as a necessary
step for the fulfilling the prophecies of the end of times.

B.1. Teocalli and Babel

The teocalli, therefore, were towers of Babel elevated by pride and ignorance and were
the cause of the exiled condition of humanity. In an interesting passage Durn narrated
how an old man from Cholula had told him how the world had been created:

In the beginning, before light or sun had been created, this world lay in darkness and shadows
and was void of every living thing. It was all flat, without a hill or ravine, surrounded on all
sides by water, without even a tree or any other created thing. And then, when the light and
sun were born in the east, men of monstrous stature appeared and took possession of this
country. These giants, desirous of seeing the birth of the sun and its setting, decided to go
seek [dawn and dusk], and they separated into two groups. One band walked toward the west
and the other toward the east. The latter walked until the sea cut off their route; from here
they decided to return to the place from which they had set out, called Iztac Zolin Inemian.121

121
According to Garibay (see footnote Historia de las Indias: II, 586), Iztac Zolin Inemian means "Donde habitan las codornices
blancas, "where white quails dwell. Here we have an evident hermeneutic problem while interpreting pictographic documents. As
Gutierre Tibon pointed out, if a white quail is depicted it is because something white had to be depicted in order to represent
whiteness. The relevance of the name is the whiteness of the quail and not in the quail itself. The name maintained a striking
parallelism with Aztlan, the place of origins of the Mexica, which meant "place of whiteness. As we will see in the section of the
foundation of Tenochtitlan (B.3), Aztlan and Tenochtitlan appeared as white images of each other. There is an evident symbolic
relationship between whiteness and the xico, the navel of the Earth as the place of origins in several Mesoamerican traditions recorded
also in this version of the origins by Durn.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 88

 Not having found the way to reach the sun but enamored by its light and beauty, they decided
to build a tower so high that its summit would reach unto Heaven. And gathering materials
for this building, the giants found clay for bricks and an excellent mortar with which they
began to build the tower very swiftly. When they had raised it as high as they could -it
seemed to reach the Heavens- the Lord of the Heights became very angry and said to the
inhabitants of the heavens, Have you seen that the men of the earth have built a proud and
lofty tower in order to come up here, enamored as they are of the light of the sun and of its
beauty? Come, let us confound them, it is not fair that the earthlings, made of flesh, mingle
with us. Then swift as lightning, those who dwell in the heavens came out from the four
regions of the world and tore down the tower that had been constructed. And the giants,
bewildered and filled with terror, separated and fled in all directions.122

This narration seems to be a wonderful mix between Nahua and Christian myths. We
have to observe that the elderly informant was from Cholula, which possessed the highest
teocalli in all of Mesoamerica. It seemed that the natives from Cholula reinterpreted and
modified their own myths to match those of the Christians. Durn and his informants
could not distinguish between what was authentically pagan and what was Christian. The
process of acculturation, appropriation and absorption had started and there was no
turning back. The Nahua, as was their custom, took and digested the culture of the
"other" indiscriminately. It was not a rational but a metaphorical process of appropriation
mediated by language.123
Durn found in those accounts a common origin between the natives and the Christians.
For him the similarity between the different accounts was not because of their similarities
as humans. For him it was the same history but forgotten and narrated imperfectly.124

Therefore I am convinced and wish to convince others that those who tell this account heard it
from their ancestors; and these natives belong, in my opinion, to the lineage of the chosen
people of God for whom He worked great marvels. And so the knowledge of the paintings of
the things told in the Bible and of its mysteries have passed from hand to hand, from father to
son. The people assign those events to this land, believing that they took place here, for they
are ignorant of their own origins.125

122
History of the Indies, Chapter I, 8-9.
123
See Serge Gruzinski, The mestizo mind: the intellectual dynamics of colonization and globalization (New York: Routledge, 2002).
124
The theme of the teocalli as Babel was seen with more positive eyes by Athanasius Kircher who made a "babelian" interpretation of
the Great Temple in his book Odipus Egiptiacus. See Section II, Lorenzo Boturini.
125
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter I, 9.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 89

The teocalli could only be the result of recurrent acts of pride of men trying to reach the
heavens by their own means. In that sense, the Nahua were still wanderers; they still lived
under the shadow of idolatry and out of the realm of salvation; but they were, after all,
fellow humans who had come from the same primordial man and woman. They had a
free soul and understanding, and were not created to be slaves, as the philosopher Juan
Gins de Sepulveda had argued some years earlier.126 But the common origin of
Christians and Indians was not enough to guarantee their salvation. It was necessary to
Christianize them:

Once an old Indian woman, wise in the ancient ways, perhaps a former priestess, was brought
to me. She told me that in ancient times the natives had an Easter, Christmas, and Corpus
Christi, just as we have, and on the same dates, and she pointed out other very important
native feasts which coincided with our celebrations. "Evil old woman, -I said,- the devil had
plotted and has sown tares with the wheat so that you will never learn the truth!"127

Since the two religions were dangerously similar, Durn carefully researched their
differences. The issue was, rather than to make them match, to clearly separate them, as
the salvation of the natives' souls was at stake.

B.2. The Devil at work

Durn described the synchronism between the Catholic and the Nahua ritual calendars:

Let the reader note how cleverly this diabolical rite imitates that of our Holy Church, which
orders us to receive the True Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, at
Easter. Furthermore, another thing is remarkable: this feast fell on the tenth of April, that is,
around Easter, which usually comes at this time. Though it is a movable feast, sometimes
[Easter] falls eight or ten days before; sometimes it falls the same number of days after. From
these things two observations can be made: either (as I have stated) our holy Christian
Religion was known in this land or the devil, our cursed adversary, forced the Indians to
imitate the ceremonies of the Christian Catholic religion in his own service and cult, being
thus adored and served.128

126
Keen, The Aztec Image, 81.
127
Durn, Gods and Rites, 417.
128
Idem., 95.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 90

Although Durn was not totally inclined towards this metaphysical diffusionist idea, it
would be taken up again by the Jesuit Jos de Acosta in his widely known treatise
Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (1590). Acosta's book became well known and
shaped the European understanding of Nahua civilization in diabolical terms (See Figure
9, p. 91).129

Figure 9: Huitzilopochtli, Engraving, XVIIc. The goat legs allude directly to

Lucifer, and the Solomonic columns may reveal this temple as the antithesis
of Solomons'.

B.3. The foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and the construction of the

teocalli of Huitzilopochtli

After a long introduction in his Historia de las Yndias, Durn finally narrates the origin
and migration of the Mexica, according to "themselves, from the place of the seven
caves, Chicomostoc, in Aztlan. In Chapter IV he described the arrival of the Mexica to the
place where Mexico-Tenochtitlan was to be founded, and where the first temple to
Huitzilopochtli would be erected.
During their peregrination, the Aztecs had made some attempts to settle in Coatepec,
"near Tula, where, according to the myth, Huitzilopochtli had been born, or re-born. In

129
Theodor de Bry illustrates Acostas Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias in a profusely ornamented German edition which had
great impact in the European imagination. Johann Theodore de Bry, America, das ist Erfindung und Offenbahrung der Newen Welt.
(Franckfurt: am Mayn, Durch Nicolaum Hoffman, 1617).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 91

the valley of Anahuac they first settled in Chapultepec and Huitzilobusco, today
Churubusco amongst other places. In that sense, the "temple" acquired a nomadic status,
like the Jewish tabernacle in the desert. There is a similarity between the fact that the
Jews were carrying the Ark of the Covenant and the Mexica a Sacred Bundle which
contained some "relics" of Huitzilopochtli, which were placed at the teocalli in a closed
chamber behind the "image" of the god representing a great similarity between the two
wandering cultures as Durn was trying to emphasize.
We cannot say, however, that the teocalli, once built in the "promised land, was simply
an object placed on the site, like a modern building. The place had to have special
characteristics and the teocalli had to be aligned with the topographic accidents,
especially to a specific mountain to which each teocalli referred as is clearly perceptible
in the archaeological sites of Teothihuacan (See Figure 8, p.76).
Durn narrated how the Aztecs found the signals foretold by their god:

The first thing they beheld was a white bald cypress, all white and very beautiful, and a spring
came forth from the foot of the tree.
The second thing they saw was a group of white willows around the spring, all white, without
a single green leaf.
There were white reeds, and white rushes surrounding the water. White frogs came out of the
water, white fish came out, white water snakes, all shiny and white.
The spring flowed out from between two large rocks, the water so clear and limpid that it was
pleasing to behold.130

This is the original event upon which the temple and the whole new altepetl were going
to be built. The whiteness seemed to relate either to semen and/or to milk, to the seed
planted in the watery and nourishing marshes. But to me, it also refers to light, though not
so much solar (tonalli) but meztli's light, the moon's light. Durn's narrative describes an
event under the moon's light that was rendered at the origin, at the navel, the xico of the
moon reflected in the nutritious and whitened surface of the marshes. The moon fertilized
the watery Earth, the spring of water resembling female and male reproductive forces.
Francisco Xavier Clavijero suggested that the oracle predicted the foundational event as
having to take place at night, under the full moon reflected on the surface of the lake.131

130
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter IV, 40.
131
See Chapter II, 2.9: Francisco Xavier Clavijero, Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 92

That would give us a clear view on the actual name of Mexico, a compound of metztli,
moon, xico, navel and the locative co, in the navel of the moon.132
The symbolism of the color white as foundational seems to be pervasive in Mesoamerica.
Whiteness not only characterizes Tenochtitlan, but applies to other centers like Cholula,
which was called Iztac Uexotl Yhicacan, or "Place of White Willows, and Iztac Tollin
ymancan,133 "Bed of White Reeds. And also to the navel of the primordial land called
Iztac Zolin Inemian, "Where White Quails Dwell" narrated by the Cholultecan informant
of Durn. 134
There is another important connotation regarding the whiteness of the oracle signs before
the foundation of Mexico: in a cyclical understanding of time, the founding of
Tenochtitlan represented both the arrival at the promised land and the return to the
original land, to Aztlan, which literally means "the place of whiteness.135

In the year one thousand one hundred and ninety-three after the birth of Our Redeemer, Jesus
Christ, the Aztec nation reached this land. These people, like the others who populated the
country, departed from seven caves in a land where they had lived called Aztlan. This name
could mean "Whiteness" or "Place of Herons. Because of this the people were called Aztec
which means "People of Whiteness. They were also called Mecitin or Mexicans, in honor of

132
There is more about the etymology of Mexico in this dissertation, Chapter II, 2.9. For all on the name of Mexico see Gutierre
Tibn, Historia del nombre y de la fundacin de Mxico. (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1980). For Nahua etymologies of
Mexico see pages 97-141. For the names of Mexico in different native languages see pages 143-224.
El mismo fonema me- es el de metztli, la "luna. y de metl, el "maguey. porque expresa la curva comn a la creciente y a
la penca. Recordemos adems que el maguey es la planta lunar por excelencia, dispensadora de agua; que los Centzon
Totochtin llevan la nariguera lunar, trasunto de los cultivos premaiceros, los del maguey.
De lo que precede se deduce que las veinte etimologas magueyeras de Mxico, debidas a me- interpretado como metl,
tienen un parentesco fontico con las diecisis versiones lunares de metztli, por la unidad fundamental de me-, "curvo, en
el maguey y en la luna. El astro nocturno se identifica con su emblemtica planta, ambos entes acuferos: uno celeste y otro
terrestre. El fonema me- tiene, como vemos, un parentesco semntico con col- y tol-, voces divinizadas en los nombres del
dios viejo. Tibn, Historia del Nombre: 490
That only indicates the metaphoric character of Nahua language and the futility in trying to interpret it univocally. It is surprising,
therefore, that even Tibn, after declaring its ambivalence, insists in finding the "correct" name. What derives from Tibn's
observations is that the root me- refers to something that is curved, like the moon or the roots of the maguey plant re-enforcing the
umbilical character of Mexico as the re-enactment of the original place, Aztlan.
133
Durn, History of the Indies: 43. Quoted by the translators.
134
Idem., Chapter I: 8. Quoted by the translators.
135
An interpretation says that Aztlan comes from aztli, "feather" and the locative tecatl, "place near feathers" (Aulex, on line
dictionary). Others derive it from aztatl: (f) "crane, "place of cranes, or herons, and others from aztapiltic: cosa muy blanca,
"whiteness" (f); "place of whiteness. The fact that all of them have the exact same root may unveil an implicit symbolic relationship

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 93

 the priest and lord who guided them on their migration, whose name was Meci. The entire
tribe took this name, just as the Romans took theirs from Romulus, the founder of Rome.
The Aztecs now have another name, which they acquired after they took possession of this
land: Tenochca, from the tenochtli, or prickly pear cactus, that sprang from the rock in the
place where they build their city. In this sense Tenochca means "the owners of the prickly
pear cactus.136

The analogy between the two places is clearer if we observe the second folio of the codex
Azcatitlan (See Figure 10, p.94)137 where the Aztecs were departing from Aztlan. A
square island from whose center rises a mount, Huitzilopochtli summons the people and
orders them to leave. The square island with the mount/temple at its center, where
Huitzilopochtli dwells, clearly resembles Tenochtitlan.
Nahua, like most cultures of antiquity, lived a mythical cyclical time, and the great efforts
to record and keep events according to their calendar had a different intention than that of

Figure 10: The Aztec tribes departing from Aztlan, Codex Azcatitlan, fol. II. Note that the island of Aztlan is squared
and that it has a high mountain at its center, a teocalli and the different houses that represent the different Aztec
factions.

between the migratory cranes which come back to the same place and the Aztecs who returned to Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a symmetric
reflection of the real/mythic Aztlan.
Gutierre Tibn is clear when he remarks that if the heron is called ztatl, is precisely because of its whiteness: to represent whiteness,
something white has to be depicted. Aztlan is the place of whiteness. There are many different symbols that represent Aztlan, like
the ones found in the Codex Boturini, Azcatitlan and Aubin, that represent it with three of four floods of water from a cruciform figure
prolonged at its top with a rectangle as an anthill or as a white flower. Tibn demonstrates how those elements represent elements that
recall phonetically the word Aztlan. Tibn, Historia del nombre, 380-386.
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter III, 21.
136

137
Codex Azcatitlan, (Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France: Socit des Amricanistes, 1995): Lamina II, 40.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 94

the Judeo-Christian tradition where time is linear.138 In an uncertain and threatening
world, the recording of events had one main objective: predictability.
The keeping of records was not only a desire to know what came first or later,139 but to
find coincidences in the recurrence of time, to orient, align and propitiate positive events
and to avoid negative ones. The central issue of keeping records was their interpretation
as oracles.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Mexica, with their incredibly sophisticated
calendar, didn't have a way to differentiate from the different cycles of 52 years.
According to their records, the Mexica left Aztlan and arrived in Tenochtitlan in the year
One Flint. These were not only analogous events; they were the same event.140
Cyclical time was manifested in the structures of the teocalli and the Great Temple by
aligning the cycles of nature, like the overlapping of structures every fifty-two years.
Cholula's teocalli was the biggest teocalli because it was the oldest; it had accumulated
many calendar layers.141
Durn continued with the account of the foundation of Mexico:

The priests and elders then cried out:

138
Nahua vision of time, however, may not be understood as simply cyclical. There is no text that clearly expresses that a new sun will
be created after the fifth one collapses. Nahua had similar fears about the end of time as the apocalyptic Christians of the sixteenth
century. For the Nahua, the issue was to maintain the world and defer the end of time as much as possible, while for the friars, the
issue was to welcome the end of times as swiftly as possible. It would seem that the missionaries took advantage of the apocalyptic
Nahua mind offering them the idea that, although the end of time was imminent, there was a way to escape eternal punishment by
accepting Christianity.
139
In the logic of linear time, history moves from the beginning to the end. In that sense it promotes the idea of movement from
inferior to superior, from simple to complex, from primitive to advanced, from perdition to salvation, from underdeveloped to
developed. It is easy to understand how the modern project came out from the future orientation of Christianity. This understanding is
alien, however, to the pre-Hispanic tradition.
140
The departing from Aztlan, the birth of Huitzilopochtli at Coatepec and the sacrifice of Copil before the foundation of Tenochtitlan
were all recorded in the Boturini Codex or Tira de la Peregrinacin in the year One Flint.
See Para leer la Tira de la Peregrinacin, Edicin de Joaqun Galarza y Krystyna M. Libura, (Mxico, D.F.: Ediciones Tecolote,
1999), Illustration I, 10. The frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza, which depicts the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, starts the
counting of the years in Two Cane. It is to be noted that the previous year, One Flint, is missing in the illustration. There are only 51
of the 52 glyphs of the calendar cycle. It seems to me that the whole scene of the foundation, framed by a quincunx, stood for the year
One Flint being the one that closed the cycle.
One Flint marks certainly the beginning of a cycle in mythical time. This foundational date appears also in the Sun-Stone. Tonatihu,
the sun, appears at the center of the monument with the sacrificial flint on his mouth representing the year One Flint. Seen under this
light, the Sun-Stone becomes a triple commemorative monument for the mythical/historic departure from Aztlan, the birth of

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 95

 We have now found the Promised Land. We have now seen the relief, the happiness of the
weary Aztec people. All we desired has come true. Be consoled, sons and brothers! Our god
promised us this place that we have found; he told us we would see marvelous things among
the reeds, among the rushes: behold them here! O my brothers, let us go, let us return, for we
must await the command of our god, who will tell us what we are to do!142

Then, Huitzilopochtli commanded them to slay his nephew Copil and to remove his heart
and throw it among the reeds. Copil appeared in different chronicles as Huitzilopochtli's
nephew, son of his sister Malinal Xochtil who sought revenge after the Aztecs had
abandoned her during their pilgrimage. Their relationship between the opponents was
again, between close relatives.
Huitzilopochtli foretold that Copil's heart would fall on a stone from which a prickly pear
cactus would stand and from which an eagle would make its nest.

And all around it, you will see the innumerable green, blue, red, yellow, and white feathers from
the splendid birds on which the eagle feeds.143

There is a revealing quote by Tezozomoc that helps for the interpretation of this event:
naci el corazn de Cpil; ahora lo llamamos tenochtli, The heart of Copil was re-born,
now we call it, prickly pear cactus.144 It is clear that the heart of Copil represented the
seed which became the prickly pear cactus sprouting from the (sacrificial) stone. In the
Teocalli of the Holy War (Figure 31, p.237) the fruits of the cactus are clearly hearts: the
heart of Copil multiplying as red fruit, as small suns of energy which perpetuated the
bond between the god of war and its people.
Huitzilopochtli ordered this place to be called "Tenochtitlan" -Place of the Stony Prickly
Pear Cactus.

Huitzilopochtli at Coatepec and for the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

141
An important exception of this was the "Pyramid of the Sun" in Teotihuacan which had no layers and seems to had been "planed"
with its final dimensions from the beginning.
142
Durn, Historia de las Indias, 41.
143
The Mesoamerican cultures used to direct their prayers and offerings to the four directions of the cosmos, always associating,
among other attributes, a god and a color to them. There wasn't a uniform convention as they changed from town to town and even
from occasion to occasion. In the account on the foundation by Durn, five colors were given instead of the four usual ones. I think
that, because we are dealing with a foundational event, the fifth color, the seminal white, referred to the central point, the fifth
direction at the xico.
144
FernandoAlvarado Tezozomoc, Crnica mexicayotl, (Mxico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mxico, Instituto de
Investigaciones Histricas, 1975), 64.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 96

 Here is to be built the city that is to be Queen and that is to rule over all others in the country.
There we shall receive other kings and nobles, who will recognize Tenochtitlan as the
supreme capital. And so, my children, let us go among these marshes of reeds, rushes, and
cattails, as our god has indicated. Everything he has promised us has came true; thus we shall
now find the place for our city.
When the Aztecs heard what Cuauhtequetzqui had said, they humbled themselves before their
deity. They gave thanks to the Lord of All Created Things, of Day and Night, Wind and Fire.
Then dividing into different groups, they went into the swamp, searching among the reeds and
rushes.
Thus they again found the spring they had seen the day before. But the water on that day had
been clear and transparent, and it now flowed out in two streams one red like blood, the other
so blue and thick that it filled the people with awe. Having seen these mysterious things
[where the red and blue waters flowed as one], the Aztecs continued to seek [the omen of] the
eagle whose presence had been foretold. Wandering from one place to another, they soon
discovered the prickly pear cactus.145

B.4. Atl-Tlanchinolli, where the water is afire

The priest Cuauhtlequetzqui threw Copil's heart into the reeds. The Aztecs divided into
groups and went into the swamp searching for the precise place of the revelation. They
found the spring they had seen the day before, but the water that had been clear and
transparent now flowed out into two streams, one red "like blood, the other blue and
thick.146
In the different accounts about the foundation of Tenochtitlan and the construction of the
huei teocalli, we constantly find the formula: "where water is afire, and "where red and
blue waters came together as one. Blue is the color of Tlaloc, the god of rain that
constantly offered his transparent blood for the nourishment of all living creatures, and
red, the color of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war who constantly demanded the payback of
the precious liquid transformed into blood. These colors were curiously interchanged in

145
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter V, 43, 44.
146
Durn, History of the Indies, 45

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 97

their respective temples. Blue, the color of the sky was the color of Huitzilopochtli, and
red, the color of blood was the color of Tlaloc. "The Red and Blue came together as one"
in the spring signaled by the oracle. It became evident that the pairing of elements and
colors was the visual counterpart of the poetic metaphors and the dual principle acting at
the original event of the foundation of the altepetl.
In other sources that narrated the foundation of Tenochtitlan, like the Codex
Chimalpahim147 where the blue waters join the yellow waters, where the waters are
afire- The text refers to the Aztec symbol of atl-tlachinolli, "burning water, the symbol
of holy war, but also the symbol of cosmic regeneration and origins. This is clear in the
image of the pairing of the primordial elements represented in the Historia Tolteca-
Chichimeca (Figure 3, p.54), where around the symbols of water and fire vegetation is
sprouting profusely.
The atl-tlachinolli symbol appeared in a monolithic sculpture known as the Teocalli of
the Holy War (Figure 31, p.237), represented by a flow of water and a flame of fire at the
beak of the eagle of the foundational myth. The representation of what the eagle had in its
beak and claws varies according to different versions of the foundational myth. It may be
a multicolored bird, like in Durn's version, a serpent as in the Aubin Codex, a prickly
pear cactus fruit, as in the Mendoza Codex or the atl-tlachinolli symbol in the Teocalli of
the Holly War.
The "birds" and "fruit" are in fact human hearts symbolizing that after sacrificial death,
life came anew. The version of the serpent has predominated in the official version of the
myth. This may be because it conforms better to the westernized interpretation of the
battle between "good" and "evil". All of these symbols convey, however, a sense of life's
regeneration by the pairing of elements, water/fire, the blue/red, the serpent/twin, the
fruit/hearts, the sun/moon, or the birds/souls, in the place of revelation, the contradictory

147
Codex Chimalpahim, Vol. I, 27.
Mexico Tenochtitlan in the midst of the waters among sedges and reeds where the rock nopal stands, where the eagle
reposes, where it rests; where the eagle screches, where it whistles; where the eagle stretches, where it is joyful; where the
eagle devours, where it gluts; where the serpent hisses, where the fishes swim, where the blue waters join with the yellow,
where the waters are afire- there at the navel of the waters, where the waters go in; where the sedge and the reed whisper;
where the white water snakes live, where the white frog lives; where the white cypress stands, where the most precious
white willow stands; there where it is said that suffering comes to be known among sedges and reeds at the heart, at the
head, of what is called the New World, here where the sun's setting place is; where from all four directions are awaited, are
met, various peoples.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 98

forces of nature came together and danced in the center, in the navel of the moon, in Me-
xi-co.
For Gutierre Tibon,148 the Nahua identified the xico as the place where the connection
with the forces of the underworld and the superior spheres occurred, personified by the
gods of death, Mictlantecutli and Mictlantecihuatl, who lived in the ninth underground
and also of their celestial double counterpart Ometecutli and Ometlecihuatl, who lived in
the "thirteenth heaven. The foundational act brought them together at the navel of the
world.
The act of foundation established a link between the mythic/historic moment of the
foundation and the present with the city or altepetl, by an "umbilical" connection which
would determine its pathos. By making metaphors, the Nahua found existential meaning:
water and blood represented generative and nourishing liquids that changed into each
other in a fertilizing transmutation. In the mural painting at Tepantitla, in Teotihuacan,
which was visited by the Aztecs during their pilgrimage to the south, streams of red and
blue water encircled a scene of abundance and fertility.
There is an evident symbolic relationship between the symbols of yollotl heart, ollin,
movement, atl-tlachinolli, burning water, and coatl, serpent-twin. All of them
implied the metaphoric union of primordial and regenerative principles.149
The presence of a (sacrificial) stone was recurrent also in Nahua foundational myths, and
was verified and reenacted with the presence of stones, posts and trees in different rituals.
In the case of Tenochtitlan it appears integrated into the name and pictograph of
Tenochtitlan itself.150

148
Tibn, El ombligo como centro csmico, 200-223, 304-323
149
The colliding of opposites at the navel also occurred in Etruscan and Roman rituals of foundations, where a conic stone, a solar
gnomon, or other phallic solar elements were placed at the mundus, a hole at the center of the new settlement. The Greek voice for
navel, omphalos, rooted in the word omma, or "eye, and phalos "white, radiant. implied this union of opposites, a phallic presence
in a concave form. The Etruscan rituals of foundation consisted basically in the marking of a mundus or navel of the new city by
placing in its center a sacrificial offering and the creation of the city by the ritual naming of its limits from the center. Cfr. Joseph
Rykwert, The idea of a town: the anthropology of urban form in Rome, Italy and the ancient world (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1976).
150
Tibn, Historia del Nombre, 237-239.
La palabra hermana de Mxicco, "en el ombligo de la luna, es tlalxicco, "en el ombligo de la tierra. La concepcin
cosmognica del tlalxicco se acerca singularmente a la de los "centros del universo" en el Viejo Mundo; a enorme distancia
de espacio y de tiempo, las creencias del hombre llegan a converger. Las analogas entre las ideas filosficas y religiosas de
euroasiticos y mesoamericanos se deben a desarrollos paralelos de su pensamiento y se explican, desde luego, por la
unidad fundamental del genero humano. Hay que descartar la hiptesis de contactos culturales, lo que confiere al fenmeno

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 99

In another account on the foundation of Tenochtitlan,151 Tlaloc, the ancient god of rain,
welcomed Huitzilopochtli to settle where the red and blue come together as one. In the
pairing of contraries, an alliance was made, they came together as "one. It represented
the identification and union of the newcomers with the local traditions of Mesoamerica.
Symbolically, the Toltec god of rain had adopted and welcomed Huitzilopochtli. They
were not foreigners any more. The Mexica finally found the prickly pear cactus and the
eagle with its open wings stretched out towards the rays of sun:

On it stood the eagle with his wings stretched out toward the rays of the sun, basking in the
warmth and the freshness of the morning. In his claws he held a bird with very fine feathers,
precious and shining. When the people saw the eagle they humbled themselves, making
reverences as if the bird was a divine thing. The eagle, seeing them, also humbled himself,
bowing his head low in their direction.152

The eagle, impersonator of the sun, bowed to them, and, with this act of recognition,
conceded them a place in the world:

As the Aztecs observed the actions of the eagle, they realized they had come to the end of
their journey, so they began to weep and dance about with joy and contentment. In
thanksgiving they said, By what right do we deserve such good fortune? Who made us
worthy of such grace, such excellence, such greatness? At least we have fulfilled our desires;
we have found what we came to seek [the land we are to possess], the place for our capital.
Let thanks be given to the Lord of All Created Things, to our god Huitzilopochtli! Then they
marked the site and went to rest.153

On the next day, the priest Cuauhtlequetzqui told the members of the company:

My children, it is only fair that we be grateful to our god and that we thank him for all he does
for us. Let us go and make a small temple in the place of the prickly pear cactus, where our

de las convergencias de los distintos simbolismos un inters an mayor.

En el mito mesopotmico, el hombre ha sido plasmado en el ombligo de la tierra; segn las tradiciones hebreas el lugar en
el que se realiz la creacin de Adn se encuentra en el centro del cosmos, llamado tambin "ombligo de la tierra. Los
cristianos lo identificaron con el Glgota; all fue sepultado Adn. De esta surte, la sangre del Salvador reg el crneo de
nuestro primer padre, que se hallaba enterrado precisamente al pie de la cruz, y lo redimi del pecado original.
151
Aubin Codex, ff. 24-25.
152
Durn, History of the Indies, V, 44.
153
Idem., V, 44.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 100
 divinity can rest. It cannot yet be of stone, so let it be of earth and reeds. For the present we
can do no more.154

Now that they had their own altepetl, "their water, their mountain, they had to build a
teocalli for their god to dwell. But because they were in the marshes they did not have
solid material for the construction of the sanctuary. In order to buy stone and wood to
build the shrine, they sold ducks, coots, worms and mosquito eggs at the markets of the
towns around its shore.

Although the wood and stone were not sufficient, nonetheless the Aztecs, working hard,
began to build their temple with that material. Little by little they filled in and consolidated
the site for the city. They built foundations in the water by driving in stakes and throwing dirt
and stone between the stakes. Thus they planned their city and founded it. The little shrine for
their god was made only of mud, but they covered the outside of this with a coating of small
cut stones, then plastered it with a lime finish. So, although it was small and humble, the
home of Huitzilopochtli acquired a pleasing appearance.155

The night after the Aztecs had finished their god's shrine, Huitzilopochtli spoke to his
priest by saying:

Tell the Aztec people that the principal men, each with his relatives and friends and allies,
should divide the city into four main wards. The center of the city will be the house you have
constructed for my resting place. And let each group build its part of the city as it wishes.156

By the time the Spanish arrived, the number of calpolli had increased to twenty. Durn,
however, identified those first four barrios as still existing in the capital of New Spain.
They are San Pablo, San Juan, Santa Maria la Redonda, and San Sebastian, recognizing
the continuity between the original trace of Tenochtitlan and the colonial capital.157
teocalli were also made in accordance to a prototypical model: there was not much
difference between the teocalli of Tenayuca, Texcoco, Tenochtitlan or Tepeapulco, other
than their various sizes. They were all double shrine teocalli dedicated to Huitzilopochtli
and Tlaloc. They were not, however, the materialization of an ideal model. The teocalli

154
Idem., V, 44.
155
Idem., V, 46.
156
Idem., V, 46.
157
Idem., V, 46.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 101
appeared as a natural response to the phenomenal world. They recognized the four
directions of the cosmos and a navel. It is known, based on archaeological evidence,158
that the axis of the teocalli that were oriented westwards were aligned towards the
equinox, to the midpoint of the displacement of the sun at the time of the year when day
and night had the same length. It was also the moment of the year in which a gnomon
would not project any shadow at midday. The sides of the teocalli would be aligned with
the solstices if seen from a specific viewpoint.
The teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc corresponded, down on earth, to the space in
the sky marked by the solstices as the sun moved back and forth during the year. The
equinox marked the transition from which Tlaloc or Huitzilopochtli would dominate
dividing the year into two general seasons, the wet and the dry. The equinox signaled the
beginning of the two main Aztec activities, the wet season for cultivation and harvesting,
and the dry season to make war, sacrifice and penance.
The city arranged in quarters followed a simple model of the universe as a quincunx (See
Figure 7, p.67). The quincunx was also the geometrical layout for the fortress-
monasteries of the mendicant orders that would be built later, often over the ritual
precincts. The differences between a teocalli ritual precinct and the colonial monastery
was, however, important. While the Nahua teocalli aligned with the phenomenal world,
the monasteries followed an ideal transcendent model, an idea directly revealed from God
to Moses: the Tabernacle in the Desert.159 This "idea" could be inserted anywhere because
it didn't need the place to acquire its meaning; the Tabernacle was placeless. I will
expand more on this matter in the section that examines the work of Diego Valads.

B.5. The Fifth Sun and the orientation of the teocalli

About the orientation of the temple doors Durn wrote:

158
See below Part III, 3.1, Ignacio Marquina, Tenayuca.
159
The reference that God imprinted the tabernacle's plan into Moses' forehead was a later interpretation by Philo of Alexandria. Philo,
a Hellenized Rabbi platonized Jewish religion identifying the world of Ideas with Jove's mind. With his interpretation he
converted the Tabernacle into an Ideal and visual model of Gods mind. For the Jews, however, the issue as expressed in the Torah was
more a ritual way of building than the visualization of God's mind through the structure of the Tabernacle. The spin introduced by
Philo is of the highest relevance setting a way to interpret the sacred scriptures in platonic terms by the scholastic philosophers of
Christianity. Philo's settled the bases to understand the Transcendent in visual ideal terms, a central issue in contemporary
architectonic practice. See Philo Judaeus, The Essential Philo, Edited by Nahum N. Glatzer (New York: Schocken Books, 1971):
245-57.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 102
 The four main temples had entrances facing the directions I have mentioned and the four gods
standing in them also faced the same directions. Even though the reason given for this [plan]
may be fictitious, I shall not refrain from narrating it so that this arrangement is
comprehensible.
The ancients believed that before the sun rose or had been created, the gods discussed
lengthily among themselves, each insisting stubbornly on the direction he thought appropriate
for the rising of the sun, which had to be determined before its creation. One, desirous of
having his own way, said it was necessary that the sun rise in the north; another contradicted
him, saying the south was better; another said no, that it should appear in the west; still
another said that the east was most convenient for its rising. The last had his way. He turned
his face [toward the direction] in which he wanted the sun to appear, and the rest turned their
faces toward the directions they had chosen. The four doors [of the square] existed for this
reason. And so they spoke of the door of such and such a god, and of others, each door being
named for its god.160

In the Florentine Codex161 it is said that, before the ritual sacrifice to create the Fifth Sun
at Teotihuacn, all the gods took their places at midnight around the teotexcalli. The fire
of sacrifice burned then for four days. Being the cosmos without movement, there was no
difference between its four directions. It was not until the gods sacrifice, that the sun
appeared in the east, the world was then oriented around the primordial sacrificial
stone: its firing navel, the teotexcalli.
Given the fact that in Mexico-Tenochtitlan the land was made "artificially, this allowed
an almost symmetrical pattern of chinampas,162 giving it an "ideal" look. The remarkable
regularity of the city plan surprised the Europeans when they arrived, and was especially
attractive for the Renaissance mind of the sixteenth century with its Utopian
aspirations.163 But a teocalli was unthinkable without its cosmic orientation and material
surroundings; it existed because it had a place in the world and not because it was formed
by an independent idea.
160
Durn, Gods and Rites: II: 78
161
Sahagn, Florentine Codex, Book II, 14-15. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 44-45.
162
Durn, History of the Indies, 47.
About a mile north of Tenochtitlan's ceremonial precinct, Tlatelolco is now a part of downtown Mexico Dity. Durn states that
Tlatelolco was founded around 1370 by dissidents from the major aztec group and little by little became and important marketplace.
The rivalry between the two cities ended by Tenochtitlan's overpowering Tlatelolco in 1473.
163
A first European map of Tenochtitlan was made in the German edition of 1521 in Nuremberg of Hernn Corts second letter to
Charles V. This map has been attributed to Corts, but many elements lead to the conclusion that the engraver made the representation
based only upon the text of the letter and not upon a sketch made by Corts.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 103
According to Durn, Mount Tlaloc was "bound by Coatlichan and Coatepec. It has been
noted before that Huitzilopochtli's temple represented the geographic/mythical mount
Cotatepec, the place where the goddess Coatlicoe had given birth to Huitzilopochtli. This
mount was, according to the myth, "near Tula. Here, however, there was an allusion to a
Coatepec lying just behind the Great Temple near Mount Tlaloc. That meant that the
Mexica had re-named this mountain in order for it to correspond with the double structure
of their teocalli. In this case, it is the building that gave meaning to the landscape. This
Coatepec was evidently a reincarnation of the Coatepec, "near Tula, in the myth. This
reinforced the necessity of both, the mnemonic and phenomenal grounding of the cultures
of the Anahuac.
As I have mentioned, different Mexica groups settled around the teocalli of
Huitzilopochtli. According to Durn's account, the god commanded them to distribute the
different gods among them so that each calpolli would have a place for their deities to be
revered. Thus, each calpolli was divided into sections according to the number of gods it
possessed. These gods were called calpulteteo or calpolli's gods. Durn noted: "we have
known that these barrios were similar to parishes in Spain that bear the names of
saints.164
The logic of the distribution was analogical. Each of the different calpolli reproduced to a
different scale the same cosmic disposition reflected in the structure of the altepetl. The
relationship of the main ritual precinct with the city was reproduced again in the different
calpolli. Each of them was organized around a calpolco which housed one or several
teocalli for the district gods or calpulteteo. The households or callis, located in each of
their corresponding chinampas or "floating" islands, maintained successively the same
logic: the households were formed of separate rooms to house the different members of
the family around one dedicated to the family's tutelary god. The households followed the
same disposition of the ritual precincts. The whole of the urban fabric was then regulated
by a simple principle of analogy. The monadic structure of the household was the same
for the callis, calpolli, calpolco and altepetl.

The analogy was taken to the point where each household had, like the ritual precincts, its
own xompontli or skull rack to display the skulls of the captives the members of the
family had taken during "good war.

164
See The Nahua Altepetl in the General Introduction.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 104
 After the latter were dead and their flesh had been eaten, the skulls were delivered to the ministers
of the temple, who strung them there... I also asked what was done with the other bones. The
[people] told me that the owner of the native who had been sacrificed placed the bones in the
courtyard of his home on long sticks as trophies of his glorious deed and to show that [the remains
had belonged] to a prisoner of his, captured in a good war. All of this was to his own honor and
vainglory.165

In most cases the symmetry of the cosmic arrangement was not a strict issue, though the
analogy was maintained at the household level. This cellular arrangement was guided by
a desire to dwell in analogous disposition to the phenomenal cosmos, from the biggest to
the smallest: cemanahuac, anahuac, altepetl: "universe, "earth, "region, "town, all
terms curiously sharing the root atl, "water" and teocalli, calpolli, calpolco and calli,
"temple, "district, "ritual district temple" and "household, which had a strict
relationship of reciprocity between them. This cosmic arrangement pivoted around the
huei teocalli mediating what was "far" with what was "close. In that sense, teocalli
introduced and mediated between the macro-cosmos and the community. As
demonstrated by James Lockhart this disposition seemed to endure in native towns during
colonial times.166
This can be appreciated in the chronicle of Fray Francisco de Aguilar, a surviving
participant of the wars of Conquest who became a member of the regular clergy
afterwards. In 1561 Fray Diego Durn met Fray Francisco at the monastery of Oaxtepec,
who gave him a "glimpse" of his impressions: the "temple" of Tenochtitlan looked like a
"fortress" with splendid "monuments, "castles, "royal dwellings" crowned with
"turrets" and "watchtowers,

... such were the glorious heights which could be seen from afar! Thus the eight or nine
"temples" in the city were all close to one another within a large enclosure. Within this
compound they all stood together, though each had its own staircase, its special courtyard, its
chambers, and its sleeping quarters for the priests of the temples. All of this took up much
ground and space. How marvelous it was to gaze upon them- some taller than others, some
more lavish than others, some with their entrances facing the east, others the west, others the
north, others the south! All stuccoed, carved, and crowned with different types of merlons,
painted with animals, [covered] with stone figures, strengthened by great, wide buttresses!

165
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter I, 79-80.
166
See James Lockhart, The Nahua after the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth
through Eighteenth Centuries. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 105
 How [the temples] gave luster to the city! How they gave it dignity, to the point that there was
little else to see!167

Fray Francisco de Aguilar mentioned there were eight or nine temples within the ritual
precinct. All close to one another within a larger enclosure, with their "own staircases,
"special courtyard, "chambers" and "sleeping quarters" for the priests of the "temples,
etc. This revealed a cellular arrangement in which each teocalli had several buildings
around a courtyard that served it and were used for their specific ritual ceremonies. Each
of these compounds were with certainty the different calpolco or religious centers of the
oldest calpolli of the city which were subsumed into a monumental compound as they
grew in size, unified by a surrounding wall, displacing the households to the exterior.
At the time of the conquest, there were twenty calpolli in Tenochtitlan. The eight or nine
towers mentioned by Fray Francisco de Aguilar may have belonged to the calpolco
agglutinated in the main ritual compound while the remaining eleven or twelve calpolco
would stand as separate compounds around the city.
There was a hierarchy between the cults, but it was of a different nature than that
perceived by monotheist Europeans. Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were not above other
gods. Each of them reincarnated different aspects of the cosmos. Nor did their priests
have power over other cults. Huitzilopochtli's cult was another cult. The huei teocalli of
Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc's teocalli were another ritual center of a specific calpolli.
There was a religious and political autonomy among altepetl and even among calpolli.
The relationship between the different districts and cults was not orchestrated by a single
dominant god or pontiff but mediated by the calendar, in which all the gods and calpolli
had their "time and space" in the circle of time. The relationship between the huei
teocalli and other teocalli of Tenochtitlan was of a different order than the relationship
between the Christian cathedral and its subordinate parishes, which can be considered a
typical vertical organization which involved all aspects of the religious life, all the way
up to the Pope and to God. Both organizations, the native and the Catholic, were the
result of their religious beliefs. They may have seemed similar, but they were actually
quite different. The temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc was seen, however, by Fray
Diego and by Europeans in general, as a kind of Vatican of the New World:

167
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 75,76.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 106
 Figure 11: First European map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Hernn Corts,
Second Letter to the King, Nuremberg 1521.

Since the god we refer to was the principal deity, his temple was the most sumptuous and
magnificent of all. Its own private courtyard was surrounded by a great wall, built of large
carved stones in the manner of serpents joined one to another. He who wishes to see these
stones may go to the Cathedral of the City of Mexico. There he will observe them, serving as
pedestals and bases of the columns. These stones, today used as bases, formed the wall of the
Temple of Huitzilopochtli. This wall was called Coatepantli, Snake Wall.168

After making the analogy between Huitzilopochtli and the Roman Mars, Durn claimed
that his temple was:

The most outstanding in this land: the largest, most solemn, and most sumptuous. I constantly
heard the conquerors tell of its excellence, right, and beauty, of its ornate structure and its
solidity.169

Durn also declared to have seen a "painting" describing the massacre of eight thousand
six hundred Mexica killed by Spaniards and Tlaxcaltecans at the festivity of
168
Idem., Chapter II, 76.
169
Idem., Chapter II, 72.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 107
Panquetzaliztli. All these people were "dancing in a circle, in the patio of the temple of
Huitzilopochtli. 170

I have brought this story to give a clear idea of the magnitude of the courtyard of the temple.
It must have been immense, for it accommodated eight thousand six hundred men, dancing in
a circle.

The event, as narrated by Durn, gives us the idea of a huge multitudinous plaza. But the
courtyard in front of the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc may have been much
smaller than that. We have to think that the whole precinct was built in an area a little
bigger than the modern Zocalo in Mexico City (240m by 240m)171 where nine
compounds of buildings had to be fitted in, each one of them formed by a teocalli,
calmecac, xompantli, and so on.
Hernn Corts was the first to portray the Mexica military domination as an Empire.
Without even having visited Tenochtitlan, he wrote about his plan to conquer an
analogous imperial power on the King's behalf. This was because this was the closest
simile he had at hand, but the simile was not naive, it worked wonderfully to get the
allowance of the Emperor to let him command the war of conquest.
Christian pre-conceptions made the temporal and religious authorities impose a
centralized religious and political structure over the whole territory of Anahuac
displacing the traditional ethnic centers to a single "capital. The most critical aspect of
this was the transference of their traditional point of existential reference, not only to the
capital of New Spain, but to Seville and Rome. This meant that the central point of
reference was moved, from the center of their own community, to beyond their world of
experience. An unsolvable chasm was opened in the Mesoamerican traditional thinking,
always strictly tied to place.

170
Idem., Chapter II, 77,78.
Durn was mistaken with regards to the participation of Corts in the massacre, Pedro de Alvarado being in command while Corts
went to confront Panfilo de Narvaes at Cempoala. The festivity occurred in 1520 while Moctezuma was captive of the Spaniards.
171
See Part III, 3.3. Marquina's reconstruction of the Great Temple.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 108
B.6. The rituals at the Great Temple as described by Fray Diego Durn

Facing the two rooms of these gods was a square space, forty feet on each side, plastered
smoothly with stucco. In the center, in front of the two shrines, stood a pointed green stone
about as high as a [man's waist]. When a man was thrown upon it, on his back, the form of
[the stone] bent his body. Men were sacrificed upon this stone in a manner which we will see
elsewhere, and, since there are so many remarkable things in the details of this temple, after I
have shown an illustration, I wish to make special mention of each thing. This will not fail to
interest and please when it is heard and read about and when we realize the fine craftsmanship
with which these people built temples to their deities and how they adorned and polished
them. Yet in our own times there are those who say that a small, squat adobe church is
enough for our God!172

About the Xompantli Durn writes:

In front of the main door of the Temple of Huitzilopochtli there were thirty long steps about
one hundred eighty feet in length. These were separated from the courtyard wall by a passage.
On top [of the platform] was a walk thirty feet wide and as long as the steps. This passage
was plastered, and its steps were finely worked. Along the center of this ample and long walk
stood a finely carved palisade as tall as a great tree. Poles were set in a row, about six feet
apart. All of these thick poles were drilled with small holes, and the holes were so numerous
that there was scarcely a foot and a half between them. The holes reached the top of the tall,
thick poles. From pole to pole, through the holes, stretched thin rods strung with numerous
human heads pierced through the temple. Each rod held twenty heads. These horizontal rows
of skulls rose to the height of the poles of the palisade and filled it from end to end.173

Durn was describing the xompantli related to Huitzilopochtli's cult. According to this
description it was placed outside and in front of the courtyard of the temple, separated
from the wall by a passage, but within the main ritual precinct. As described by him, it
was not only a structure to display the skulls of the sacrificed victims; it was described as
172
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 75.
The Dominicans were seen under critical eyes because of their sumptuous temples in New Spain. Durn justified this luxury arguing
that, because the Indians were used to having monumental and finely crafted temples, they would not have any respect for a house of
the true God if it was a squat adobe church.
173
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 78,79.
Andrs de Tapia may had been Durn's source. Tapia claimed to have personally counted -together with Gonzalo de Umbria- the
skulls of the huei-xumpantli being a total of one hundred and thirty six thousand. See Germn Vzquez, ed. La Conquista de
Tenochtitlan (Madrid: Historia 16, Crnicas de Amrica. 40, 1988), 108-109.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 109
a "walk, thirty feet wide by a hundred and eighty feet long. It has within a ritual passage
surrounded by the "trees of death. A place for processions before and among sacrificial
dead.
Durn's description of the Panquetzaliztli festivity tells of a procession between the
xompantli and the Huei teocalli before the sacrificial rite:

Figure 12: Thodore de Bry, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Note the shrines of the two gods appear as
idols themselves. In this imaginative engraving based in Durn's account, de Bry conflates three structures
in one: the Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the round temple of Quetzalcoatl and the xompantli or
skull rack.

A strange ceremony was performed with those who were to be sacrificed. All of the victims
were placed in a row at the foot of this palisade, at the top of the stairs. While they stood
there, accompanied by guards who surrounded them, a priest appeared... He descended from
the summit of the temple carrying a dough image made of tzoalli dough, which is made of
amaranth seed and maize and kneaded with honey. The priest brought down an idol made of
this dough. Its eyes were small green beads, and its teeth were grains of corn. [The priest]
descended the steps of the temple as swiftly as possible (Painal) and climbed the top of a
great stone set in a high open space in the middle of the courtyard. This stone was called
cuauhxicalli, and I saw it at the door of the Cathedral some days ago.174

174
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 80.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 110
The cuahuxicalli represented a central artifact in the sacrificial rites. The word was
composed from the roots cuahu (eagle), xico (navel), and calli (house). It was a stone
usually crafted as an eagle with a cavity that contained the hearts of the sacrificed.
The eagle was the nagual of the sun, the messenger, the one who brought back the
sacrificial offering to reinvigorate it in a magical connection. The cuahuxicalli was
placed at the "navel" of the courtyard revealing its central place in the architectonic
complex and its function in the sacrificial rite. The xico connected with the origins, with
the under and upper worlds and the four directions of the cosmos by means of an
umbilical relationship. The cuahuixicalli was the threshold between the world and the
under world and, therefore, between life and death. On it, the concentrated energy of
victim hearts multiplied as sprouting vegetation.

The priest went up one small staircase and came down another one on the opposite side. Still
embracing the image, he ascended to the place where those who were to be sacrificed stood,
and from one end to the other he went along showing the figure to each one saying "Behold
your god!.
After exhibiting this, he descended. Thereupon all those who were to die followed him in a
procession to the place where they were to be sacrificed. There the butchers, the ministers of
Satan, stood prepared. They sacrificed the victims, opening their chests, taking out their
hearts, and still half alive- [the victims] were sent rolling down the steps of the temple, and
the steps were bathed in blood. This was the ceremony performed on the feast of this god with
the sacrificial victims, as shown in the painted picture.175

This courtyard had four doors or entrances, one on the east, another on the west, one on the
south, and another on the north. From each one of these began one of the four causeways: one
to Tlacopan (today called the street of Tacuba); another toward Guadalupe; another toward
Coyoacn; and yet another toward the lake and the canoe dock.176

Durn mentioned the four causeways or calzadas,177 as starting at the precinct of

Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. If this was true, it would mean that the calzadas entered the
ritual precinct and reached the main compound located at the center. This would give us a
symmetrical arrangement with the precincts of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc at the middle,
and eight others around it, all facing central causeways. But Sahagn mentioned that

175
Idem., Chapter II, 80-81.
176
Idem., Chapter II, 78.
177
From cacle, sandal shoe. It also comes from the root calli, house meaning: "between the houses."

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 111
doors were located at the exterior wall. That would mean that there were external gates to
access a central road inside the precinct, and other entrances, signaled maybe by just a
change of level, from the road to the different ritual cells.
The calzadas had wooden bridges at different points that could be removed in case of an
attack. Entrances used to be signaled only by a frame, by a change of level, or by other
architectonic strategies but not by a physical obstacle. Andrs de Tapia mentioned that
the entrance to the shrine of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc was defined by hanging ropes full
of metal bells that announced the visitor that made such a noise that it seemed the house
was falling down.178

B.7. Huitzilopochtli the solar impersonator

According to Arild Hvidtfeldt,179 the concept of the divine in many cultures -including the
Mexica- presented a process of "humanization" of natural forces. That doesn't mean,
however, that natural forces became people; they remained non-personal energies
invested in a person, an image or in objects. The Catholic counterpart of the ixiptla is the
Holy Host, which acts as a kind of medium for the ritual incarnation of Christ. The Host,
once consecrated, would not represent Christ, it would be Christ. This seems to be close
to the Nahua concept of ixiptla. The natives may had found themselves unjustly
persecuted by the Spanish who apparently used religious images just in the same way as
they did.
Durn described the procession during Huitzilopochtli's feast differently from Sahagn.
He mentioned that the "cloistered virgins" of the temple made the ixiptla of the god with
huauhtli, (amaranth seeds) together with toasted maize and mixed it with black maguey
syrup (century plant). This paste was known as tzoalli, or amaranth seed dough.

When the [idol] had been finished, all the lords came, bringing a finely worked, rich costume
which was just like the dress of the god I have described. The dough was dressed in the form
of the idol. On it was placed the bird's beak of shining, burnished gold; the feather headdress
on its head; his apron of plumes; his shield, staff, bracelets, and anklets, his splendid sandals;
and his breech cloth, a magnificent piece of needlework and feathers. When he had been thus

178
Vzquez, La Conquista de Tenochtitlan, 110.
179
See Hvidtfeldt's Introduction on Cult and Myth, in Teotl and Ixiptlatli, 11-64.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 112
 finely garbed and adorned, he was set upon a blue bench, similar to a litter, to which four
handles were attached.180

The "idol" was placed upon a litter with four handles. The day of the feast, an hour before
dawn,

All the girls came out dressed in white, wearing new shirts and skirts. On that day they were
called the Sisters of Huitzilopochtli, that is to say, Ipilhuan Huitzilopochtli.181

As we have seen in Sahagn's account, Huitzilopochtli's ixiptla was called Painal "the
swift.182 He was dressed just like Huitzilopochtli. The different actors of the rituals,
sacrificers and sacrificed, also appeared dressed as the god. All the participants were
invested with its energy.183 They were Huitzilopochtli. Painal as Huitzilopochtli, the
priests dressed as the god, the women also dressed as Huitzilopochtli's sisters; the men
carrying the god's ixiplta and, especially, the sacrificial victims. This converted the ritual
into an auto-immolation of the god of war.
It is important to understand the fascination towards death in Mesoamerican cultures and
the participation of the victims in the processions. None would have been acting as an
individual; all of them subordinated their personal wills to those of the forces of the
cosmos. Free will as we understand it was not known; people were totally bound to the
cycles and destiny of the universe and their duty was to collaborate with them.
The "sisters of Huitzilopochtli" took the ixiplta of the god and carried it to the courtyard
where the young men of the "monasteries" were waiting, also dressed as gods. They then
took the image and went to the foot of the teocalli's steps. All the people bowed deeply,
touching the earth and carrying it to their mouths as a signal of respect. They took
Huitzilopochtli's "impersonator" with great swiftness, first to Chapultepec's hill, where
they made sacrifices, then to Atlacuilhuayan [Tacubaya], then to Coyoacn, and without

180
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 86. My emphasis.
181
Idem., Chapter II, 86.
Ipilhuan Huitzilopochtli is more accurately translated as Children or Daughters of Huitzilopochtli. (Note by the translators).
182
According to Fray Alonso de Molina a literal translation would be "He Who Runs Swiftly for Huitzilopochtli" el que corre
ligeramente por Huitzilopochtl. (Note by the translators).
183
In anthropological studies the Polynesian term mana has been adopted to designate the power of the elemental forces of nature
embodied in an object or person.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 113
pausing they returned to Tenochtitlan. "This procession was called Ipaina Huitzilopochtli,
which meant the Swift, the Fleet Path of Huitzilopochtli.184
The promenade reenacted the cyclical passing of time, and ritually marked the limits of
the cosmos and the limits of the Mexica altepetl. An important characteristic of those
promenades was the participation of the community. The common folk could see
Huitzilopochtli directly. During the colonial period it was not difficult for the
missionaries to organize Catholic processions around the city. Among these processions,
the most significant one was Corpus Christi, in which the consecrated Host was taken to
the main districts around the city very similarly to Huitzilopochtli's processions at the
festivities of Panquetzaliztli.
Once back at Tenochtitlan,

When they reached the steps of the temple, the litter was set down. [Then] they took thick
ropes and tied them to the handles of the litter. With much care and reverence, some pulling
from above, others helping from below, the litter with the idol was carried up to the pinnacle
of the temple, in the midst of the sounding of trumpets and flutes, to the din of the shells and
drums... the people stood below in the courtyard with great reverence and awe.185

Then the maidens appeared again, bringing four hundred186 pieces of amaranth dough in
the shape of large bones from their "convent. They gave the "bones" to the young men
who carried them up to the temple and placed them at the feet of the god filling the place
with them. The bones were called "the bones and flesh of Huitzilopochtli.
Then the elders of the temple came out in procession, wearing their multicolored,
embroidered net mantles, according to their rank and office, and

Behind them emerged the gods and goddesses, [or rather] their impersonators, dressed in the
proper garb of each deity. In an orderly fashion they aligned around the pieces of dough. They

184
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 87.
Durn's description of the procesion is slightly different from the one described by Sahagn. Durn's describes a larger circuit than the
one described by Sahagn. Both started at the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and went in a counterclockwise direction, but Sahagn's went
first northwards to Tlatelolco, while the other went westwards to Tacuba. The first came back through Acachimanco, while the other
went as far as Coyoacn and came back trougth Huitzilopochco.
185
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 87-88.
186
In Nahuatl the word centzontli "four hundred" was used for "many" as we say "thousands. The Aztec counted on a bi-decimal
system by groups of fives up to twenty. Twenty counts added up to four hundred, a centzontli, a head of hair or "many. Note of the
translators.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 114
 performed a ceremony of chanting and dancing upon them. With this, [the dough] was
considered blessed and consecrated as the flesh and bones of the god Huitzilopochtli.187

So ended the ceremony of the blessing of the pieces of dough in the form of the bones and the
flesh of the god. They were revered and honored in the name of Huitzilopochtli with all the
respectful veneration that we ourselves hold for the Divine Sacrament of the Altar.188

The bones were then broken and given to the people to be eaten. Then, the sacrificers
followed in the procession. There were six, five of them called chachalmeca, who held
the feet and hands of the victim, another held the head, and the High Priest or "pontiff,
called topitzin [our lord] who was to open the chest with the flint.

They humbled themselves before the idol and then stood in order next to a pointed stone,
which stood in front of the door of the idol's chamber. The stone was so high that it reached
one's waist. And it was so sharp that when the sacrificial victim had been stretched across it
on his back he was bent in such a way that if the knife was dropped upon his chest it split
open with the ease of a pomegranate189

The same sacrifice was practiced by the men of Tlaxcala, Huexotzinco, Calpan, Tepeaca,
Tecali, Atotonilco, and Cuauhquecholan with men from the region of Mexico they had
captured. The same feast, the same rites, were performed in front of their god, just as was
done in Mexico. All the provinces of the land practiced the same ceremonies. It was a
universal festival and was named Coaihuitl, which means Feast Which Belonged to One and
All.190

As we suggested before, the sacrificed victims and the sacrificing priests identified with
each other, converting the ritual into an auto-sacrifice. This allows us to understand how
human sacrifice was not a centralized Mexica imposition, but represented a cultural
construct with roots in the land of Anahuac before and beyond the Mexica.

Durn goes on to describing then the "Florid Wars" against Tlaxcala, Tepeapulco and
other towns:

187
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 89.
188
Idem., Chapter III, 90.
189
Idem., Chapter III, 91.
190
Idem., Chapter III, 92-93.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 115
 The whole contest, the entire battle, was a struggle with the aim of capturing prisoners for
sacrifice... This was their goal: to seize yet not to slay; not to harm man or woman, home or
cornfield, but to feed the idol! To feed human flesh to the accursed and famished butchers!191

For sacrifice to be effective and have cosmic resonances, it had to be done in the right
place, at the momoxtli or the teocalli, and at the right moment. A man killed at battle was
a waste; the ultimate goal of battles -not just the "florid" ones- was to capture slaves to be
sacrificed at the altars. High honors were given to all who caught a slave. The warrior's
ranks were given with regards to the amount of captured enemies. This reflected the
importance of the place around which the whole community realized its daily activities:
the sacrificial altar.192

B.8. Tlaloc and the Anahuac193

These two gods were always meant to be together, since they were considered companions of
equal power.194

After describing the festivities in honor to Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, Durn

described, in Chapter VIII in the Book of Gods and Rites the ceremonies in honor of
Tlaloc "God of Rain, Thunder, and Lightning, who was revered by all the people of the
land.
Durn said that the name of Tlaloc meant "path under the earth or long cave.195 This
version of the god's name is surprising because, as Durn himself said, thunder and
lightning were honored as the god's main attributes, clearly related to the sky.
The relationship of Tlaloc with the underworld seemed revealing. Tlaloc's kingdom -the
Tlalocan- was usually portrayed as a happy place of abundance and fertility dominated by

191
Idem., Chapter III, 94.
192
This fact was crucial in their defeat by the hands of the Spaniards. At least twice the Mexica had captured Hernn Corts who later
escaped or was liberated by his soldiers.
193
Anahuac was the name given by the cultural universe of lake Texcoco, it included all the communities, valleys and mountains
around it, but, according to Clavijero, it came to represent all the land dominated by the triple alliance between Mexica, Texcocans
and Tepanecs..See Part II, 2.4.1 The country of Anahuac.
194
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter II, 75.
195
It contrast with El que hace crecer las cosas, "He who makes things grow. Aulex on-line dictionary. http://aulex.ohui.net

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 116
a mountain supplying water, something similar to the Chrisitan terrestrial paradise, but
in the murals at Tepantitla, in Teotihuacan, the Tlalocan seems to be portrayed as an
underworld realm, which is usually associated with the Mictlan or the region of the
Death, the realm of Mictlantecutli and Mictlantecihuatl.
The universe of experience, the Cemanahuac, "surrounded by water" was conceptualized
as a floating mountain. Water not only surrounded the world but was above it, as clouds,
and below it, as subterranean rivers. Water was in constant movement, from sky to earth
to the underworld and from the underworld to the sea through deep rivers, or to the
surface of the earth in the form of springs. Durn reported that it was believed that Lake
Texcoco, Tonanhueyatl (our Mother), was fed by the sea through underground conducts.
The realm of Tlaloc seemed to have been located, not only in the sky and on the surface
of the Earth but in the underworld, constantly supplying water that permeated back and
forth, guarantying a world of abundance.
It has been revealed by archaeological surveys that the "pyramid of the sun" in
Teotihuacan was built on top of a long cave that very probably had a spring of running
water in it when it was built. It was probably a tributary of the river whose affluence was
the Cerro Gordo or Tenan (our lady of stone).
According to the myth of foundation of Tenochtitlan, a spring with red and blue water
was at the place of the apparition. An important fact is that, due to its salinity, the lake's
water was not drinkable, making the existence of a spring a fundamental element for the
new altepetl. The place of the foundation curiously marked the approximate point in
which the salty water of Lake Texcoco met with the fresh waters of Lake Xochimilco.
This reinforced the idea of the two sources of water coming together as "one, the red and
the blue, where the water was "afire.
There was a curious aspect of Lake Texcoco which contributed to the idea of Tlalocan
being an underground realm. At Pantitlan, three miles east of Tenochtitlan, there was a
siphon in the lake that sucked in the water to a hidden underworld cavern. Every year,
during the festivity to Tlaloc, the Mexica used to sacrifice children and let their blood and
bodies sunk into the siphon. In the Nahua view, if Tlaloc offered his blood in the form of
a spring of pure water, he had to be payed back at the place where the waters where
sucked down.
But Tlaloc was not only the god of underworld waters:

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 117
 He was worshiped as the God of Rain and of Lightening, Thunder, and Thunderbolts and of
all kinds of storms. His story will please my listeners because it contains remarkable things
and will also make them give thanks to God for having cleansed these wretched people from
their great errors and blindness, for they were sunk in the most intolerable deceits and
depravity.196

As we have seen, Tlaloc, "he who makes things grow" 197 had an incredible range of
action. From the sky giving lightning and rain to the earth, controlling the sea and lakes,
to the rivers running underground. His cult was ancient and pervasive along
Mesoamerican cultures under different names, like Chac for the Maya and Cocijo for the
Zapotec.
Durn assumed Tlalocan was localized at Mount Tlaloc, a mountain in a volcanic chain
to which the great Popocatepetl and Ixtlacihuatl volcanoes also belonged, at the east of
the valley, laying just behind the huei teocalli, and being aligned with it. 198 Lake Texcoco
received its major supply of water by means of condensation from clouds and
precipitation of rain that came from this group of mountains; it was a strategic point for
the equilibrium of the ecosystem of the valley.

This same name of the god [Tlaloc] was given to a lofty mountain which is bound by
Coatlichan and Coatepec on one side and by Huexotzinco on the other. Today this mountain
is called Tlalocan, and it would be difficult to say which received its name from which -the
god from the mountain [or the mountain] from the god. Perhaps it is more believable that the
mountain took its name from the god because on that whole sierra the clouds became cold,

196
Durn, Gods and Rite, Chapter VIII, 154.
It was beautifully adorned with the usual decorations of cloth, feathers, jewelry, and stones all of the finest quality. His
statue was carved of stone, representing a frightening monster. Its horrendous face was like that of a serpent with huge
fangs; it was bright and red like a flaming fire. This was a symbol of the brilliance of the lightning and rays cast from the
heavens when he sent tempest and thunderbolts; to express the same thing, he was clad totally in red. His head was
crowned with a great panache of green feathers, shining, beautiful, rich. From his neck hung a string of green beads called
chalchihuitl [jade] in the form of a necklace and hanging from it a round emerald set in gold. In which hung hoops of
silver. On his wrists were bracelets of precious stones, and he wore [similar jewelry] on his ankles... In the right hand
[Tlaloc] carried a purple wooden thunderbolt, curved like the lightning which falls from the clouds, wriggling like a snake
toward the earth. In his left hand he held a leather bag which was always kept filled with copal, an incense which we call
myrrh. This idol sat on a splendid dais covered with green cloth and decorated with handsome designs. His body was that
of a man, even though his face (as I have said) was that of a fierce and terrifying monster. Idem., 155.
197
On-line Aulex Nahuatl dictionary, http://aulex.ohui.net
198
For more about the orientation of Tenochtitln see Anthony F. Aveni, Skywatchers of ancient Mexico (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1980), 279-282.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 118
 and storms of thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, and hail were formed. Therefore it was named
Tlalocan, which means Place of Tlaloc.199

Huey Tozoztli was the festivity celebrated in honor of Tlaloc in all the altepetl around the
Anahuac, (valley of Mexico). According to Durn, the ceremony was performed
simultaneously at Mount Tlaloc and at the different Tlaloc's teocalli of the altepetl.
Durn mentioned that, at Mount Tlaloc, there was a squared courtyard and a "temple" for
the god. There, the three tlatoanis of the triple alliance200 and Xochimilco used to present
offerings of jewels, enormous amounts of food, and children sacrificed to the god.

Thus everyone came in to make his offerings: one of them offered a mantle, another a
precious stone, another a jewel of feathers, exactly as [people] entering [church] on Good
Friday for the Adoration of the Cross.201

This festivity coincided curiously with the Christian festivity of the Santa Cruz. This day
signaled the beginning of the rainy season, which is celebrated today by the construction
workers in all of Mexico (on the 3d of May). During this festivity, agriculture and
architecture are related by means of the material realization of the proper place for the
sacrificial offering to propitiate rain, revealing the sacrificial origins of architecture and
its relationship with agriculture.
The duties of the tlatoanis were social and cosmic. At the same time, Tlaloc's altar in his
teocalli at Tenochtitlan was arranged as a map of the valley surrounded by mountains.
The image of Tlaloc was surrounded by the Tlaloques or mountain gods. The altar was
arranged in a mimetic relationship with the surrounding place.

In the middle of this room, upon a small platform, stood the stone idol Tlaloc, in the same
manner in which Huitzilopochtli was kept in the temple [of Mexico]. Around [Tlaloc] were a
number of small idols, but he stood in the center as their supreme lord. These little idols

199
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter VIII, 155-156.
200
The Triple Alliance was a military alliance made in 1428 by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the Acolhua of Texcoco and the Tepaneca
of Tlacopan. It was plotted by tlatoani Itzcoatl of Tenochtitln and tlatoani Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco. Tehnochtitlan and Texcoco
each received 2/5 of all tribute and Tlacopan received 1/5. At its height, the Alliance received tribute from most of Mesoamerican
altepetl, from coast to coast, except for a large area southeast of Tenochtitlan, the lands of the Tlaxcalans. It was the Tlaxcalans that
allied with Corts in 1521 that ultimately destroyed the Alliance.
201
Durn, Gods and Rites, 158.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 119
 represented the other hills and cliffs which surrounded this great mountain. Each one of them
was named according to the hill it stood for. These names still exist, for there is no hill
lacking its proper designation. Thus the small idols which stood around the great god Tlaloc
had their own names, just like the hills which encircled the great mountain.202

An invisible net of magical relationships was ritually re-created among the different
living mountains. To do offerings at the teocalli was in correspondence with doing direct
offerings at the mount. The entire valley was ritually enacted within Tlaloc's teocalli. The
mount and the temple housed Tlaloc equally. And because they "effectively" housed the
teotl, they where their equivalent. The mount gave meaning to the teocalli and the
teocalli to the mount. Curiously the mount would lose its existential reference to the
people if it were not recognized by the community by the construction of a teocalli
aligned to it.

B.9. The Tree and the Trinity

In the same ceremony, while the tlatoanis were making offerings at Mount Tlaloc, the
priests and young men of the calmecac at the Tenochtitlan, (and I assume in every
altepetl of the valley) celebrate the god's festivity merrily, performing dances, farces and
games. All of these were carried out in a forest set up in the courtyard of the temple in
front of the image of Tlaloc.

There were placed many bushes, little hills, branches, and rocks, all of which seemed the
work of nature, yet [were] not arranged in imitation of nature. In the midst of this forest was
set a tall tree of luxuriant foliage, and around it were four smaller ones.
In the middle of the forest was placed a very large tree. It was the tallest that could be found
in the woods, and it was called Tota, which means Our Father. This indicated that the idol
was the god of the woods, forests, and waters.203
It is to be noticed that this image was honored in the name of the Father, which is translated
as Tota; thus we know that [the people] revered the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and
called them Tota, Topitzin, and Yolometl. These words meant Our Father, Our Son, and the
Heart of Both, honoring each one separately and all three as a unit. Here we see evidence that
these people knew something about the Trinity (See Figure: 13, p.121)..204

202
Idem., Chapter VIII, 156.
203
Idem., Chapter VIII, 160.
204
Idem., Chapter VIII, 161.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 120
 Figure 13: Diego Duran, Tota, our Father the Tree
placed in the courtyard in front of Tlaloc's temple on
the feast of Huey Tozoztli. Tota is tied to four trees
signifying the four cardinal directions and the center.
Gods and Rites, p.336

The tree used in those ceremonies was a willow known as ahuehuete, "old water tree"
known also as Montezuma's cypress. The reference to elderliness is not casual; there are
three known examples that are two thousand years old and one of them, the Tree of Tule
near Oaxaca City, is the widest known tree on earth (more than eleven meters in
diameter). The ahuehuete was evidently related to Huehueteotl, the Old-God, a Nahua
version of the primordial Toltec "God-Two" or Ometeotl. There is a clear dual
connotation in the structure of the tree; as if reflected in the mirror of the land's surface, it
grows upwards to the sun, and downwards to the land of the dead. The Nahua tree as an
allegory of the structure of the universe is related to this concept in the ceremony of the
tied trees with the number five and the geometric figure of the quincunx as described by
Durn.
It seems to me that the relationship between the tree and the trinity is an indigenous
colonial adaptation of their rites to Christian Trinity. This was clearly manifested in the
central crosses at the fortress-monastery's patios. As Samuel Edgerton and Jaime Lara205
among others have pointed out, the tree in the ceremonies to honor Tlaloc was replaced
by the catholic crosses at the center of the corrales of the monasteries. At the beginning
205
Samuel Y. Edgerton, Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico. (University of New
Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2001), 35-72, and Jaime Lara, City, temple, stage: eschatological architecture and liturgical theatrics in
New Spain, (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2004), 151-176. See also above Part I, C.1. Teocalli and altepetl
in the Rhetorica Christiana.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 121
those crosses were made of wood but later they were smaller and made of stone. Many
stone crosses have survived showing a curious conflation between the cross and the
figure of Christ. In these unique representations, the tree, Tota, the Father, and Christ the
Son and Prince Topitzin, are bound by the Yollot, its sacrificed heart, the living energy
that connects the forces of the underworld to the sky, to life and death.
The same day of the festivities to Tlaloc, at Colhuacan,206 (today called Citlaltepec or
Cerro de la Estrella), all of the members of the religious orders gathered to help with the
ceremonies to honor the god. They chose the highest tree available, then tied the branches
together with ropes and cut the tree from its base. They carried it without touching the
ground to the temple at Tenochtitlan taking turns.

With great merrymaking, with songs and dancing, with a joyous clamor, and thus it was
brought into Mexico with the same excitement as usual [even today]. It was brought to the
temple we have mentioned, where, in the midst of the [artificial] forest, a deep hole had been
dug.207

Then the tree branches were released. Around the tree they planted four other smaller
trees. Each of the smaller trees was tied with a twisted rope or mecatl which was then
attached to the central one creating a quincunx (Figure 13, p.123). They then brought into
the "forest" a litter carrying a small girl to be sacrificed. When they knew the dignitaries
had finished with their offerings at Mount Tlaloc, they tied the branches of the tree again
and pulled it down settling it down in an enormous canoe. Everybody then embarked and
accompanied the canoe with the tree and went to meet the dignitaries who where coming
back from mount Tlaloc at Pantitlan, at the middle of the lake. The tree was erected and
staked with great difficulty in the marshes among other trees that had been placed there
during previous ceremonies. The trees surrounded the siphon, physically marking its field
of action. The little girl was sacrificed by a slit in her throat and her blood was left to
flow and her body was released into the water in order to be swallowed.

206
The mount is related to Quetzalcoatl, the Morning Star, identified with the planet Venus. It is a very important visual reference
identifiable as the xico or navel of the valey. There was celebrated every 52 years the ceremony of the New Fire or Binding of the
Years to renovate the cosmic cycles. In a way, Colhuacan was for the Colhuaque community what Coatepec was for the Mexica, but
in general, all Nahua communities foresaw the mythic Colhuacan, the curved mount, symbolically asociated with Chicomostoc, the
Seven Caves, as the place of origins.See Part I, A.2.9.
207
Durn, Gods and Rites, Chapter VIII, 162.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 122
The arrangement of the trees as a quincunx marked them as columns/serpents which
limited and gave structure to the cosmos by making the connection between earth and sky
but also by keeping them separated. This separation implied an attraction which was
never totally fulfilled. Thunderbolts and rain were the result of this desire of the earth
and the sky of become one.

B.10. The apotheosis of the sacrificial mind: The consecration of the Huei

Teocalli by Tlatoani Ahuizotl.

The account of the consecration of the Huei Teocalli of Huitzilopochtli by tlatoani

Ahuizotl is one of the most disturbing events of Mexica history. The problem is not so
much the nature of the event but the number of people sacrificed. Ahuizotl was the
tlatoani who ruled Tenochtitlan before Moctezuma Illuicamina, the tlatoani that faced the
Spanish invasion. Durn narrated the event in chapters XLIII and XLIV of his Historia.
The consecration took place in the year 1487, "Eight Reed, to commemorate the New
Fire and the binding of the calendar cycles. Durn narrated that Ahuizotl took advice
from the elderly Cihuacoatl Tlacaelel208 who wished to see the Temple finished before
"his days ended.

Then he called the stone workers and ordered them to finish the temple of their god as quickly
as possible. Without delay they began to work on the stones that were lacking and carved the
figures I saw in a painted manuscript, which were, in this manuscript, a sharp sacrificial stone
and next to it an image of the goddess called Coyolxauh;209 and on the corners of the temple
two statues with cruciform mantles, these made of rich feathers. Also set up on the temple
were two large statues that they called tzitzimime. Finally the building was finished with
nothing more to be done.210

208
The world Cihuacoatl is composed by cihua "woman, coatl "serpent" or "twin. Aside from being an important goddess it was the
title of the religious ruler of Tenochtitlan who embodied a feminine figure. Cihuacoatl Tlacaelel had a long life and survived many
tlatoanis. Some authors like Len Portilla claimed he was the creator of the mystic-militaristic conception of the Aztecs as people of
the Sun, who maneuvered behind the figure of the tlatoanis to construct the Mexica "Empire. See Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 158.
See also footnote 25.
209
Besides the political will to reinforce nationalism by the part of the Mexican Government after an economic crisis, the finding of a
large stone disc with the goddess Coyolxahuqui in 1978, possibly the same one Durn talks about promoted the unearthing of the
temple in 1982. See Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and Felipe Erhemberg, Coyolxauhqui (Mxico, D.F.: Secretaria de Educacin
Pblica. 1979).
210
Durn, History of the Indies, Chapter XLIII, 328.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 123
All the rulers and nobles of all the provinces under their domain were invited to take part
in the consecration. They were asked to bring slaves for sacrifice, as tribute, which was
obligatory on these occasions. Tlalcaelel recommended also inviting the rulers of the
enemy altepetl that were not under their rule because:

It seems to me that it would not be unreasonable to invite them again to this solemn occasion
because, even though we are enemies in the wars that we wage, in our festivities we should
rejoice together. There is no reason why they should be excluded since we are all one, and in
these times it is reasonable that there be a truce and sociable communication among the
rulers.211

After complicated negotiations, all the enemy rulers, (except for one) accepted to attend
the ceremony. They were taken to the royal palace in secret and were treated even better
than the Mexica allies.

The reason for this secrecy was that they did not wish the common people or the soldiers and
captains to suspect that kings and rulers made alliances, came to agreements, and formed
friendships at the cost of their lives and the shedding of their blood.212

Ahuizotl was greatly satisfied. He sat upon the royal throne, displaying to all the nations his
grandeur, the magnificence of his kingdom, and the courage of his people. The two [allied
monarchs from Texcoco and Tlacopan] sat next to him, and the enemy rulers were seated
where they could see without being seen.213

And

They saw that the Aztecs were masters of the world, their empire was so wide and abundant
they had conquered all the nations and all were their vassals. The guests, seeing such wealth
and opulence, such authority and power, were filled with terror.214

Netzahualpilitztli, tlatoani of Texcoco led the ceremony addressing Ahuizotl as follows:

211
Idem., Chapter XLIII, 331.
212
Idem., Chapter XLIII, 334.
213
Idem., Chapter XLIII, 335.
214
Idem., Chapter XLIII, 336.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 124
 O powerful lord and ruler of this great land of Mexico-Tenochtitla, happy and blessed are
you! The Lord of All Created Things has permitted you to rejoice in these festivities, and to
finish this magnificent, this well-constructed temple.... Therefore, though you are young, you
are the ruler of this powerful kingdom, which is the root, the navel, and the heart of the whole
world order.215

Netzahualpillitzin reminded the lords and leaders that it was a special day:

perhaps a day of triumph, perhaps a day of disaster, and warned them to take special care in
all which they did. He ordered for everything to be perfectly prepared, all temples to be well
decorated, newly plastered and painted, everything renovated, the main temples as well as the
lesser ones and the neighborhood shrines, schools, and places of retreat, those of men and of
women. The reason was that the festivity was a dedication of all the temples and the
glorification of all of them.216

It was certainly a special ceremony that would not appear every year in the calendar
festivities, and it would involve all altepetl and all deities simultaneously. On the
signaled day, the prisoners were lined up in four lines directed towards the four
directions, according to those who had captured them and "this was done so that a precise
count of prisoners could be made. It was found that there were eighty thousand four
hundred men to be sacrificed at the dedication of the Great Temple of Mexico-
Tenochtitlan.217
Durn described that the lines of captives were almost a league in length.218 It extended
from the foot of the teocalli steps along the causeway that led to Coyoacan and
Xochimilco. Another extended along the causeway to Tepeyac, another line went along
the road to Tacuba, and the other extended east as far as the shore of the lake. These four
lines moved toward the four places where the sacrifices were to take place and where the
four main lords were ready. The principal altar was in front of Huitzilopochtli's image. It
215
Idem., Chapter XLIV, 337.
216
Idem., Chapter XLIV, 337.
217
Although the text is clear in the sense that they were lined up in order to be counted with precision, the final amount is tricky. The
number 400 was synonymous of plenty, in the way we say hundreds or thousands. Speculation on this number have been the cause
of long debates among scholars. Clavijero stated that the consecration lasted for four days and that all the prisoners captured in the
first four years of Ahuizotl's rule were sacrificed. The festivities were performed in the year 1486 of the "vulgar era. Durn clarifies
that the different authors do not agree with the amount of prisoners sacrificed: Torquemada recorded 72,344 and "others" 64,060. The
victims were queued in two lines of more than a mile and a half each that started in the streets of Tacuba and Iztapalapa and finished
in the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc.
218
Any of various units of distance from about 2.4 to 4.6 statute miles (3.9 to 7.4 kilometers).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 125
was there that tlatoani Ahuizotl was to sacrifice. The second was where the tlatoani of
Texcoco, Netzahualpiliztli, was ready, the third was for the tlatoani of Tacuba, and the
fourth was at the Sun Stone, which was prepared for sacrifice by the elderly Tlacaelel.
The ceremony started and:

All these men ascended to the summit of the pyramid and each lord, accompanied by the
priests dressed as gods, went to the place where he was to sacrifice, holding a knife in his
hand... Prisoners from the lines began to climb the steps and the four lords, assisted by the
priests who held the wretches about to die by their feet and hands, began to kill. They opened
the chests of the victims. When the sovereigns grew weary, their satanic work was carried on
by the priest who represented the gods. Our chronicles tell us that this sacrifice lasted for four
days, from dawn to dusk and that, as I have said, eighty thousand four hundred men from
different cities and provinces died. All of this seemed so incredible to me that if Historia had
not forced me to put it down, and if I had not found confirmation of it in other written and
painted manuscripts, I would not dare to write these things for fear of being held as a man
who invents fables. He who translates a history is only obliged to reproduce in a different
language what he finds written in a foreign tongue, and this is what I have done.219

These events, as unbelievable as they may seem, have to be understood in Nahua terms.
Manichean notions of good and evil were alien to them. The sacrificial act was meant to
fulfill their duties, their existential, communal and personal obligations with the cosmos
and their community with the risk of personal, social and cosmic catastrophe.

There was a pervasive feeling among the Nahua people that all that existed -the crops, the
smell of flowers, the songs of the birds, and life itself- was a gift given by the self
immolation of the gods. There was an ethical dimension to the sacrificial act which was
epitomized by the god's auto-sacrifice.220 Contributing to maintain the world's activity
was human unavoidable obligation.
Sacrifice was also important to the Christian tradition. What marked the difference
between Nahua and Christian sacrificial rites was the notion of the human person. For
Nahua, strange as it may appear, there wasn't much difference between sacrificing ones
own blood, other's blood or animal's blood. What was important was the constant running

219
Durn, History of the Indies, XLIV, 339.
220
The legend of the Five Suns is related by many primary sources like Sahagn and Durn and some other sources like the Historia
Tolteca-Chichimeca.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 126
of the cosmic fuel. The landscape, humans, animals and vegetables were intrinsically
bound. The individual was totally subsumed into the social and the cosmic. He was
unthinkable as a separate entity. This contrasts with the individual substance of rational
nature221 of the Christian person. The role of such a person contrasted with the
Mesoamerican person in his responsibilities towards the world. In Genesis, the primordial
couple had the whole paradise to themselves, with no responsibility to maintain it; they
simply had to avoid eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Likewise, the Jewish
God did not create the world from his own flesh, blood or bones like in most
cosmogonies; he didn't diminish with the act of creation.
The number of sacrificed people in the consecration of the huei teocalli is alarming and
was extraordinary in its own context. The Mexica saw themselves as the "chosen people"
to perform god-like deeds. They had privileges because of that, but they also had heavy
cosmic responsibilities. The amount of people sacrificed during the consecration of the
huei teocalli was meant to achieve sufficient cosmic equilibrium to attain a long era of
peace and order. The victims were not, therefore, seen as guilty or inferior, their killing
was not a punishment or some kind of racial ethnic cleansing, they were not seen as
others, but as ourselves.
Thus the apparent contradiction: it was crucial that the enemy leaders, which where
highly honored at the ceremony, would be present. This was shown in the words of
Cihuacoatl Tlalcaelel:

even though we are enemies in the wars that we wage, in our festivities we should
rejoice together. There is no reason why they should be excluded since we are all
one, and in these times it is reasonable that there be a truce and sociable
communication among the rulers.222

221
Natur rationalis individua substantia, an individual substance of a rational nature. Christian classic definition by Boetius of
Darcia in De persona et duabus naturis, c. ii. during the thirteenth century. Saint Thomas explained it as Individua substantia and
more specifically as substantia, completa, per se subsistens, separata ab aliia, -a substance, complete, subsisting per se, existing
apart from others- (III, Q. xvi, a. 12, ad 2um). If to this be add rationalis naturae, we have a definition comprising the five notes
that go to make up a person: (a) substantia-- this excludes accident; (b) completa-- it must form a complete nature; that which is a part,
either actually or aptitudinally does not satisfy the definition; (c) per se subsistens--the person exists in himself and for himself;
he is "sui juris, the ultimate possessor of his nature and all its acts, the ultimate subject of predication of all his attributes; that which
exists in another is not a person; (d) separata ab aliis--this excludes the universal, substantia secunda, which has no existence apart
from the individual; (e) rationalis naturae--excludes all non-intellectual supposita. (Source: New Advent Catholic encyclopedia).
222
Durn, History of the Indies, 331. My emphasis.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 127
B.11. The Images of the Temple of Tenochtitlan in Durn's manuscripts

According to Donald Robertson, an art historian from Tulane University, up until 1965
there had not been a facsimile edition in which the illustrations were placed in the correct
order. In March 1965 he examined the original codex in Madrid. All the illustrations had
been cut from an older manuscript and pasted onto their present positions. Some of them
had Spanish written fragments written on their reverse, maybe from an old draft, all
having suggestions of the style used in passages of Sahagn's Florentine Codex.223
In the earlier Libro de los Dioses y Ritos, among many other interesting representations,
appeared an illustration of the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc together with the
huei xompantli (Figure 14, p. 128). Both illustrations were framed independently with a
simple line. The image showed the teocalli in a frontal view, while the patio surrounded
by the coatenamitl "wall of serpents" appeared depicted in a plan view. The coatenamitl
represented a chain of serpents were one emerged from the open mouth of another

Figure 14: The teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc with its frontal patio limited by the coatenamitl or
serpent-wall and the main xompantli or skull rack. Diego Durn, Libro de los dioses y ritos.

223
Durn, Gods and Rites, xxi, xvii. See also Donald Robertson, Mexican manuscript painting of the early colonial period: the
metropolitan schools (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 128
serpent. The gods appeared conventionally represented in their shrines as ixiptlas with
their usual attires and garments. The xompantli was likewise represented frontally. It had
a palisade with stairs and on top of it were the posts and bars with the severed skulls.
In the Historia, written some years later, two additional representations of the temple of
Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were included. The major difference in the latter images was
the depiction of spatial depth. They appeared placed in a site and mountains appeared as a
background. We see the earth and the sky; the frontal patio was not depicted. The gods,
rather than being represented as ixiptlas, as in the Libro, appeared as westernized devils.
The images were also framed by a thick frame profusely ornamented with herbal motives
(See Figures 15, p.129, and 16, p.132).

Figure 15: The temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Diego Durn, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-
Espaa y Islas de Tierra Firme. Three important differences between this representation and the one
in the Book of Gods and Rites are the gods represented as demons, the surrounding landscape and
ornamental frame.
As Robertson pointed out, the illustrations showed different degrees of European
influence, being the "Temple and Skull Rack" (Figure 14, p.128) and others being
predominately native. Regarding those images, he wrote:

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 129
 These particular illustrations are characterized by a rather strict two-dimensionality. The
figures exist in a world where space does not extend backward and forward into the picture
but things further in depth are shown above things nearer to the viewer.224

Robertson noted that they didn't seem to have any interest in landscape and that often
plan and elevation were combined as in the teocalli of Tlaloc and Huitzilopocthli which
was depicted frontally and the frontal courtyard with the coatenamitl that appears
depicted in a plan view.
At first sight this seems to contradict what I have said about the difference between
European and Nahua ways of inhabiting the world. Why, if the teocalli were visually and
magically linked to the landscape did they appear isolated from their context in the
images which were predominately native, and on the contrary, why did the ones which
had more European influence appear contextualized?
The answer is simple. The more authentically pre-Hispanic the representation was, the
more it tended to be a glyph rather than a picture. Pre-Hispanic representations did not
copy a temple from reality, they represented it with conventional signs based on
language; it was more an invocation than a representation. The symbol was meant to be
magically and "effectively" linked with that which was represented. An authentic native
representation would imply that what was done with the "image" affected the "original"
directly, and vise-versa. On the other hand, European and especially Renaissance
representations had the tendency to present objects to the sight as they were supposed to
be seen. But a paradox resulted from this: a disconnection between what was represented
and the representation. The representation became a separate entity from what was
represented. It had a being (an empty being) of its own. This was reinforced by their
accentuated framing. The more westernized it was, the more important and relevant the
frame. The westernized picture was meant to be a piece of reality, a framed image from
which a temporal dimension was subtracted.
The childish quality one may observe in native colonial documents was the result of the
adaptation between two completely different paradigms in the understanding of
representation. In the western tradition the appearance of volume and perspective was a
long process that started in Greece and finished with the invention of the photographic
camera. The Mesoamerican population experienced this way of representation without
undergoing the same historical process. It was an incredible difference in the status of the
224
Idem., xxii.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 130
representation that was reflected in the "awkwardness" and "childlike" character of
expression in colonial documents, particularly as compared with real pre-Hispanic
iconography where graphic conventions had been established long before.
Representations as pictures are a unique "Western" way of depicting the world which is
so pervasive today that we have forgotten the fact that they implied many preconceptions,
especially in the understanding of space and time as absolute and separate dimensions.
The main problem with pictures is that they appear to be "transparent, "objective, and
an universal way of constructing reality. But these assumptions are hardly universal, and
have only been taken for granted rather recently in the development of Western culture.225
Robertson finds the Renaissance influence in the elaborate frames:

It is in these framing elements that one finds the vocabulary of form reminiscent of German
and Netherlandish design books: strap-work, swags with boucraines, and the constant use of
leaf forms suggesting the classic acanthus. They remind us of classic forms to be seen in the
Augustinian church of Ixmiquilpan and the paintings in the patio of the Hospital de Jesus in
Mexico City.
Round arches supported by columns, both with details from Spanish Plateresque architecture,
echo the forms and shapes to be found in sixteenth century Mexican colonial buildings.
Painted versions of similar architecture can still be seen in the frescoes of monasteries such as
Acolman and are common in the Florentine Codex and other Mexican manuscripts of the
same period.226

As noted by Sergei Grusinski, this vegetable ornamentation resonated with the native
understanding of the regenerative forces that permeate the world as a vegetable
analogy.227

225
See Alberto Prez Gmez and Louise Pelletier, Architectural representation and the perspective hinge, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press, c1997).
226
Durn, Gods and Rites, xxiii. See Robertson, Mexican manuscript painting, 340-448.
227
For more about this see Serge Gruzinski, The mestizo mind: the intellectual dynamics of colonization and globalization (New York:
Routledge, 2002). Gruzinski has studied those classical ornamental elements painted at Ixmiquilpan monastery. The Romanesque
ornamentation recalls pagan antiquity, especially Ovid's imagery introduced maybe by some liberal vision of the missionary
enterprise.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 131
 Figure 16: The temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Diego Durn, Historia de las Indias de
Nueva-Espaa y Islas de Tierra Firme.

Besides the objectification of the pictographs, another important difference between the
teocalli representations of the Gods and Rites and the ones of the Historia is that in the
first one the gods are represented as ixiptlas while in the second they are represented as
devils. This shows two important facts, one is that the tlacuilos of the Historia were more
Christianized in all senses than the others. The other important fact is not evident: After
the Council of Trent, as a reaction to Protestantism, the position of the Church
radicalized. If Durn had doubts about the origin of the similitudes between native and
Christian beliefs, attributing them either to a common origin or to their early
indoctrination by a Christian saint, the Church didn't have doubts on the fact that it was
the devil who was behind them, closing with this the possibilities of a common
understanding of human cultures by the part of Christians. It is to be noted that, while
there is a shift that depicted the native gods as devils, on the other hand, the ornamental
vegetable representations recalled the all pervasive action of the primordial dual god
Ometeotl personified as a climbing plant which would grow covering and nourishing all
which existed. This was meaningful to all natives but escaped the Missionaries
understanding.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 132
B.11 A note on the Dominican Order in New Spain

While the millennial Franciscan tried to implant autonomous institutions to prepare for
the end of times, the Dominicans focused more in the temporal aspect of the missionary
enterprise, being Solomon's Temple, rather than the Tabernacle in the Desert, the model
for their architectonic monasteries. The Dominicans had, likewise, a more temporal sense
of justice: not only the salvation of the indigenous souls but the equality between Natives
and Europeans.228

228
The Dominicans Francisco Vitoria, Fray Antonio de Montesinos, Fray Bartolom de las Casas and Diego Durn may be recognized
as the forebears of the so called Teologa de la Liberacin, a Latin-American Catholic theological current with Marxist influence
which maintains that before being saved, there is an economical, political, social and ideological liberation needed for believers
hindered by social and economic injustices. Diego Durn was not only interested in the indigenous culture for purposes of conversion,
he was sincerely interested in justice, not only divine but human, and especially he was interested in finding the common elements that
define our humanity and the construction, here on earth, of a better world.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 133
C. Fray Diego Valads and the mestizo paradox

There is still ongoing debate regarding Fray Diego Valads' origin. Some scholars believe
Valads was a mestizo and other deny it. Palomera maintains he was the son of a
Tlaxcaltecan Indian and a Spanish Conqueror.229 The fact that he studied mechanical arts
at the school of San Jos de los Naturales and liberal arts at the Colegio de la Santa Cruz
de Tlatelolco -both institutions being exclusively for natives,- seems to indicate that he
was a mestizo or even a pure native. What is certain is that at the age of ten he was left in
the care of the noble Flemish Franciscan missionary Fray Pedro de Gante -a relative of
Emperor Charles V- who took in charge his education.230
Fray Pedro was the founder of the monastery of San Jos de los Naturales, where Nahua
youths were educated in the mechanical arts. San Jos de los Naturales was the first
fortress/monastery that served as a prototype which was endlessly recreated in the
different altepetl during the next eighty years. Fray Pedro de Gante seemed to have been
the genius behind the development of this unique architectonic manifestation.231
As Jaime Lara pointed out, the millennial project of the Franciscans intended to organize
the natives into "republics" according to the model of the communities of the primitive
Church. But the Christianization of the natives was also seen by some millennialist
missionaries as a necessary condition for the second coming of Christ and for the

229
There are some reasons to think, however, that he may had been a criollo or a New Spaniard born from peninsular parents, like the
fact he was ordered a Franciscan when no natives were permitted to be. Palomera maintained that Valads's father was the conqueror
Diego Valads who had an encomienda in Tlaxcala. He had two legitimate sons, neither of which was called Diego, and four
illegitimate sons whose names were not registered. Palomera assumes that Fray Diego was one of those illegitimate sons born from a
native and the Spanish conqueror. For a discussion about Valads origins see Carmen Jos Alejos-Grau, Diego Valads, educador de
Nueva Espaa: Ideas pedaggicas de la Rhetorica Christiana (Pamplona, Spain: Ediciones Eunate, 1994), 69-73. and Esteban
Palomera S.J., Fray Diego Valads, o.f.m. evangelizador humanista de la Nueva Espaa: El hombre, su poca y su obra. (Mxico:
Universidad Iberoamericana, 1988), 12,62-63.
230
For an introduction on the life and work of Pedro de Gante, see Carmen Jos Alejos-Grau, Diego Valads, educador de Nueva
Espaa: Ideas pedaggicas de la Rhetorica Christiana (Pamplona, Spain: Ediciones Eunate, 1994), 17-70.
231
See John Mc Andrew, The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth Century Mexico: Atrios, Posas, Open Chapels, and Other Studies.
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965), George Kubler, Mexican architecture of the sixteenth century, (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1948). See also Jaime Lara, City, Temple, Stage: Eschatological Architecture & Liturgical Tradition in New
Spain, (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), and Samuel Y. Edgerton, Theaters of Conversion: Religious
Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2001), 35-72.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 134
beginning of the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20, during which holiness is to
prevail and Christ is to reign on earth.232

C.1. Teocalli and altepetl in the Rhetorica Christiana.233

The Rhetorica Christiana published by Valads in Perugia in 1579 was a unique case in
the display of Nahua culture during the Italian Renaissance. Written in Latin, the
Rhetorica was the first book ever published in Europe by someone born in the American
continent.234 Broadly speaking, it was a manual for missionaries. It was intended for friars
in Europe in order to persuade them to undertake the missionary enterprise in the New
World. The Rhetorica was a compendium of rhetorical treatises. Fray Diego, however,
gave many personal examples taken from his long experience as a missionary. 235
Valads' attitude as a missionary was typical of the position of pre-Tridentine
missionaries in the New World, and also similar to the well known case of Fray Toribio
Benavente Motolinia: they weren't intending to convert the natives from a tabula rasa,
destroying the idols and erasing the old beliefs all at once; but worked slowly towards
their becoming Christians. In that sense, it was necessary to know their religion well in
order to find connections and analogies to Christianity and present it in a meaningful

232
See City, Temple, Stage: Eschatological Architecture and Liturgical Theatrics in New Spain.
233
Fray Diego Valads, Retrica Cristiana. Facsimile of the 1579 Latin Rhetorica Christiana with facing-page Spanish translation by
Tarsicio Herrera Zapien (Mxico City: Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1989).
234
Valads left New Spain for Europe in 1570. Three yeas after he became General Procuror of the Franciscan Order in Rome;
position which he kept for two years until his destitution by order of Philip II, King of Spain. The argument for his destitution was that
he had gone beyond his faculties in supporting the missions in New Spain bypassing the prerogatives of the Royal Patronage. The
tendency of the Crown was to remove support for the mendicant orders and give it to the secular clergy which had a more temporal
understanding of the colonial enterprise. The regular orders came into confrontation with the temporal power of the King. The
Franciscan utopia to transform the altepetl social structure into a kind of Indian Republics, isolating the indigenous from the
"negative" influence and exploitation of lay Spaniards was at odds with the plans of the crown, that by then had shifted its politics
towards a stronger hispanization of the natives. Valadss European excursion was a desperate move to gain support from the Vatican.
He could get close to Pope Gregory XIII who saw and appreciated the engravings he had finely made in copper plates and encouraged
him to publish them. Valads started printing the Rhetorica Christiana in Rome, but it was not published until 1579 in Perugia. It is
possible that his engraving comparing the Nahua and the Julian calendars influenced the Pope's decision to adopt the actual Gregorian
calendar.
See Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, 251.
The notes about Diego Valads ' life are taken from the introduction of the Spanish edition of the Rhetorica Christiana by Tarsicio
Herrara Zapien, p. VIII-XIII, Alejos-Grau: p.69-83 and Esteban J. Palomera, S.J. Fray Diego Valads, O.F.M. Evangelizador
humanista de la Nueva Espaa, El hombre, su poca y su obra. (Mxico: Universidad Iberoamericana, 1988), 11-14, 57-147.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 135
manner to them.236 This attitude contrasted sharply with Sahagn and Durn who felt the
similarities would result in the loss of "Indian" souls and of the whole Christian
missionary enterprise. For Motolinia and Valads, on the other hand, as soon as the
"Indians" were baptized their souls were "saved.
There was, however, an important difference between Motolinia and Valads. While for
Motolinia the similarities between both religions were a practical way to indoctrinate the
natives, for Valads they reinforced a belief that the native cultures were providentially
signaled to receive Christianity. The fact that he was very probably a mestizo and that he
may have been raised by his Tlaxcaltecan mother until the age of ten, gave him enough
sense of belonging to both cultures as to have a strong desire to reconcile them. What
made him different from all the other missionaries was precisely his quest for the
communion between the two civilizations. For him, the whole missionary enterprise was
also a personal quest which prefigured what can be described as the "mestizo paradox"
meaning: being simultaneously a part of, and alien to, his own culture.237
Valads believed that "Indian" cultures had been providentially prepared to receive
Christianity because they had elements that recalled Christianity reflecting a common
understanding of universal history. 238 It is important to note that Valads wrote his book
in the context of Renaissance Rome while being general of his order. In this context, the

235
Alejos-Grau, Diego Valads, educador de Nueva Espaa; Ideas pedaggicas de la Rhetorica Christiana. (Pamplona, Spain
Ediciones Eunate, 1994), 89-93.
236
The attitude of the Fransiscan Toribio Benavente Motolinia was not new in Christian pre-Tridentine missions having its precedent
during the Carolinian era with the conversion of the Saxons and Germans. The Franciscans lead by the first Archbishop of Mexico
Fray Juan de Zumrraga were, however, responsible for the destruction of all indigenous documents and most of the sculptures and
religious architecture. There was a big distance between Zumrraga and Durn, who bitterly criticizes the Franciscans. Contrary to
what one would expect, Zumrraga was far from being a medieval mind. He was a modern thinker, an Utopian accused of Erasmism.
His aim was to reestablish primitive Christianity in New Spain. In my view, it was in his Utopian vision that his radicalism remains.
For an introduction in Zumarraga and the Franciscan Reformation of the sixteenth century see Alejos-Grau, Diego Valads, 11-60.
237
There is, for example, the intention in the Rhetorica to link two systems of knowledge based on the oral tradition and memory: the
Nahua pictographic system and the liberal art of rhetoric, with its graphic mnemonic techniques. It seems that for Valads, the
integration of the two systems was key for a successful indoctrination. In Europe, the printed text was replacing the art of memory. In
New Spain, on the contrary, the missionaries resuscitated it as a meaningful way to relate to the natives. Ideally, both systems, the
native and the European, were based on integrated memories transmitted by an interpreter (tlamantenime or the rhetoric preacher) with
the aid of graphic signs presented to the intellect within a certain order. Knowledge was not held by the book, like in the Torah or the
Koran, but by the interpreter himself who was the living beholder of the tradition. Franciscans like the Frenchman Jeronimo de Testera
made their own hybrid system of sings combining ideograms and phonographs to communicate with the Nahua. A series of innovative
hybrid documents known as codices testerianos have been named after him. See Valads, Rhetorica Christiana:, 239-250.
238
Besides speaking Nahuatl Diego Valads learned Tarascan and Otomi. He did missionary work for more than ten years in the
province of Nueva Vizcaya, -today's state of Zacatecas-, making missionary excursions beyond the Chichimec frontier, an imaginary

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 136
pagan cultures of antiquity were seen, not as contrary to Christianity but as their
forerunners. Besides his native background, it was this syncretic atmosphere of the
Renaissance that became a major influence determining his position towards
Mesoamerican cultures.
In the Rhetorica, Valads differentiated Mexica from other "Indian nations. Although he
recognized that the Mexica had the largest teocalli and made more sacrifices than others,
he didn't depict the huei teocalli of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, as one would expect, but rather,
he provided an idealized generic altepetl view (See Figure 17, p. 140).239
This engraving presented a bright, seemingly paradisaical human/natural world filled
with details of the flora and customs of the natives. They appeared tapping the sap of a
rubber tree, making astronomical sightings, grinding corn, fishing, cooking, dancing,
doing offerings to the cosmos, all in an apparent harmony between nature and man.
The composition rotated symmetrically around the vertical axis of the central teocalli that
organized the different natural and human elements gathering them together: the sea, the
mountains, houses, trees, and people dancing in the central patio.
But what seemed a paradisaical, idealized view for us may just have been Valads' deep
understanding of the organization of the altepetl: in his engraving he depicted the town
around the precinct extended to the whole landscape. In the ritual compounds lived the
border that divided Mesoamerican cultures from the "barbaric" northern tribes. Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, XI
239
Rhetorica Christiana, 387-388.
The Indians used to build great temples worthy of admiration because of how much they had spent and how they were so
artistically made. They used to plaster and polish them, and they were so firm and solid in their interior and exterior that
they cause admiration even to whom contemplate them today. In all the layout of the construction in its different parts and
foundations there wasn't a joint or crack that could be seen. The foundations were so strong, and the stones were so finely
crafted, smooth and symmetric, that they were beautiful to see. There was indeed such a good proportion between the
different levels. They initiated the basements with enormous stones, and as the building was rising, they used smaller and
smaller ones, always very vertical (a plomo), so the highest walls were finished with such small pebbles that seeing them in
such a big and sober buildings surprised everybody. These stones were called piedras locas by the Spaniards and tezontles
by the Indians and were also used to make pavements crafted in many undulated and labyrinthine manners. If these
tezontles were jointed with lime, they became so strongly glued that they could not be broken or perforated with a chisel or
with any other tool... The temples were frequently placed upon small mounts, as the pyramids of Egypt. The Spaniards
called these temples "cues. They were surrounded by magnificent walls made of latticework and jalousies. To climb the
temples there were ingenious stairs made with many different ornaments.
These temples had many patios and porticos of great magnificence, and also splendid rooms for the priests and idols and
others to keep the offerings for the gods. The walls and roofs were black and deep purple because of the smoke of copal, a
fir tree resin that was used instead of candles and cirrus. Although there was no chimney, a fire was always kept in the
middle of the room, not out of need but to give a sense of mystery to the place. They embellished these temples with
gardens, amazing fountains, thermal baths, pools of water and green and delicious orchards with flowers of many exquisite

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 137
people in charge of the cults. The rest of the population lived distributed in the extension
of the altepetl's territory. As I have pointed out, for the Mesoamericans there was no
dichotomy between "urban" and "rural.
This disposition was difficult to grasp by the Spanish, who were used to separating rural
from urban and who were accustomed to densely populated towns; for them those
scattered households were out of any kind of organization and arrangement, this was
hardly the case: they were perfectly arranged according to time and space and adapted to
their specific situation, as Valads depicted.
One of the characteristics which distinguished the altepetl was the fact that they
integrated the landscape in themselves. In the engraving, not only the human settlements
but Nature itself appeared arranged around the central teocalli. Valads captured the
mimetic relationship between the structure of the "Indian" social organization and the
cosmos. The teocalli was clearly related to its surrounding landscape. The teocalli at the
core of the altepetl was flanked by two mountains in a relationship of correspondence.
The arrangement of the different human settlements appeared to have been given
naturally.
The disposition of the altepetl followed a simple disposition as a quincunx, signaled a
center and the four directions of the cosmos. The Nahua, like most cultures of the
antiquity, constructed their identity and sense of belonging by placing themselves in the
center of the world, represented in architecture by the ritual compounds that symbolized a
sacred mountain. A central point of reference was necessary for the prototype to be
oriented. A teocalli was situated at the axis mundi, the core of the city and of the world.
The teocalli, likewise, were geometrically and symbolically generated by the shape of a
quincunx. The quincunx not only helped to align with the cosmos, but gave form to the
structure of the altepetl, the town, the calpolli (districts) the calpolco (district ritual
precincts), and even to the individual households. There was a desire to align and

fragrances. They also used to plant with great care very wide and robust trees that a thousand men could sit under their
shadow in the manner the Indians were accustomed to. Although this tree did not give any fruit, it was nevertheless so
esteemed, that it was frequently taken as a point of comparison for all other trees. The Indians called it ahuehuetl (old old,
or grandfather) and the Spaniards called it "tree of paradise...
The pontiffs who were dedicated to the cults lived in the temples. Added to the walls of the temple were small seats. There
also were small foldable chairs with their backs made with reeds painted of many different colors. There also were wooden
chairs, painted in many different ways, with many manners of figures of trees and birds. These places were always very
clean and were used for dancing.
)My translation from the Spanish version of Herrera.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 138
correspond all which was human with the cosmic, or better yet, there was no difference
between human and cosmic: Mesoamericans felt intrinsically bounded to the origins and
fate of the world, they were a part of it, and not separated beings. The quincunx not only
marked the center and the limits of the world, it implied its rotation, the cyclical
movement of time, which was reflected within the topographic and calendared
organization of the altepetl. In the codex Mendoza (See Figure 7 p.67), for example, the
signs of years rotated around the glyph of the foundation of Tenochtitlan. A quincunx
representing the four quadrants of the city was formed by channels of water dividing the
territory in quarters.
The responsibility to organize the different festivities rotated in time among the calpolli
according to the geographic situation with respect to the center of the altepetl. In fact, the
sign for movement, the ollin, was a rotating quincunx. But because the Earth was alive,
its center was not only a geometrical point, it was associated with the central parts of a
living creature: the center had to recall a navel and the reproductive organs that
germinated life, like a spring of water, a gigantic tree, or a deep cave.
The ritual compound rotated around the tlacxicalco, (tlac, earth, xitli, navel, and the
locative calco), at the "navel of the Earth, just in front of the "temple, where Valads
drew a well which sprouted from a giant ahuehuetl tree. The well represented the xico
which connected Tlaltipac, the Earth, with the underworld.
According to Nahua cosmology, four enormous trees stood at the four corners of the
cosmos signaling the limits of the cemanahuac, the Isle of the Earth. A fifth tree, which
stood at the center, was the access to the underworld, house of the dual gods of death
Mictlantecutli and Mictlantecihuatl, and to the celestial house of Ometecutli and
Ometecihuatl.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 139
 Figure 17: Teocalli and Altepetl, Friar Diego Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, Perugia 1579.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 140
About the trees planted in the courtyards, Valads said:

They also used to plant wide and robust trees with great care that a thousand men could sit in
the manner the Indians are accustomed under their shadow. Although this tree did not give
any fruit, it was nevertheless so esteemed, that it was frequently taken as a point of
comparison for all other trees. The Indians called it ahuehuetl and the Spaniards called it "tree
of paradise.240

Valads said that the ahuehuetl, "old water tree, which the Nahua used to plant in the
middle of courtyards, was named rbol del paraso by the Spaniards. The association
between the ahuehuetl and the "tree of paradise" was indeed a key element in the
missionary knitting of the two traditions that was reflected in the monasteries with the
crosses at the middle of the courtyards.
In Genesis 2, it is said how God created a paradise where he planted all sorts of trees,
"fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of, and among them he planted the "tree of life" and
"the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He then put man in paradise, telling him that he
could eat from every tree, except from the tree of knowledge.
The "tree of life" had the quality that, by eating its fruit, man would be preserved in a
constant state of health, vigor, and strength, and would never die. The "tree of
knowledge" was supposed to possess the power of imparting a superior kind of
knowledge to man beyond that which God was pleased to give.
At first sight one is impelled to make the analogy of the ahuehuetl tree with the "tree of
life": a constant and unfinished source of life. The other tree, the tree of "knowledge" was
the source of death. Life and death were represented by the two different trees: one was
"good" and the other was not. The tree of knowledge clearly signals the limits of human
action, the place where men could go but should not go.
But, while both trees of paradise incarnated life or death, the ahuehuete incarnated both.
The ahuehuete incarnated a sentiment of reciprocity between the forces of the universe
promoting the idea of the regeneration of life recycled from death. The understanding of
death and life as a single fact brought a sense of responsibility towards both. Shame -and
not guilt- was the result of not understanding the dual principle of the cosmos.

240
Valads, Retorica Cristiana, 389.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 141
In the biblical account God also provided a river that supplied water to paradise. The
river emerged from its center and was divided into four "heads" leading towards the four
cardinal directions, dividing the land into four quarters.241 The form of the Christian
terrestrial paradise thus resembled the altepetl organization as represented, for example,
in the Codex Mendoza. Furthermore, the kingdom of Tlaloc, Tlalocan or Tamoanchan
seemed to conform to the Christian terrestrial paradise as a fertile place of abundance.242
The central crosses acted as surrogates for the cosmic tree during the first years of the
colony. A paternal and ancient image for the Nahua people, the ahuehuetl, the tree of life
and death, was not however the source of sin and guilt, but the source of life and duty. 243
The relationship between the trees at the center of the teocalli's courtyards and the
crosses placed at the middle of the monastery courtyards has been studied by many
scholars like Samuel Edgerton and Jaime Lara. I just want to point out the striking
parallelism between Nahua and Christian beliefs which allowed this most notable
syncretic manifestation.
The dogma of the trinitarian quality of God implied that God is Three and One at the
same time. It is revealing that in those crosses within the atrium, Christ appeared
conflated with the cross/tree. As clarified by Diego Durn, Tota, the Father, incarnated as
the Son in the figure of the tree. Both, the generative principle and its creature were
united by Yollometl, the heart/blood of both, the primordial energy that united and
regenerated them. It has to be said, however, that in the Nahua mind, these primordial
figures identified themselves with the forces of the natural world and not with
transcendent Beings. There was a clear analogy between the figure of the human heart
and the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, as the medium, the link between the
Father and Son, the link between the Earth and Sun, in the case of the Nahua, and
between humans and God in the case of the Christians.
In the case of the Mexica, the cosmic tree was also associated with the prickly pear cactus
of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. In the frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza or in
the Techialoyan Codex (Figure 25, 185), at the center of the quincunx that represented
the Mexica territory divided in quarters, from Tenoch, the stone, sprouted the prickly pear
241
Genesis 2:10
242
The belief in the Terrestrial Paradise being located within the lands of America, in the antipodes of Jerusalem, appeared since the
third voyage of Colon. The massive affluence of the Orinoco river made Coln believe he had found one of the four rivers that divide
the Terrestrial Paradise into quadrants. See Edmundo O'Gorman, La invencin de Amrica; el universalismo de la cultura de
Occidente. 1 ed. (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1958).
243
Edgerton, Theaters of Conversion, 35-72, and Lara, City, temple, stage, 151-176.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 142
cactus that gave fruits/hearts that were taken with by the eagle. Tenoch, stone, was the
mythical Father who appeared as the paternal figure of the Mexicans. The prickly pear
cactus, the Son, grew out from the stone as the heart of the sacrificed victim hit it. The
heart was then multiplied in the figure of the fruits depicted as human hearts.

C.2. Teocalli, theaters and caves

The teocalli at the center of Valads' composition had a semi-cylindrical apse capped by
a semi-dome nerved in its interior with radial arches. Evidently such structures could not
have been constructed before Europeans arrived, because arches were not known.
Valads inserted an alien architectonic element in the pre-Hispanic world. The teocalli
was depicted by Valads, in fact, as an Open Chapel such as those made in the fortress
monasteries run by his order. The question is whether Valads was careless or if there
was an allegorical dimension to his representation. While a definitive answer will always
be elusive (he was never explicit about these issues) I am convinced that he intended to
depict Nahua culture as providentially signed to become Christian, rendering it in more
positive terms than the interpretations of Durn or Sahagn. That is why he depicted it as
a proto-Christian structure.
Arches and vaults were introduced to New Spain by Spanish craftsmen. According to
Samuel Eagerton, indigenous people didn't feel comfortable in large interior places.
Missionaries found an intermediate option convenient: this was the Open Chapel. While
the indigenous could take part in the Catholic rituals from the exterior, the altar was kept
inside the vaults that symbolized heaven.244
Eagerton related how the natives found the fact that the arches could stand by themselves
miraculous. He suggests that for them, the vaulted open chapels, rather than representing
a transcendental Christian heaven, resemble its antithetic Nahua model, the primordial
cave: Chicomostoc (See Figure 4, p. 58).
If for the missionaries the altar was a celestial stage-set, for the Nahua it was the
representation of the cave of origins. The Open Chapel was seen by the Nahuas as a
cross section of the sacred mountain revealing its interior caves, the place of their
origins, the open womb of mother earth. The engraving of Valads seems to reinforce the

244
Edgerton, Theaters of conversion, 35-72.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 143
aspect of the Nahua shrine as a cave by the trees flanking the teocalli, stressing its
identification with a mountain and an underworld cavity.

C.3. Eucharist and Cannibalism

The title of the engraving of the Nahua temple (Figure. 17, p.140) reads: TIPVS
SACRIFICORVM QVE IN MANITER INDI FACIEBANT IN NOVO INDIARVM ORBE
PRECIPVE IN MEXICO. "The way that sacrifice was practiced in the New Indies, and
especially in Mexico. Valads depicted a "pontiff" with a tiara on his head performing a
sacrifice in the central teocalli. The heart of the victim was offered to an "idol.

Figure 18: Mnemonic alphabet with conventional and invented Nahua pictographs inscribed in vessels with the shape
of hearts and circumscribed in a circle and a rectangle, Diego Valads , Rhetorica Chtistiana, 1578. At one level
Valads describes the association of hieroglyph and phonetic writing with pedagogic ends, but what is most intriguing
is the symbolic association between speech, vessel/hearts, circles and rectangles.

This image somehow recalls, the Christian rite of the Eucharist as happening during
Valads' time, at the fortress-monasterys Open Chapel.245 The Catholic dogma of the
245
It is also revealing that the pontiff, instead of using the typical Nahua feathered "crown" appeared using a westernized tiara.
Tiaras, like the one used in the engraving by the Nahua priest, were originally a royal Persian hair-dress adopted by Greeks and
Romans in the form of high crowns used by members of a council of priests. They were also adopted for some ceremonies by

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 144
Eucharist, challenged by Protestant reformists, was reconfirmed by the Council of Trent
at the middle of the sixteen century. The dogma maintained that during the Eucharist,
bread and wine transubstantiated into the Flesh and Blood of Christ, while keeping their
original appearance. This belief made both the Nahua ritual cannibalism and the
sacrament of the Eucharist strikingly similar. Nahua could have communion with their
divinities invested in human flesh or in tzoalli or amaranth seed statues. The crucial
difference between Nahua and Christian rites was, however, that one was invested with a
natural force, while the transubstantiation implied an otherworldly intervention.
The Nahua may have understood that in the Eucharist, Christ's blood paid for their
debts, rather than cleaned their sins, this being an alien concept to them. The
Franciscans who knew Nahuatl were aware of these discrepancies. That is why they were
so insistent in introducing the notion of sin and guilt to natives.
The Catholic Eucharist was key in the conversion of the Nahua people. Valads' cunning
insertion of the Christian chapel into the Nahua world paralleled the Eucharist and the
Nahua ritual of cannibalism. This argument would be too bold if it were not supported by
other allegorical engravings in the book, revealing an obsessive desire to emphasize the
sacrificial death of Christ.

Figure 19: Allegory of the good pastor. Christ filled the fountain with blood from his wounds
at his side and feet for the sheep to drink.
Note that from his hands blood doesn't come out but vegetation covering his arms as a
climbing plant and hanging from a mantle for the sheep to eat.
Diego Valads , Rhetorica Christiana, Perugia, 1579.

members of the Catholic hierarchy like bishops, archbishops and the Pope.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 145
In the engraving of the good shepherd, the blood dropping from Christ's wounds filled
a fountain where sheep drank.246 In another engraving of the Passion, a group of Nahua
contemplated Christ's blood collected by angels in chalices.247 One more represents the
seven graces of God with Christ on the cross at the center of a solar cosmic allegory: His
"graces" were represented by his dripping blood draining into a container of which St.
Peter had the key. St. Peter opened the container allowing the liquid to flow into a
fountain from where the Pope (Gregory XIII) could take it and give it in communion to a
group of kneeling Franciscans.248 In this engraving the solar identification of Christ is
almost literal being his blood charged with solar energy.
In Valads' engravings, the sacrificial death of Christ was presented to a Nahua audience
in such a way as to make it fully meaningful. The message was that the Nahua didn't have
to shed any more blood in order to fulfill their duty with the cosmos; Christ had done it
for them once and for all. But in those representations the blood of Christ, apart from
redeeming human ontological debts, also seemed to regenerate the cosmic balance. The
central role of Christ's sacrificial blood in these engravings showed the influence of
Nahua culture in Christianity.
The symbolic association between native and Christian understandings of sacrifice is
strikingly revealed in a unique colonial artifact that may cast light towards the
transmutation of germinal/nourishing liquids. It is a Christian Calyx Cover made of
feather work with the image of Tlaloc with open fangs (Figure 21, p.148). Offered blood
was known as teuatl, which literally means holy water.249 It is clear that water is
Tlaloc's blood, Christ and Tlaloc gave their blood, transmuted either into wine or water.
But, while Tlaloc gave his blood for the maintenance of life, Christ gave it for the
cleansing of human sin. The Missionaries may have expected that this parallelism would
also promote the transmutation from Nahua into Christian beliefs.

246
Valads, Retrica Cristiana, 60.
247
Idem., 499.
248
Idem., 416.
249
Sahagn, Florentine Codex, book VI, 407. Footnote.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 146
 Figure 20: Allegory of the seven graces of Christ. The graces are represented
as the dripping blood of the heart of Christ at the center of the solar disc.
Most revealing is the solar character of Christ and the analogy between his
blood with the warmth and light of the sun.
Diego Valads , Rhetorica Christiana, Perugia, 1579.

The symbolic analogy was crucial for the conversion of the Nahua. In these terms, the
pre-Tridentine Christianization in New Spain was more a formal substitution of
apparently similar rituals than a conversion from one belief into another.
But, if Christian symbolism was easily assimilated by the Nahua because of its apparent
similarities, there, however, remained important differences between the sacrifice of
Christ and those performed by the natives. The former was not meant to promote cosmic
balance but to cleanse human sin. Thus, while in some sense, Nahua ritual cannibalism
and Christian communion were strikingly similar, they were indeed very different:
whereas eating the flesh of a sacrificed victim implied a vital communion with cosmic
energies, the communion with the holy host implied a union with a transcendent entity.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 147
One gave cosmic energy and potency to act in the world, the other cleansed and liberated
him or her from sin and worldliness and to prepared them for a good death.
Nahua sacrifice magnified the present through ritual death and the instantaneous
reestablishment of the cosmic order. The Christian incarnation of a transcendent idea
promoted a belief in the salvation of the soul, but also in the possibility of an incarnated
ideal order in a future messianic time.250

Figure 21: Christian Chalice covered with the image of Tlaloc,

1540. Feathers and bark, diameter 28cm. This unique artifact
reveals the symbolic analogy between the blood of Christ and
the blood of Tlaloc.
The Christian persona251 was meant to be a separate substance from the world. Its fate
was not intrinsically bound to the fate of the universe. To put it another way, while
Christians felt exiled on earth, the natives felt at home here. This indicated the profound
differences of how these two cultures inhabited the world.

250
Apocalypse 20.
251
The Catholic definition was given by Boetius: Naturae rationalis individua substantia (an individual substance of a rational
nature). This implies a dissociation between humans and the world.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 148
C.4. Limits in Nahua, Christian and Modern visions.

The existence of limits was an important element in most traditions and had
psychological and ethical consequences. Towns used to represent and signal cosmic
borders; limiting walls existed not only for defensive purposes but also were made to
correspond with this vision.252 The understanding of a limited world was clearly reflected
by the structure of the ritual precincts. Valads wrote that the teocalli were surrounded
by magnificent walls made of latticework.253
Though Valads described these limits, and depicted a portal at the front of the
composition flanked by a pair of trees, he didn't depict any walls. Aside from omitting the
walls of the precinct, Valads also omitted all ornamental framing around the engraving.
The place blended with the sides of the paper giving it a sense of limitlessness. It seemed
as if the ritual precinct extended to the whole landscape and the landscape also occupied
the ritual precinct; they intermingled, they were both sacred and profane. This was
accentuated by the symmetric depiction of nature itself. Both nature and architecture
appeared as idealized, geometrical, just like the terrestrial paradise imagined by the
Christian mind of the Renaissance.
As we have seen, the ritual precincts had clear boundaries, but the limits of the altepetl
were always elusive to the Western eye. Valads' representation reflected the elusive
character of the altepetls limits. If comparing Valads' engraving of the teocalli with the
one of the Christian monastery he depicted the differences are obvious (Figure 17, p. 140
and 22, p. 153).
In the image of the monastery, limits were emphasized: along the walls, trees were
planted creating a promenade around the courtyard, an additional ornamental frame
enclosed the composition. The monastery was shown without a relationship to its
surroundings, reinforcing its ideal character; the Nahua temple, on the contrary,
intermingled with its surroundings. These representations reflected very accurately the
differences between the two architectonic institutions.

252
Hadrians wall in Scotland made by the Romans, for example, had as its main purpose to put limits to the territory of the Empire
rather than defend it. The rituals of foundation of the Roman cities, after defining the mundus or cosmic center proceeded to define its
limits by naming them ritually or by the ritual action of a circular plow. See Joseph Rykwert, The idea of a town: the anthropology of
urban form in Rome, Italy and the ancient world. (London : Faber and Faber, 1976).
253
Valads, Retorica Cristiana, 389.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 149
It has been argued that by the sixteenth century, a strong orthogonal geometrization of
religious architecture could be seen by the mendicants as a step towards the fulfillment of
the building of utopia.254 It is not, however, geometry as an ideal quality of God, typical
of the baroque period, but geometry as a reflection of the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth.
The incarnation of the Holy Person of Christ was a fundamental element in the
materialization of the ideal in Western architecture. The construction of the fortress
monasteries implied the incarnation of the ideal, the heavenly Jerusalem, came to life in
the "Indian" world reflected in the construction of the closed compounds. It was an ideal
universe incarnated, but isolated from the world.255
In the engraving of the fortress/monastery, the first person of the trinity -God the Father-
with a crucifix in his hand, appeared surrounded by angels guaranteeing a transcendent
connection realized by the Holy Spirit -represented as a dove- and manifested in the
world by the Holy Host represented at the center of the tabernacle.
The transcendent dimension of Christ's sacrifice was absent in the engraving of the
Nahua temple.256 The sacrificial offering performed by the pontifice didn't seem to go
beyond the material world. Victims were thrown down the stairs at both sides of the
teocalli in an horizontal plane. For the Christian mind, Nahua sacrifices were a
waste.257
The two engravings seemed to complement each other: while the engraving of the Nahua
temple resembled the original earthly paradise lost by Adam and Eve, located in the land
of the New World, the fortress/monastery was a paradise to come by means of the
incarnation of the Holy Edifice by the missionary work where humans were expected to
recover their pure condition as the result of the sacrificial death of Christ. The indigenous
"paradisaical" altepetl was depicted by Valads, as providentially destined to incarnate
the Christian utopias.
254
See Alberto Prez-Gmez, Juan Bautista Villalpando's Divine Model in Architectural Theory, in Chora: intervals in the
philosophy of architecture, Vol. 3. (University by McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994).
255
The ideal character of the monasteries promote their isolation. The Missionaries didn't want their "children" to be corrupted by lay
Spaniards. When the missionaries had to retire, they left the natives as "orphans. In that sense, by their isolation, they perpetuated
their subordination, not only to an alien priestly hierarchy, but they limited their integration into a new form of society which was
being forged by the intermingling of Spanish and indigenous cultures.
256
It has been pointed out by Edgerton that the architectural arches were seen by the Nahua as a representation of the primordial cave
which holds miraculously by itself. Edgerton, Theaters, 73-106.
257
According to Valads it was common for the nobles or pipiltin to be incinerated, and the common folk or macehualli to be buried,
so, at one side of the teocalli some of the victims appeared being buried and at the other they were incinerated. Valads, Rhetorica
Chtistiana, 393.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 150
In the unstable Europe of the 16th Century, constantly torn by religious wars and the
Reformation, the Franciscan-Spiritualists found refuge in the New World. The religious
institution of the fortress-monasteries had a double and almost antithetic purpose: they
reflected the desire to return to the primitive church before its institutionalization, but
they also represented the incarnation of a visionary model for the end of times, the
restitution of "the temple" in the so called "Jerusalem Indiana" as the forerunner of the
city of God, avoiding as much as possible the temporal dimension of universal
Catholicism. These manifestations were meant to prepare the second coming of Christ as
expressed in Apocalypse 20-21.
The great irony of the monasteries of the mendicant utopia was that they had to rely on
the gentile institution of the altepetl. Without the existence of this institution, the
Christian utopia of the mendicants would have been impossible to materialize. The
altepetl was the perfect prima materia for materializing the divine project. The
construction of the monasteries was necessarily perceived by the natives, accustomed to
cyclical renovations, as a metamorphosis, a vital and even revitalizing change of their
own institutions.
It seemed plausible, for example, that to the eyes of the indigenous people under colonial
rule, the sinuosity given to the battlements of surrounding walls of monasteries' patios
appeared as a reinvention of the coatenamitl, the serpent wall.258
If Valads depicted in the New World a paradisaical origin of humanity and its fall by
the sin of idolatry, the image of the convent patio pointed towards its future
reestablishment.
The regular orders enjoyed certain independence from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, being,
to some degree, free of supervision. Although they introduced an alien institution into the
native community, they were able to align, reinterpret and even reinforce the native
social fabric. This is perhaps the reason behind the extraordinary accomplishment of the
fortress-monasteries, so intrinsically bound to their community. It also seemed evident
that, in spite of the efforts to clarify the difference between Christian and native beliefs,
Christian saints were mingled with the native ancient gods, impersonators of the natural
manifestations. Each altepetl and each calpolli could choose different saints as patrons
maintaining the plurality and the identity among the barrios and the cellular quality of the
altepetl structure.
258
Although they didn't have an actual defensive use, the battlements of the monasteries symbolized the defense of the Christian faith
and the Holy Land.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 151
The tendency of the new Repblicas de Indios to constitute autonomous and remarkably
harmonious entities was reversed at the end of the sixteenth century when the regular
clergy was suspended from its responsibilities and replaced by the secular clergy, which
depended on the ecclesiastical hierarchy and on the Spanish Crown.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 152
C.5. Christian utopia or the altepetl revisited

Figure 22: Fray Diego Valads. Engraving depicting an ideal fortress-monastery,

Rhetorica Christiana, Perugia, 1579, p. 107.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 153
We may recall that Saint Francis made a radical effort to return to the world within
Christian Catholicism. He used to call all existing beings brothers and sisters. The
empathy he had with nature was the same he had with humans and this made him closer
to the Nahua tradition than traditional Catholic dogmatism. Not much of this original
Franciscan view seemed to have survived in the apocalyptic Franciscan of sixteenth
century New Spain, though it did in Diego Valads, maybe because of his native
background.
The engraving of the colonial fortress/monastery, in the Rhetorica Christiana,
exemplified allegorically the Franciscan missionary world in New Spain (See Figure 22 ,
p. 151). The first twelve Franciscans were carrying the institution of the church as a
portable tabernacle into the "New World. According to this engraving, it could be
speculated that the original model for the configuration of the Franciscan colonial
monasteries was not so much Solomon's Temple, but the Tabernacle in the Desert.
A tabernacle, in Catholic rituals, was also formed by a box in the shape of a small church
used for processional purposes, just like the one in the procession in the engraving. In the
procession of Corpus Christi, the Tabernacle housed the Holy Host which was carried in
stages recreating the steps of Christ during his calvary. This artifact was related to the
Tabernacle in the Desert that housed the ark of the covenant, which held, itself, the
tablets of the law given by God to Moses. But in the case of the Christian tabernacle, it
did not house the proof of God's covenant, but housed God himself, in the form of the
Eucharist, the transcendent incarnation of the flesh of the world in the figure of the Holy
Host.
The idea of the tabernacle as architecture implied a contradiction between the site as the
beholder of architectonic meaning and the artifact whose meaning consisted solely in
what it housed. Once the Tabernacle in the Desert became Solomon's Temple, a paradox
appeared by the fact of it being an alien element to the world. This contradiction also
represents a powerful metaphor of human life as a constant "diaspora. This situation, as
noted by Diego Durn, recalled the feeling of the Mexica that acknowledged the strange
status of being "foreigners" in their own land. A sense of non-belonging, an alienation
from the world was the result of this contradiction.
But, what did the implantation of "tabernacles" actually mean in the millenarian and
Nahua context of the sixteenth century? As we have seen before, the discovery and
conquest of the New World was a sign for visionary Christians towards the fulfillment of

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 154
prophesies. In that sense, the universal adoption of Christianity implied the conversion of
infidels and the indoctrination of indigenous natives, (identified by some, like Valads, as
the lost tribes of Israel) was the most important mission to fulfill.259 Valads gave this
enterprise an importance that may seem disproportionate otherwise:

Because, among all the events and enterprises that Christians had undertaken since God
created the Universe, there wasn't one so glorious, which deserves eternal recall and in which
God had manifested His clemency, than that of the conversion, pacification and subjection of
the new land of New Spain; that is why I have decided to insert here a narration of their
customs and ceremonies, as by knowing the effects, the causes will become clearer.260

This statement can only be understood within the millenarian context. The different
historical actualizations of the Tabernacle prior to the Mexican fortress/monasteries, were
never intended to be "literal, but allegorical. An element, a vestige, a relic would suffice
for a building to stand under the grace of God. During the sixteenth century the
fulfillment of prophecies seemed to become pressing, prompting the literal construction
of holy edifices.
Charles V wanted to believe he was the Last World Emperor before the Apocalypse, and
he was to re-conquer Jerusalem as an anticipatory event before the second coming of
Christ. In that sense, during his kingdom, the end of time was believed to be around the
corner. The millenarian utopists of those times felt they probably would live to see those
"glorious" moments of Christianity. The Pope did not confirmed the title of Holy Roman
Emperor to Charles V son, Philip II. In a way, the Spanish monarch was relieved of the
responsibility of impersonating the figure of the Last World Emperor. The Spanish
Crown, rather than continuing with the expansion of its territories in the New World,
consolidated them by implanting a centralized political and religious model, assigning to
the secular clergy the task of creating a pervasive centralized organization with
subordinate dioceses and parishes. This signaled an important shift between an
eschatological vision in which the fortress monasteries were seen metaphorically as the

259
According to Revelation 20, at the end of times, the lost tribes of Israel which had disappeared after Babel would become Christian.
260
Valads, Retorica Cristiana, 387.
Puesto que entre todos los acontecimientos y empresas de los cristianos. Desde que Dios cre el mundo universo, no hay
otro alguno tan digno de eterna memoria y en el que Su Majestad haya manifestado tanta clemencia como la conversin,
pacificacin y sujecin de las nuevas tierras en Nueva Espaa, me he determinado a insertar en este lugar una narracin
de las costumbres y de las ceremonias (de los indios), para que as, por los efectos, se venga en mas claro conocimiento de
las causas.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 155
expansive front of battle of Christianity towards an universality of the church, and a
Kingdom in which, rather than promoting the fulfillment of the prophecies, postponed
them by the perpetual actualization of the ideal. While the model for the
fortress/monasteries was the tabernacle, for the baroque church it was a more temporal
one: Solomon's Temple, reinforcing the temporal power of the King. This shift was of the
greatest relevance and signaled the shift of control over the religious indoctrination of the
natives from the regular to the secular church.261

C.6. The Missionary architectural agenda: Ritual and Theater

If for the Indigenous people the altar was the personification of an open cave, for the
missionaries, it was a Stage-set. In Valads' engraving of the Nahua "temple, some
curtains appeared to be hanging from the apex of the altar. In Jewish tradition, curtains or
veils separated the Holy from the Holy of Holies, both at the Tabernacle and in the
Temple of Solomon. The symbolism of the veil was relevant. It represented the threshold
between this world and the "other" world. The veil rather than separating humans from
God was a way to have contact, although indirect, with Him. When Christ died, the veil
was torn. All contact with the transcendent was broken. The ritual of mass reestablished
the communication with God, it "remade" the veil and the alliance with God.
It seemed, however, that the curtains in Valads' engravings represented something other
that the mediation between human and divine: the fact that the Catholic rituals were
contained and framed by arches implied a distance from the participants. This framing
introduced a distance between the epiphany and the world; a theatrical displacement.
In Western tradition, Greek theater inaugurated an alienated way of participating with
mythical narratives different from ritualistic immersion. The spectator participated by
actively observing. He imagined himself in this or that situation but remained outside of
it. Such experience produced a catharsis, a purification. With Greek theater, ritual and
performance broke apart.262 It could be argued that this was at the origins of an eventual
desacralization of ritual and life itself.

261
See Lara, City, Temple, Stage, 106,107, and Jorge Fernndez-Santos, PHD thesis on the symbolism of the Solomonic columns in
the context of Baroque Spain.
262
See Alberto Prez-Gmez, Chora, the Space of Architectural Representation, in Chora: Intervals in the Philosophy of
Architecture, Vol.1. (Mc Gill: Queen's University Press, 1994), 1-34.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 156
Something similar happened at the onset of the colonial period. The colonial Open
Chapels where not used exclusively to perform Catholic rituals, they also housed
theatrical interpretations. What was performed in those chapels fluctuated between the
ritualistic and the theatrical. A distance between the ritual and the representation was now
inserted into the Nahua mind, a distinction between the real and the copy. Valads
depicted a stage-set.
This treatment of the loci also seemed to happen in the engraving of the fortress
monastery, where the different places appeared depicted as stage-sets. The round posas
chapels had hanging curtains at their sides.263 In the same image, curtains also appeared at
the bottom of the arched portal were the sacraments were represented.
Jaime Lara264 has pointed some pictorial examples of contemporary devotional theater
plays in Europe, like the enacting of the birth of Christ. Those plays were performed in
ephemeral stages representing buildings of the Holy Land. According to Lara, such
paintings constituted the main iconographic source for the formal configuration of the
fortress-monasteries in New-Spain. While the tabernacle was the ideal model for
missionary construction, the concrete source of images were paintings in books,
representing the Holy Land and the holy edifices as stage sets. In that sense, those ideal
models were mediated by Renaissance illustrations, mostly done by Flemish artists. This
underlined the role of theatrical representation within the missionary work, the
dislocation between the ritual and the performative. Valads depicted a stage with
curtains just as they may have been used in the open chapels and like the ones used in
theaters today. The depiction of a priest in the teocalli realizing a human sacrifice seemed
theatrical. The representation of the Nahua temple also appeared closer to a stage set than
to an altar.
While the use of ixiptlas or impersonators promoted the actualization of myth by the
partial, although "real, identification of "god" and "image, the theatrical displacement
implied a real distinction and a temporal and spatial dislocation between the original
(God) and the copy (image). There was, therefore, an important difference between
Nahua rituals and, for example, the representations of the passion of Christ, the battles
between Christians and Muslims, and the pastorelas.
A teocalli was not a stage where the sacrifice of the gods was "represented": it was a
mountain where the gods actually sacrificed and were sacrificed. On the other hand, the
263
Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, 471.
264
Lara, City, Temple, Stage, Chapter 6, 177-195.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 157
fortress monasteries remained as surrogate copies of the original pattern, the tabernacle in
the desert, which was an ideal vision revealed to Moses by God. Rituals were about the
present. Representations, however, re-presented something in a different space-time than
the present. Representations brought past or future events to the present but remained
historical. To be effective as a cathartic event, they necessarily maintained a distance
between the "real" and the "copy.
In the context of millenarian missionary work in New Spain, what was usually
represented was not necessarily something which had happened in the past, but
something which would happen in the future. Jaime Lara mentioned265 that the first of a
series of plays with end-of-the-world theme or eschatological dramas was performed in
the tradition of the neixcuitilmachiot266 or Nahua exemplar representations. The first
play known was in Nahuatl and it was most likely written by Fray Andrs de Olmos. It
was entitled: The Last Judgment, played in 1531 in the open chapel of San Jos de los
Naturales, the first monastery built in the New Spain. Fray Bartolom de las Casas
recorded that it had a cast of eight hundred people with sixteen speaking roles. 267 What
characterized all of those plays was that they included stage representations of the walled
city of Jerusalem, and many of them represented the Jewish Temple as composed by four
towers surrounding a larger central one.
Maybe the best remembered of those representations were The Conquest of Rhodes
and The Conquest of Jerusalem performed in Tlaxcala in 1539. Jaime Lara maintained
that:

The representation was done as part of the Corpus Christi procession to celebrate the Truce of
Nice, which was mediated by the papacy in the hope that the unencumbered Holy Roman
Emperor, Charles V, would attack the Turks and recapture Jerusalem.

Lara quoted the Franciscan Jeronimo de Mendieta:

The news was announced in this land a few days before Lent, and the Tlaxcaltecas wished
first to see what the Spaniards and Mexico [in Mexico City] would do. When they saw that
they staged a representation of the Conquest of Rhodes, the Tlaxcaltecas decided to stage the
Conquest of Jerusalem, an event which had been prophesied that God would bring to pass in

265
Idem., 178.
266
Neixcuitilli: ejemplo de vida m. life example, and machiotl: signo m. sign, seal f. signal , ejemplo m. example.
267
Horcacitas, El teatro Nhuatl, 562, Quoted by Lara, City, Temple, Stage, 178 ?

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 158
 our own times. In order to make it more solemn, they agreed to wait until the Feast of
Corpus Christi.268

...Rhodes was considered a necessary staging area for fleets from Christian Europe or
America to launch the final assault on Muslim Palestine. Both follow in the line of earlier
European theatrical productions to effect what has been called "wishful" or "anticipatory
magic, which would help to achieve in reality the outcome of the narrative.269

For the natives this represented a new understanding of time. While the Mexica
representations collapsed phenomenal and mythical time, Christian representations were
enacting the future.
It is debatable, however, if for the Tlaxcalteca participants the represented battle was not
a representation but the battle itself. It seems ironic that the representations of wars
between Moros and Cristianos, still performed by indigenous today have lost their
original future orientation; they have become more mythical than historical. Like this,
many other impositions on the natives have been neutralized and indianized.
By the presence of glorified death, Nahua rituals magnified the present to cosmic
proportions. Representations of future events postponed glory and happiness to a time
"we will hopefully see.270 For the first time Nahua people looked into the future for the
fulfilling of their desires of glory and happiness.
Although the Mexica had "apocalyptic" fears, their temporal understanding of the
universe remained cyclical, which meant that the end of the Fifth Sun was not the end of
everything; a new era or sun, was expected to appear afterwards. It was their duty,
however, to sustain the cosmos as they knew it. While Nahua sacrificial rituals were
meant to maintain and postpone the end of time by closing and reestablishing cycles,
(atadura de los aos) for the millenarian mind of the Franciscans, on the contrary, it was
necessary to promote, propitiate to the apocalyptic events.

268
Torquemada, Memoriales, 106. Quoted by Lara, City, Temple, Stage, 179.
269
Lara, City, Temple Stage, 179.
270
Idem., 179.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 159
C.7. Patios and pathos: place and procession in the fortress monastery

Architectonic layouts were commonly used in the art of memory. The structure of an
imagined building helped to bring to memory the different elements of a discourse in a
structured manner. This method was used in the Art of Memory that belonged to the
liberal art of rhetoric.
Valads used the engraving of the monastery as an example of a mnemonic device. The
spatial configuration of the monastery courtyard as depicted by Valads was meant to
hold the different images of Franciscan activities. Valads also made a detailed
description of an imaginary interior of the tabernacle with several loci in each of the
internal lines of columns holding the different book of the Scriptures.271
In this mental exercise, the edifice and the scriptures interrelate. Although imaginary, the
book was transcribed into bodily elements: a step towards incarnation. The geometrical
accommodation between the book and the building exemplified how the Christian mind
tended to materialize the ideal mediated by the notion of the incarnation of Christ.
Valads depicted a rectangular monastery patio with four circular shrines at the corners
known as capillas posas. The world posa came from posar, to rest. Like the open
chapels, the stationary shrines were a Franciscan implementation for processional events
within the monastery's patios. According to Jaime Lara,272 the four shrines represented the
Christian mysteries: Annunciation, Passion, Resurrection, and Glorification. The Nahua
were, as we have seen, used to processional rituals and would adopt the Christian ones
naturally. Although Christian processions among the different barrios of the Colonial
cities were usual, they were also performed within the convent patio.

271
According to Watts, Valads' model represents a conflation of the Tabernacle in the Desert, Noah's ark (that symbolizes the
structure of the cosmos), and the mystical body of Christ [the church]. The ark-church-tabernacle provides sufficient loci for storing
all the sacred scriptures. Valads described the architecture of an inter-mental building in considerable detail (Rhetorica Christiana,
103) giving the length of the atriums (naves) for each of the four sides, the number and heights of the supporting columns and the
different materials used in the making. This description would yield six hundred loci to organize the scriptures.
According to Watts, this mnemonic strategy has its historical precedent in patristic and medieval mystical texts which mediate upon
the symbols of biblical buildings and allegories of devotional discourses. Valads' representation closely parallels certain texts by
Hugh of St. Victor's, De arca Noe mystica, and De arca Noe morals. Hugh of St. Victor's texts that consist of allegories and symbols
derived from a detailed description of a mental ark-temple-cosmos. Pauline MoffittWatts, Hieroglyphs of Conversion: Alien
Discourses in Diego Valads' Rhetorica Christiana. In Memorie Domenicane, n.s., 22, 1991.
272
Idem., 28.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 160
Making a counter clock side processional reading of the engraving, in the Nahua manner,
we can see, at the upper left corner, under letter P, Valads' tutor, Pedro de Gante
teaching Christianiy to the natives with hybrid pictographs.273 With the letter C, the
dogmas were taught to the natives. In D, penitence was discussed. There was a door to
the exterior (Q) while two people were carrying a third person in a litter to the right. The
creed of confession was taught to the left, while three people were waiting to be
confessed (E and F). Three portals to the right were occupied with confessions, baptism
and justice, all grouped under letter T. Then we have the sacraments of communion,
mass, and extreme unction. Then again, to the left under letter M, there were the
sacraments of marriage and the teaching of the Sacred Scriptures (L), to the right (R)
three people entered the courtyard. To the left there was marriage examination (R) and
then, under letter N, the history of the creation of the world. Finally, closing the
promenade at the top, was a funerary procession accompanied by singers under letter O.
Although this reading followed a hypothetical promenade, in reality the image didn't have
any reading order; there isn't a clear sequence in the reading of the places that Valads
labeled with letters. The image, rather than being a rhetoric exercise, according to the
nature of the book, represents an idealized and timeless portrait of missionary life. 274
Having as their model the Tabernacle in the desert, the monasteries in New Spain didn't
depend of their orientation in the world to acquire their transcendental meaning. But the
construction of the monasteries implied a dilemma: once the ideal edifice was incarnated,
it necessarily had to acknowledge the circumstances in which it was going to be built.
There was no way in which the missionaries could start from a tabula rasa and erase the
culture of the natives. The Christian institutions, once built, were mediated by the
indigenous beliefs about their vision of the world and the organization of their own
architectonic and social institutions.

273
The Mendicants didn't considered the pictographic system of the Nahua equal to the alphabetic one. Far from it. The preponderance
of written text had evident Judeo-Christian roots. The use of a hybrid pictographic and alphabetic system was considered by the
mendicants as a convenient tool for the indoctrination, though only as a transitory stage towards a full alphabetization of Nahuatl
language. Many Franciscans like the prominent linguist Fray Andrs de Olmos and Fray Pedro de Gante worked hastily on the
alphabetization of Nahuatl language writing dictionaries and books of prayers teaching the Nahua how to read and write in their own
language. The eventual disappearance of the pictographic systems has to be understood, for better or for worse, as the full
appropriation of alphabetic writing on the side of the Natives.
274
This is at odds with the establishment of the people of Israel in Jerusalem and the construction of Solomon's Temple. This
contradiction appears in the two church versions of St. Peter and St. Paul: the institutionalized Roman church and the monastic church
of the ones that were "retired" from the world, which represented a Franciscan issue since the beginning. For more about the nomadic
character of the altepetl, see Fernndez, Territorialidad, 69-70.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 161
The symbolic identification between the Mesoamerican aitualli and the colonial patios of
the monasteries was part of the successful implantation of the Christian ideal model in the
different altepetl. According to Jaime Lara, the missionaries called the patios of the
Christian temples corrales (stables), possibly alluding to the new Christians as the sheep
of Christ.275 But while the Mesoamerican aitualli was a representation of the cosmos, and
it was carefully aligned with it, the corrales were the manifestation of an incarnated idea.
If there was a remarkable sense of orientation and alignment towards the surroundings of
those Christian buildings, it was because they were substituting the ritual compounds of
the natives, necessarily reenacting, for better or for worse, mythical sacred mountains.
The first twelve Franciscan missionaries in the New World were lead by Saint Francis
himself in a procession carrying the tabernacle (See Figure 22, p.153). The caption under
the tabernacle read: PRIMI SANTAE ROMANE AECLESIE INNOVO INDIARUM ORBE
PORTATORES: which roughly translated into English would mean: "First carriers of the
Holy Roman Church into the Indian world.
What was relevant here was the portable character that Valads attributed to the Roman
Church, in reality a monolithic, centralized institution. It must be noted, however, that
this view of the portable Church, or the Church as a tabernacle was a particularly
Franciscan understanding. There was indeed a contradiction between the centralized
institutionalized Church and the nomadic one promoted by Saint Francis against the
institutionalization of religion. Franciscans reinterpreted Saint Paul's architecture of the
desert alluding to the nomadic tabernacle as an architectonic metaphor of the church
questioning aspects of institutionalized religion and its centralization, contrasting sharply
with the monolithic church of Saint Peter that stressed the temporal power with regards to
its universality.
The ideal characteristic of the Tabernacle promoted autonomous institutions. In that
sense, two Christian projects overlapped, the Franciscan which promoted autonomy and
independence, and the latter one of the temporal clergy that reinforced obedience from a
centralized church. The one promoted multiplicity while the other promoted universality.
Because of its ideal character, the Tabernacle was a universe in itself, a monad. In that
sense, the fortress monasteries, following the model of the Tabernacle, contained
meaning in themselves: they represented autonomous institutions and not subsidiary
parishes of Rome. That is why they integrated so well with the Nahua institution of the
altepetl. This may help to understand its adoption by the indigenous people, the
275
Lara, City, Temple, Stage, 17-21.

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 162
incredible speed in which they were built, and the richness of their different
manifestations.276 The model of the tabernacle had the flexibility to adapt to the different
circumstances of the altepetl, and its sense of wholeness also helped to preserve its
identity. While the monasteries represented an autonomous entity preserving an
ethnocentric sense of orientation, the universalized church denied them autonomy and
transferred the center of existential reference somewhere beyond the horizon of
experience.

See John Leddy Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. 2d rev. ed. (Berkeley: University of
276

California Press, 1970).

Part I. The Regular Orders and the Nahua ritual precincts 163
Part II

Modernity and the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan

Once material progress was assumed as the universal condition of all civilizations,
cultures started to be considered either as advanced or primitive. The new rule to
judge them was not whether they believed in the true god or not, but whether they were
"primitive" or "advanced" with regards to the culture that judged them.
Seen under this condition, Mexica civilization appeared very "primitive" and very
"advanced" at the same time: idolatry, ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, ritual wars to acquire
sacrificial victims, fascination for death, cruel ritual practices like blood letting, flaying,
burning, dilapidating and piercing their own and other's flesh, appeared to contrast
sharply with their skillful artistic manifestations like unique feather-work, monumental
monolith sculpturing, elaborated metal jewelry, the use of fragrances and sophisticated
culinary dishes, a strong legal system, a strict and complex social order, a "democratic"
government formed by representatives of the different districts, division of labor by
districts, centralized educational system, a pictographic system to record dates,
mythologies, maps, genealogies, calendars and else: a beautiful sonorous language,
cryptic poetry, densely populated cities, monumental and profusely ornate architecture of
temples, palaces, fortresses, schools, libraries, aqueducts, calzadas (causeways on top of
the lake surface) chinampas (artificial land on the lake's surface for cultivating,), the
ingenious control of the lake tides by dams, and a unified vision of a dual cosmos
arranged in a complicated triple calendar, which, to the surprise of Europeans was more
accurate than the still current Gregorian calendar.
Modern historians have had a hard time placing the Mexica regarding modern
preconceptions. Aztec detractors have enough material to debase them as one of the most
barbaric cultures, while nationalist or "new age" scholars tend to stress the idea that they
were very "advanced" or spiritually "evolved. This apparent contradiction disappears if
the presuppositions of progress and instrumental control of the material world are
displaced or put into quotation marks. It is crucial to understand the intrinsic relationship
between agriculture, and the religious cults as the origin of human settlements
(architecture). It is also important to question the linearity of western time, based in

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 164

Christian beliefs, whose logic can not be applied to other civilizations with different
understandings of time and space.

Natural Determinism of civilizations

During the eighteenth century the Dutch philosopher Cornelius de Pauw (1739-1799)
elaborated a theory that later was called the Natural Determinism of Human Cultures. 277
Although he never visited the American continent, he was considered to be the greatest
expert on the Americas during his lifetime. He claimed that the Amerindian civilizations
were inferior than Europeans because of the disadvantages of their material conditions;
hot and wet climates were seen by De Pauw as an impediment for a "correct" and
"normal" development. This "handicap" could be overcome by changing their
environmental conditions. Progress was associated with the technical capacity of a given
culture to transform its environment. Although the belief in the inferiority of indigenous
people was not a new issue for Europeans, the thinkers of the Enlightenment gave these
ideas a "scientific" rational character stressing the poorness of their technical capacity to
adapt, -or rather, to control or transform their environment- as a sign of their
primitiveness. With variations, these ideas were supported by thinkers like the Scottish
William Robertson and the noble Frenchman Comte de Buffon.
Although challenged by thinkers like Clavijero, variations of these Western
preconceptions have survived in our days, even in movements that advocate the cause of
natives. In the next chapter I will argue that there wasn't a real difference between the
Natural Determinism of the eighteenth century and the "Scientific Indianism" that came
after the Mexican Revolution of the twentieth century (1910-21). In the eighteenth
century, however, a first scientific but conciliatory understanding between cultures
appeared which made them to be ruled by the same social principles in the works of
Giambattista Vico, Lorenzo Boturini and the Mexican Jesuit Francisco Xavier Clavijero
among others.

277
For a good account on the disputes promoted by the publication of Cornelius de Pauw's Recherches philosophiques sur les
Amricains see Chapter Nine: The Eyes of Reason: II in Keen, The Aztec Image, 260-309. For a resume on Clavijero's arguments
against de Pauw, Robertson and Buffon see the introductory note of Clavijero's anthology by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrn. Francisco
Xavier Clavijero, Antologa (Mxico: Secretara de Educacin Pblica, 1976).

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 165

In New Spain, as the result of a crisis of identity of the criollo278 and mestizo279
population together with an increasing desire to stand apart from Spanish domination,
who appropriated the "Mexican" identity. A common identification amongst the
inhabitants of New Spain was crucial to acquire a sense of unity, something that could be
predicable for a heterogeneous society. After the prohibition to study the culture and
religion of natives by Philip II in the sixteenth century, a new interest in intellectual
circles to research the indigenous past appeared during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries in the works of criollo and mestizo scholars like Carlos Sigenza y Gongora
(1645-1700), Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695), Jose Antonio Alzate (1738-1799),
Jorge Vieytia and Antonio de Len y Gama (1790-1806), among others.280
Slowly but steadily, the idea that the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, and not just
Solomon's temple or San Peter's cathedral, was at the core of "Mexican" culture. The
studies of Mexica civilization by Novo-Hispanic historians represented a complicated
process of "unearthing" documents and temples which also implied a contradictory
process of appropriation and re-structuring of the Mexican self. The criollo elite
undertook the task of vindicating Mexica civilization in the eyes of Europeans and also,
primarily, in their own eyes. During the eighteenth century, the Jesuits exiled in Italy
among whom were Francisco Xavier Alegre, Pedro Javier Marques,281 and Francisco
Xavier Clavijero282 were fundamental in this process of re-configuration of Mexican
identity.

278
Individuals of pure European blood born in the New Spain.
279
Individuals with Indigenous and European blood.
280
See Antonio de Len y Gama, Descripcin histrica y cronolgica de las dos piedra, (Mxico: M. A. Porra, 1978).
281
Influenced by the recently discovered ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the search for a meaningful reinterpretation of
human history by thinkers like Giambattista Vico, Carlo Lodoli, Andrea Memmo, and others, Francisco Javier Mrquez published the
first book on Mexican archeology in Rome (1804). He made an hermeneutic reading of the recently uncovered ruins of Xochicalco
and Tajin; His interpretations were insightful and in a way, they remains valid until today. He made the relation between the 260 days
of the ritual calendar and the number of niches of the beautiful "teocalli of the niches" at Tajin, Papantla. See Pedro Jos Mrquez,
Sobre lo bello en general y Dos monumentos de arquitectura mexicana, Tajn y Xochicalco, (Mxico: Universidad Nacional
Autnoma de Mxico, 1972).
282
The notes about Clavijero's life were taken from the prologue by Luis Gonzalez in Francisco Xavier Clavigero, Historia Antigua de
Mexico (Mxico: Editorial Factoria Ediciones, 2000), Vol. 1, ix-xxii.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 166

2.1. Visions from exile: Francisco Xavier Clavijero (1731-1787)

Francisco Xavier Clavijero is considered as the artfice de la concepcin histrica de

Mxico.283 He was born in the port of Veracruz in New Spain in September 1731. His
father had a post in the Spanish Crown and moved from town to town exposing his son to
the culture of the local populations, from whom he learned Nahuatl. At the age of
seventeen, he decided to become a Jesuit and in February 1748 he was sent to the college
of Tepoztln where he studied Latin, Greek, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and
English. In 1751 he went to the city of Puebla to continue his studies on modern
philosophy and was introduced to the works of Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz. He
completed his philosophical studies at the Colegio de San Pedro y Pablo in Mexico City.
Not without objections from his superiors, Clavijero studied the documents that the ex-
Jesuit Carlos de Sigenza y Gngora had donated to the college. Sigenza was one of the
most extraordinary characters of the 17TH Century in New Spain; an astronomer,
mathematician and historian; he inherited the documents of Juan de Alva Ixtlixochitl, heir
of Fernando de Alva Corts Ixtlixochitl the grandson of Netzahualphilli and great-
grandson of Nezahualcoyotl, the great tlatoanis of Texcoco.
In 1767 by order of Charles III, king of Spain, the Jesuits were expelled from all Spanish
colonies. After a long perambulation, Clavijero finally settled down in Bologna where he
lived for the rest of his life. There, he wrote a comprehensive Storia Antica del Messico284
[1780] based on what he remembered from the documents he had studied at the Colegio
de San Pablo y San Pedro and what he had found out of Aztec history in European
libraries.
Clavijero was influenced by Giambattista Vico through the works of Lorenzo Boturini
Benaduci. Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci wrote the Idea de una Nueva Historia General de
la America Septentrional based on Vico's understanding of the universal history of the
gentiles described in the Principi di Scienza Nuova. Vico's aim was to clarify the general
laws that ruled the development of all the gentile nations.

283
Francisco Xavier Clavigero, Historia Antigua de Mexico (Mxico: Editorial Factoria Ediciones, 2000), Vol. 1, xi.
284
The Historia was originally written in Italian and published in 1780 in Bolognia as Storia antica del Messico. It was soon translated
into English by Charles Cullen and published in London in 1787. The English edition has gone under several publications specially
during the nineteenth century. Although Clavijero himself translated it into Spanish the Spanish editions are translations from the
Italian one, being the first, curiously published in London by Ackermann in 1826. The first Mexican edition of the Historia was
published in 1844, 77 years after Clavijero died.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 167

Vico elucidated that gentile nations knew the truth by the presence of Divine Providence
reflected in the natural world which led to similar human institutions. This was a basic
common ground of understanding that gave another explanation of the similarities
between cultures other than direct contact between them.
Vico maintained that:

Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common
ground of truth.285

There was a crucial attempt to include the "others" as equally ruled by the same universal
social principles. For Vico there was a "common sense" or "judgement without
reflection" that was "shared by an entire class, an entire people, an entire nation, and the
entire human race.286

2.2 The common ground: Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci (1702-1751)

Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci was born into a noble family near Milan in the early
eighteenth century. In Madrid, he met the Countess of Moctezuma, a direct descendant
and heir of the last Mexica tlatoani. The Countess asked him to collect a pension from the
royal treasury in New Spain which had been given to her. Boturini departed for New
Spain and arrived at the capital on March 1736. He remained there for eight years.
In New Spain, Boturini traveled widely collecting pre-Hispanic and colonial paintings,
maps and manuscripts. His collection was, together with the library of Carlos de
Sigenza, the most important collection of indigenous documents of the highlands.
Things became difficult for Boturini.287 He was investigated and accused by the Council
of Indies of entering New Spain without a license and was imprisoned for eight months
before being sent back to Spain. His collection was impounded.

285
Giambattista Vico, The New Science, (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984), 144.
286
Idem., 142.
287
Being devoted of the Virgin of Guadalupe, (an image that allegedly appeared impressed into the dressing cloak of an indigenous
man on the hill of Tepeyac, a place where Cihuacoatl or Tonatzin, a Nahua Goddess of Earth had been revered in pre-Hispanic times)
he wanted to offer her a golden crown. He sought donations from the Church and the general public bringing the attention of the
colonial authorities to him.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 168

 Figure 23: Lorenzo Boturini, Idea de una nueva historia
general de la Amrica Septentrional, 1746. In the
frontispiece Boturini appears holding, in one hand, a Nahua
calendar, and in the other, the Catholic image of the
Virgin of Guadalupe.
In Spain, Boturini asked the Council of Indies to reconsider his case. He was absolved of
all charges and named Royal Chronicler of the Indies by the King himself who later
ordered his collection to be returned to him. But Boturini didn't actually receive any
political or economical support; he had a miserable salary and he couldn't get his
collection back.
In order to gain more support from the King, he wrote the Idea de una Nueva Historia
General de la America Septentrional published in Madrid in 1746. The Idea was meant
as an abstract of a larger work, the "New History, a comprehensive history of the native
people of the Anahuac, and by extension, of all North American Nations. As Benjamin
Keen pointed out, the Idea must rank among the most prodigious tours de force of
memory in the history of scholarship. It was also the first and only known effort to apply
Vico's theory to the early history of people.288

288
Keen, The Aztec Image, 228.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 169

Boturini gave the King a practical reason to support his project: "to overcome the
ignorance of official interpreters of the native documents. 289 For him, a competent
understanding of land measures and maps continually used by the natives was necessary
in order to authenticate their titles, to decide rival claims of land and other privileges
constantly presented onto Spanish authorities.
But Boturini also revealed his desire to:

Show that the beliefs, customs, and laws of the first peoples of the divine age were always
linked to religion and human needs for the understanding of the morality of remote times
to Illuminate the primitive beginnings of the sciences whose architect was the Divine
Providence, and whose builder was the human understanding.290

Boturini remarked that such a work:

Was useful for the poets who would find in the songs he had collected the nectar of the Indian
Parnasus to study the metaphors of Nahuatl, a language that surpassed Latin in beauty.291

2.3 The tripartite division of civilizations

Following Vico and supported by the documents he once had had at hand, Boturini
divided the different stages of "Indian" civilizations into the Age of Gods, the Age of
Heroes and the Age of Humans.292 According to him, the Age of Gods was characterized
by a theocratic government with power vested in the hands of the "fathers" or patriarchal
priest/kings/tlatoanis who ruled over their families and also over dependants (famuli/
macehuales) who entered their service in order to escape from the violence of their

289
Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci, Idea de una nueva historia general de la Amrica Septentrional, 1 ed. facsimilar (Mxico, D.F.:
Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1999), 166, paragraph 19.
290
Boturini, Idea, 159-160.
291
Idem., 162.
292
Idem., 7.
Siguiendo la idea de la celebre divisin de los tiempos, que ensearon los Egipcios, he repartido la Historia Indiana en tres
Edades: La primera, la de los Dioses: la segunda, la de los Hroes: La tercera, la de los Hombres, para baxar por grados
succesivos hasta quando nuestros Indios se hallaron constituidos en sus Gobiernos Humanos, y dilataron el la Amrica sus
Imperios Reynos, y Seorios, y desta suerte determine tratar de sus cosas en dichos tres tiempos, Divino, Heroico, y
Humano, que es lo mismo, que el doctsimo Varron explica en otros tres, Obscuro, Fabuloso, e Histrico.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 170

lawless neighbors. The Toltecs exemplified this clan lead by fathers that had crossed to
the "New World" from Asia by way of the "stairs of California.293
Boturini wrote his Idea in Vician terms, setting the basis for Mesoamerican studies as
independent from European, African or Asian civilizations, and at the same time, based
on common universal laws. He was the first to separate the history of Mesoamerican
cultures in three stages, as they are recognized today: the pre-Classic, Classic and post-
Classic. They implied a beginning, an apogee and a decline, revealing the corsi e ricorsi
storici roughly corresponding with Boturini's divisions of Gods, Heroes and Men.
According to Boturini, the Indian imagination, confounding first with secondary
causes,294 created thirteen major gods that embodied natural forces, Tezcaltipoca, the
Indian "Jupiter," reflected the consciousness of a Supreme Providence that ruled the
world from and above the sky.295
Frightened of thunderbolts, the Toltecs abandoned their wanderings and formed families
and civil societies. The cultivation of land appeared symbolized by the gods dominating
the monsters of nature. Xiuhtecuhtli, god of fire, cleared the forest in order to cultivate
the land.296 Tlatocaocelotl, the Man-beast, represented the triumph of men over
animals;297 Huitzilopochtli, god of war, appeared with the struggles between the first
Toltec farmers and the lawless vagrants.298
According to Boturini, Indian mythology contained thousands of Hercules who

293
Idem., 110-111.
Y por lo que toca a la Historia donde se ve ver quan cuidadosa fue de conservar a la Posteridad las memorias de las cosas
antiguas con Mapas pintados en Figuras, Smbolos, Caracteres, Geroglficos. Uno de estos (que sera probablemente sacado
del Teoamoxtli) tuvo en su poder Don Fernando de Alba Ixtlixchitl, con otros muchos de la Nacin Chichimeca, segn
consta de Testimonio, que Yo vi, y para original en poder de los Caziques de su linage; y confiesa dicho Autor, que con la
ayuda dellos pudo escribir ambas Historias Tultca, y Chichimeca, las que tengo en mi Archivo. Dice, pues, que por el
referido original Mapa Tulteco constan memorias antiqusimas, y en particular la confusin de las Lenguas de la Torre de
Babel, que sucedi, segn el Kalendario Tultco, el ao ce Tlpatl, un Pedernal, en cuya ocasin siete Tultecos, que
asistan a la fabrica de dicha Torre, viendo que no se entendan con los dems, se apartaron con sus Mujeres, e Hijos, y
despus de haber peregrinado en Asia unos cuantos Senios, que llamaban Huehuetiliztles, por fin llegaron a las tierras de la
Nuevea Espaa, que entonces se dixo Anhuac, y fueron internndose hasta llegar a Tula, que hicieron Corte, y Cabeza de
su Imperio.
294
Idem., 8.
295
Idem., 11-12.
296
Idem., 18-21, paragraph 13.
297
Idem., 21-25, paragraph 14.
298
Idem., 26-28, paragraph 17.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 171

 burnt down the forest and tore into pieces the snakes of the earth, who cut off the head of the
Hydra, symbol of the forest, who -deprived of her head,- sprouted again in the form of
cultivated crops; there were thousands of Bellerophons who slay an infinite number of
Chimeras, comprising different kinds of beasts, all of them symbols of agriculture.299

There was an intrinsic relationship between the beginnings of architecture and the
domination of the land symbolized by the clearing of the forest by the god of fire. The
original fire was kept in all the teocalli symbolizing this alliance with the primordial god
Xihutecutli that signaled the possibility of transforming the world. Architecture,
agriculture and ritual sacrifice appeared simultaneously. Agriculture offered the place for
the sacrificial offerings in order to propitiate the growing of the crops on which the
settled group based its survival. The government of the age of Gods was theocratic.
The Age of Heroes appeared when servile uprisings and invasions by outlaws forced the
Fathers to form Heroic States. Plebeian imagination transformed heroes into gods. It was
the time of epic poetry.300
The Age of Humans appeared as the result of the growing pressure of the commoners for
civil equality with the nobles to have the same rights of land ownership, legal marriage

299
Idem., 81, paragraph 5. My translation.
Hay en la Historia Indiana millares de Hrcules, que con el Len, que echa fuego por la boca, queman las Selvas, que, aun
estando en la cuna de tierna edad, esto es, en el naciente Heroismo, hacen pedazos las Culebras de la tierra, que cortan la
cabeza a la Idra, Symbolicamente a la Tierra, que privada de su cabeza, que son los arboles, vuelve desde las raizes
multiplicados renuevos, que consiguen las manzanas de oro de los Jardines Hesperides, esto es, el Trigo, y Semillas: a
millares los Belerofontes, que matan a una infinidad de Qimras, compuestas de diferentes naturalezas de animales, todos
Symbolos de la Agricultura.
See also Boturini, Idea, 24-25, paragraph 14.
Descubrese asimismo en esta Epoca de Tlatocaocelotl el principio de la Agricultura, porque en el acto de dar fuego a las
selvas, advirtieron estos piadosos Incendiarios asados unos granos de Maiz, y de otras semillas, lo que hallaron sabrosos al
paladar, por cuyo motivo guardaron otros no lastimados de el fuego, para sembrarlos en aquella misma tierra, que
reconocieron havia sido su madre, y tuvieron las cosechas correspondientes a sus deseos.
que hallaria en una campaa desierta, no cultivada, una Baca todavia indoita, no sujeta al yugo, y a la labor, que la
siguiente, y donde se echase en las yerbas, alli fabricase una Ciudad, pues todas surgieron de la Agricultura, y la llamase
Thebas, que en lengua Syriaca significa la Baca, que havia de ser su conductora
Allanados de esta suerte (por el fuego) los bosques, que eran impenetrables, fabricaron las Gentes Mayores Indianas sus
casas immediatas a las sementeras, para defenderlas de los insultos de las fieras, y de estas casas tomaron nuestros Indios el
segundo Carcter de su Chronologia, y la significacion de el Elemento de la tierra, por haver sido edificadas con lodo, y
ladrillo crudo.
300
Idem., 35-36.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 172

and citizenship. Monarchy "the best form of government when reason is fully developed,
appeared.301
According to Boturini, the age of men started in 660 A.D. when Huemotzin summoned a
congress of wise men in order to compose the Teoamoxtli, (Divine Book), confirming
and instituting the history, the calendar lore, and the laws and customs of the Toltecs
signaling the advent of the Historic Time or Era of men.302
The Spanish Crown was not interested in supporting a project of vindication of Mexican
culture. Lorenzo Boturini died in 1755, his collection was scattered and the majority of
his documents were lost. The Idea was read by Clavijero and although he criticized
Boturini for being too imaginative, he quoted him extensively and agreed with him in
main issues like the belief in the common origin of humanity, the "clear and distinct" fact
of the universal deluge, the confusion of tongues, the dispersion of the different peoples,
the notion that civilizations appeared, evolved and declined, their independent
development, and the belief that Divine Providence reflected in the natural world as the
driving force that lead to form common human institutions.303
While Boturini was the first to bring into Mexican studies a non-diffusionist idea of
history he remains marginalized. His work appears to many, too imaginative and
imprecise. To a great extent, he must be held responsible for the misconceptions; he
didn't give credit to Vico as the original source of his ideas. Clavijero himself didn't seem
to have fully grasped Boturini's intentions, and it is evident he never knew first hand the
work of the Neapolitan philosopher.

2.4 The Historia Antigua de Mexico and the Great Temple

Clavijero wrote his Historia in order to:

301
Idem., 109, paragraph 10.
Adopting such a theory implied giving the "King" of the Mexicans the same rights as those of the King of Spain. This was possibly
the reason Boturini was never fully supported by the Spanish Crown.
302
Idem., 139-140.
303
There are other famous tripartite divisions of human history, before and after Vicos', like the one of Joachim da Fiore in the
thirteenth century and Jos Vasconcelos in the twentieth.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 173

 Avoid a guilty indolence to which I am condemned, to serve my country as far as my strength
permits it, and also, to restitute in its splendor the truth, obfuscated by an incredible crowd of
modern writers from America.304

Clavijero felt responsible towards his homeland and wished to restitute a kind of historic
justice. In an ironical tone, he systematically discredited the arguments of Cornelius de
Pauw and Comte de Buffon about the inferiority of the Native Americans.305 Clavijero
claimed to follow two holy laws of History: "not to dare to say falsities, and not to fear in
saying the truth.
In times of polarized opinions, Clavijero tried to find a middle point. Regarding the
Conquest of Mexico, for example, he affirmed to have taken distance from the eulogy of
the Spanish faction of Antonio de Solis, Royal Chronicler, and the invectives of Las
Casas against the Spanish.

I don't mean Solis is an adulator, or Las Casas a calumniator, but in my pen it will become as
such what they wrote, the first in his desire to magnify his hero, (Hernn Corts) the other to
benefit and protect the Indians.306

2.5 The hermeneutic blind spot: Mexica and Mexicans

There is a strong psychological identification between contemporary Mexicans and the

Mexica, or rather, with an idealized Westernized image of them. Clavijero, who
considered himself a Mexican, was one of the first to introduce the term "Aztecs"
displacing the meaning of the original term to the inhabitants of Modern Mexico. That
implies, in psychological terms, an empathic identification, but also an usurpation.
Mexican modern identity was mainly a creation of the criollo aristocracy as a reaction to
the strict control of the Spanish Crown on politics and economy. Since the Spanish
Capital was built upon Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the original Mexica were debased almost in
their totality. They didn't really exist any more as an altepetl. This fact helped in the
process of the appropriation of their identity. There was a deliberate collapsing of
identities between a non-existent "them" and the "us.
304
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, xi.
305
See Chapter Nine: The Eyes of Reason: II in Keen, The Aztec Image, 260-309, and the introductory note of Clavijero's anthology
by Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrn. Francisco Xavier Clavijero, Angologa (Mxico: Secretara de Educacin Pblica, 1976).
306
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, xiii.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 174

It is important to note, however, that Clavijero and most Mexican authors of the
eighteenth century remained critical towards Aztec civilization and culture. It was not
until the nineteenth century, after the war of independence, that the Aztecs were glorified.
By the glorification of the victim the criollos expiated a sense of guilt towards the
native cultures, but this exaltation also allowed to implant even further a totalitarian
westernized mode of domination legitimized by its allegedly native origin.
It is revealing to note that the other native surviving communities remained alien to a
great extent from this process of re-definition of the national identity. The idea that a
Zapotec would want to become Mexican was as strange as that of a Basque wanting to
become Castilian or a Venetian a Roman. "Mexican-ness," highly artificial and
problematic as it may be, became the glue that united many ethnic groups in the melting
pot of colonial New Spain.
The formation of the Mexican modern identity was problematic even for the most
enlightened minds. Clavijero used the term "Mexican" for the ancient Mexica and for all
the contemporary inhabitants of New Spain, including himself. That was when the term
Aztecs, although imprecise, was helpful to make the distinction between the two
different historic groups, the Mexicans and the Mexica.

2.5.1 The "country" of Anahuac

Clavijero wrote that Anahuac -place near the water- was "in the beginning, the region in
the Valley of Mexico because all their mayor cities, like Tenochtitlan and Xochimilco,
were founded on islands and on the shores of the lakes of the valley: lake Texcoco and
lake Xochimilco. But later, the word Anahuac was used for the whole "country" which
later became New Spain.307
Anahuac better known among the indigenous as Anahuatlalpan, "place at limits of the
water" described an almost archetypal geographical condition of limits. It shared the root
atl, "water, with altepetl, "town" and with cemanahuac, "universe. And basically
described the limits between the dry land -paradigmatically represented by the mountain,
tepetl- and the ocean, which represent the limits of the phenomenal world. In a profound

307
Idem., Vol. 1, 1. Anahuac was the origin of the word Anahuatlaca, or Nahuatlaca, names given to the nations that occupied the
shores and islands of the lakes of the valley of Mexico.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 175

sense, Anahuac (the valley of Mexico) and altepetl, town, stood at the mid point between
the two phenomenal limits of the Mesoamerican universe: the sea and the mountain.
If there was a common understanding of the world, there was not, however, a common
understanding of all the altepetl as belonging to a single political entity, empire, country,
nation or state but an organic plot of ethnocentric communities and cultures which shared
a common understanding of the universe as a floating mountain.
This was clarified by Eduard Seler:

In the manner of other peoples, the earth was conceived by the Mexicans as a large wheel or disc
completely surrounded by water. This platform or ring encompassed by water was called
Anuhatl, ring, or Cem-Anhuatl, the complete circle. Due to an erroneous interpretation,
some early historians began to designate the central part of the present Republic of Mexico as the
plateau of Anhuac. In reality, to the ancient Mexicans, this term consistently carried the meaning
of land situated at the edge of the water, or all of the land between the two oceans. They called
this water surrounding the earth the ocean toatl, divine water, or ilhucaatl, celestial water.
The reason for this was that the water merged with the heavens at the horizon.308

The word Anahuac, was transformed during the colony from a cosmic concept to a
political one, it became a nation. It suited Clavijero to designate the whole mosaic of
cultures under a common noun, contributing in such a manner to its homogenization. For
Clavijero, the cellular structure of the altepetl was not evident: he divided them into the
"kingdoms" of Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan and Michuacan, the "republics" of
Tlaxcala and Cholula, and many other particular "states. He claimed that the kingdom of
Mexico had many "provinces, like the Otomi, the Matlatzinque, the Cuitlateque, the
Tlahuique, etc.
Clavijero's classification made sense from the European point of view and with regards to
the different sizes and the economic and military subordinations between the altepetl,
even though these were not subordinated provinces created by an hegemonic center but
subjugated or confederated units that retained their own identity.

308
Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thougth, 192.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 176

2.6 The Toltecs and the origins of architecture

This was the order of human institutions: first the forest, after that the huts, then the villages,
next the cities, and finally the academies.309
Giambattista Vico

To some extent, Clavijero completed Boturini's History of the Indies of Septentrional

America. He described the Toltecs as the clan lead by fathers who gave origin to the
"nation. According to him the Toltecs left their original land "Huehuetlapalan" in the
year "One Flint" (approx. 596 A.D)310 and after a long journey they finally founded Tula,
the "oldest city in the Anahuac. Clavijero thought the Toltecs were not inclined to war
but to the "cultivation of the arts.311
Clavijero mentioned obliquely the Olmecs as a civilization that may have preceded the
Toltecs, but there was no record of them except for the fact that they had inhabited the
nearby region of mount Matlalcueye (today mount Malinche, in the state of Tlaxcala),
from where they had been expelled by the Teochichimes or Tlaxcaltecas to the shores of
the Gulf of Mexico. Clavijero mentioned that Sigenza had maintained that the Olmecs
were the only ones who had come to the "country" of Anahuac from the east and not
from the north as all others; he also affirmed they had departed to Atlantis with the
decline of their civilization.
In Vico's terminology, Olmecs should be considered the first "clan of fathers" that gave
origin to the "nation. In current Mexican historiography, they are considered the
"mother" of the cultures of Mesoamerica. The Olmecs gave origin to most of the
Mesoamerican institutions appropriated by the other "barbaric" tribes, Toltecs included.
The first altepetl was not Tula but one of the different settlements of the Olmecs, maybe
San Lorenzo, in today's State of Veracruz, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There
were other civilizations that existed in the highlands like Cuicuilco in the Valley of
309
Vico, New Science, 293.
310
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, 78. See also Boturini, Idea, 111.
Ce Tecpatl "One Flint" is the sign of origins and departures. Boturini interpreted in a Toltec map the construction of the Tower of
Babel as it happened in a year One Flint, and the date in which the seven Toltec tribes participated in the construction of the tower of
Babel, coming, after some centuries to the lands of New Spain which was called Anhuac. According to the Tira de la Peregrinacin
or Codex Boturini, in the year One Flint, two centuries after, the Aztecs left Aztlan, the same date as the birth of Huitzilopochtli at
Coatepec and the same date which is registered in the "Sun Stone.
311
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 80.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 177

Mexico and even in Cholula that may be related to the Olmecs. This may have happened
a thousand years before the foundation of Tula. They were the first to settle and cultivate,
instituted ritual sacrifice, and built the first pyramidal teocalli and ritual complexes
associated physically and symbolically with a water supplying mountain.312 The Olmecs
invented the Ball-Game as a central part of their culture, hence their being called the
"people of the rubber" after ollin, (hule in Spanish) synonym of "movement" and
etymologically and symbolically related to the Nahua voice yollot, "heart. It seems quite
probable they were the first who associated the rhythms of the cosmos with the bouncing
faculties of the rubber ball as beholder of a particular energy and its cosmic engagement
by the ritual game and sacrifice.
The Toltecs took the institutions of the Olmecs and reinterpreted them; a story that would
repeat itself again with the Chichimec and the Nahua tribes that would come from the
north and appropriate the Olmecayotl, the "Olmec way. To a great extent, the history of
pre-Hispanic America was the story of the struggle between the altepetl and the lawless
barbaric tribes that came in different waves from the North after the Toltecs since the
third century A.D.. In Boturini's terms, it could be said that the theocratic altepetl
appeared during the Age of Heroes when servile uprising and invasions by outlaws
forced the Fathers to form Heroic States. Plebeian imagination transformed heroes into
gods: the military deeds of Huitzilihitl, the father/tlatoani of the Mexica, gave rise to the
cult of Huitzilopochtli, god of war.
With Cartesian terminology, Clavijero claimed that the Toltecs had "clear and distinct"
ideas regarding the universal flood, the confusion of tongues, and the dispersion of
people from a common origin; "They even gave the name of their first ancestors who
came forth from this separation.313
He claimed, following Boturini, that the Toltecs composed the Teoamojtli, or Divine
Book, a kind of Toltec Torah, detailing the origin of the "Indians, their dispersion after
the confusion of tongues, their peregrinations to Asia, their first establishments in
America, the foundation of the empire of Tula, and their current "progresses" up to that
time. The Teoamojtli included figures from the calendar, its relationship with the
"heavenly spheres" and the mythological constellations. It was a book that constituted
their "moral philosophy" where they recorded their popular wisdom under the emblems
of the gods, religion and custom. Clavijero maintained that this book recorded the solar
312
Maybe at San Lorenzo or at La Venta, in the actual state of Tabasco. See Landscape and Power: 47.
313
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 81.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 178

eclipse which had occurred at Chirst's death and the age of the world, from the Creation
to the birth of Christ, which was around 5,199 years, and that was, according to Clavijero,
in correspondence with the Roman calendar.
For Clavijero there was a direct relationship between the appearance of agricultural
activities (represented also by the domestication of fire as a human tool to clear the forest
in order to cultivate) and the propitiatory character of the first architectural temples.
Clavijero argued that according to the Texcocan historians, like Fernando de Alva
Ixtlixochitl, Toltecs had made (or re-made) the Great Pyramid of Cholula in honor of
Quetzalcoatl, and maybe the ones in Teothihuacan in honor of the Sun and Moon.
Boturini claimed to have had a painting of the toecalli of Cholula in honor of
Quetzalcoatl which had an inscription with the following title: "Toltecatl Chalchihuatl
onazia Ehecatepetl" which he translated as "monumento o piedra preciosa de la nacion
Tolteca, que con su cerviz recorre la regin del aire.314
The teocalli was named as Ehecatepetl, from ehecatl, "wind" and tepetl, "mount. The
"babelian" teocalli reached with its cervix the realm of the god of wind, the domains of
the Feathered Serpent, the place where men became gods.
Boturini believed the Toltecs had made the "pyramid" of Cholula imitating the tower of
Babel. This may have been suggested to Boturini by the fact that the Cholultecs
themselves had incorporated and transformed the myth of the tower of Babel as theirs, as
was related by an old Cholultecan to Fray Diego Durn.315 The association with Babel
had many implications; the first evident one is the idea of a common origin of humanity
and a common original myth of the beginnings of architecture.
Boturini believed that the teocalli of Cholula was made in remembrance of Babel because
the Toltecs had kept the memory of the original building. Another important implication
in the association of the two structures was the human desire to become closer to the
gods, or rather, to become gods. In such an argument, architecture appeared with the
desire to rise from the pedestrian level to reach heaven. It would seem evident that the
teocalli of Cholula was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent who raised its
314
Idem., 82.
The teocalli of Cholula is the biggest and according to archaeological surveys (See Part III, 3.3, Ignacio Marquina) might be the oldest
teocalli of the highlands. Its first structures at the core correspond to the Olmec civilization, or to a contemporary culture of the
Olmces with whom they had a strong cultural relationship. Cholula represents the only surviving teocalli from the first settlements in
which many different civilizations had added their layers on top, the Christian being the lastest one.
315
See Part I, B.1: Babels and teocalli.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 179

belly from the swamps towards the sky; and it would not be surprising, either, that the
figure of Quetzalcoatl was the favorite vestment of the high priests/gods, who became the
twins of the gods, by physically rising from the earth on the teocalli to be closer to the
heavens. The vestment of the Quetzalcoatl priests consisted of all kind of feathers,
associated with height and with wind.

Figure 24: Athanasius Kircher, The Great Temple of the Aztecs in Odipus
Egyptiacus, based on the one published in the Voyages of Ramusio under
The Anonimous Conqueror's description of the Conquest.

It can be said that the apparition of architecture as a sacred mountain, coincided with the
deification of the heroes/priests in the transition between the Era of the Gods and the Era
of Heroes. Cholula and Babel correlated in the desire to reach the level that the gods
inhabited, at the top of the humanized sacred mountain.
Contrary to the God of the Jews, the Toltec gods didn't find the human desire to reach
heaven as irreverent. In fact, gods wouldn't even have a face or a voice without men's
identification. These forces became personalized only at the moment when human ritual
engaged them converting human action as crucial in the maintaining of the cosmic order.
The teocalli represented a second nature strongly related to the original cosmic one that is
inherited from the ancestors.
According to Boturini, the author of the painting of the teocalli of Cholula put a note at
the base of the monument's image:

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 180

 Noble sirs, here are your scriptures, the mirror of your past and the history of your
grandparents, who, driven out by fear of the waters, made this asylum an opportune refuge in
case of finding themselves again in such a big calamity.316

As we saw in the section dedicated to Fray Diego Durn in Part I, the Cholultecs were
used to fusing Christian myths with their own. The memory of a catastrophic deluge
represented as a "branch of sea" around the original land in the records of Toltecs and
Nahua was the reason, according to Boturini, for the construction of the first architectonic
institution. The "pyramid" of Cholula was rendered as a solid refuge, a monumental Noah
s Ark for the survival of humanity after God's wrath. It would seem ironic that the
building that provoked the wrath of god would help save humanity later.
Frightened by thunderbolts, the Toltecs abandoned their wanderings and formed families
and civil societies. The origin of architecture was related, therefore, to a desire to
negotiate with the overwhelming forces of nature, and more specifically, to propitiate
rain, but also to regulate it, preventing a catastrophic flooding.317
Clavijero made a rational objection to this whole argument: if a deluge happened,
"Indians" could reach the nearest mountains without having to spend so much energy
constructing a monumental refuge. He warned us not to believe those "modern" and
"ignorant" (indigenous) historians.
Clavijero claimed to have gone up the teocalli of Cholula on horseback in 1774, on a
spiral path surrounding the monumental construction.318 Yet he didn't want to give credit
to dubious informants. Clavijero was marked by the sign of reason: he could not tolerate
the inconsistencies of Boturini and other authors. Evidential truth weighted more than
the understanding of a common ground. Clavijero's shifting opinions characterized his
formation as an enlightened historian and a Jesuit scholar.

316
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 82.
317
Such rituals are still practiced by graniceros in the region near the Volcanos Ixtlacihuatl and Popocatepetl in the state of Puebla.
318
This path was evidently made with the constant going up and down of believers to the Christian chapel on the top after the main
stairs at the west side had been destroyed for the construction of the Christian chapel at its top.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 181

2.7 Corsi e Ricorsi Storici

Following Boturini, Clavijero described the rise and fall of the Toltecs. He attributed
their disappearance to external factors like pests, hunger, thirst, and even to the struggle
with the Chichimec tribes coming from the north.319
After the Toltecs declined, the Chichimecs320 came from their original land of
Amecameca, to populate the "country" of Anahuac, making alliances with what was left
of the Toltec civilization. After a long journey and many attempts, they finally settled
down in Tenayuca. The Acholhua-Chichimeca would eventually found the altepetl of
Texcoco which would be considered the most "civilized" of the Nahua altepetl of the
highlands until the arrival of the Spaniards.
Clavijero mentioned that the Mexica or "Aztecs" were the last to come to the "country" of
Anahuac. They lived until 1160 A.D. in the "country" of Aztlan which may be placed
according to their accounts, north of the Gulf of California.321
Clavijero clarified that the Mexica were Nahuatlaques or "Aztecs": one of the seven tribes
that spoke Nahuatl and had come to the Anahuac (the Valley of Mexico) from Aztlan, a
hundred and fifty years after the Chichimecs. Those tribes were the Megicanos, the
Soquimilques, Chalqueses, Tepaneques, Colhuis, Tlahuiques, and the Tlascaleses or
Teochichimecas.322 This was where Clavijero, (and other authors) redefined the Mexica
as Aztecs, in a move that would have important consequences on Mexican historiography
because the term would be adopted and generalized. Today, when we talk about the
Aztecs, we refer exclusively to the Mexica and not to the other Aztec tribes which were
to become their most fearsome enemies.

319
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 83.
320
Chichimec was a general voice to designate the nomadic tribes of hunters of the north. There was also a specific group of
Chichimecs that came down into the Anahuac in the eleventh century, the Chichimecs of Xolotl which established in Tenayuca and
became parented with the Acolhua founding afterwards the altepetl of Texcoco.
321
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 104.
According to Clavijero and others, like Gutierre Tibon, Aztlan, the place of the origin of the Nahuatlaca tribes had to be located in the
actual state of California or Baja California. The increasing Mexican presence through the Chicano population in the U.S. It is to be
noted, here. It would be the result, in my belief, of the void of identity in the mestizo population reflected in a desire to a return to their
"origins, but, curiously enough, the return to the origins is to the white land, either Mexico-Tenochtitlan but also Aztlan, in the land
of California. In the logical cyclical time, the Chicanos in California, rather than immigrants, are at home.
322
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 99-100.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 182

Clavijero pointed out that these groups received their name after the cities they had
founded; that meant that it was not until they had identified themselves with a place that
they acquired an identity related to the place and a real differentiation between the
different Aztec tribes: they became "others" amongst themselves. A great desire to settle
down and to acquire an identity bound to the place was perceivable in the narrations of
the Mexica and of the other Aztec tribes.
According to Clavijero, for no apparent reason, Huitzilon, the leader of the Aztec, was
obstinate to leave Aztlan after hearing the singing of a bird whose voice imitated the
world tihui, vamos, let's go, convincing them that it was an occult god communicating
through the voice of the bird. Clavijero wrote with a rational tone: it is easy for one with
authority to persuade in religious matters the ignorant and superstitious folk.323
But for Clavijero the Christian missionaries of the sixteenth century like Sahagn or
Durn were as ignorant and superstitious than the indigenous themselves:

The simple historians of the sixteenth century and their followers, believe as unquestionable,
the continuous and familiar commerce of the demon with all the idolatrous nations of the
New World, there is not a single event not attributed to the devil's influence, but, although it
is true the evil of that spirit persuades to harm men as much as possible, and that, in some
times, he has appeared in visible form to seduce them, especially those that have not entered
into the church's embrace for their regeneration, it cannot be believed, however, that these
apparitions were so frequent and his commerce with those nations so open and free as is
argued by later authors; because God, who takes care with prodigious Providence of his
creatures, cannot concede such liberty to those enemies of humanity.
The testimony of Mexican historians is not enough to attribute any action by the Devil's
influence, knowing how easy they deceive themselves, either by superstitions which confuses
them, by the artifice of their priests, so common in idolatrous nations.324

Clavijero declared to ignore Huitzilons motivations to leave Aztlan; it may have been by
the advice of the devil, it could also have been the subtle action of Divine Providence
behind the bird's song, or it may have been Huitzilon's capricious will.
Clavijero's suspiciousness prevented him from believing that the Aztec priests really
believed in the call of the god, but he also doubted that the devil was behind its call.

323
Idem., Vol. 1, 104-105.
324
Idem., Vol. 1, 104-105.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 183

Clavijero believed in the devil's influence, but this influence would be limited by Divine
Providence. For Clavijero, Divine Providence restricted the action of the devil giving way
to the individual's will. Willpower and human liberty were an important modern element
in Clavijero's vision of history.

2.8 The Universal Flood

This axiom contains the physical history that the fables have preserved for us: that the
universal deluge covered the whole earth.325
Giambattista Vico

For Clavijero the universal deluge was a real historic event.326 Clavijero claimed that a
Universal Flood had appeared in the accounts of the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Acolhua,
Mexica and Tlaxcalans. He signaled how in their accounts a branch of sea is shown,
(brazo de mar).
Supporting Boturini's interpretation, he maintained that this body of water was nothing
but the image of the universal flood represented in paintings before they had begun their
peregrination: the brazo de mar as the remainder of the universal flood, stressing the
belief in a catastrophic storm as the cause of the dispersion of the people and their
diversification. It is interesting to note that in both mythical accounts, the biblical and the
Aztec, a bird a dove in the Old Testament and a hummingbird for the Aztecs- brought
the good news. If Clavijero would have pushed his argument a little more he may have
concluded that both birds represented the same Providence.

325
Vico, New Science, 194.
326
Historia Antigua: Vol 1, 105, footnote. In the Azcatitlan Codex we can see Aztlan is a squared island with a mountain at the middle,
and the god/man/bird Huitzilopochtli is asking the people to leave. Tenochtitlan and the Huei teocalli, are an evident image of Aztlan,
which was likewise, an image of the universe, an island with a mountain-like temple in the middle, its square shape recognizing the
four directions of the cosmos. The xico or "navel" of the universe was a mountain/temple. It may be important to note that the three
places where the Aztecs first went into their peregrination, Aztlan, Chicomostoc and Hueicolhuacan, (named today as Culiacan)
represented aside from an actual place, an archetypal place of "origins.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 184

There is a specific tension among the Toltecs, Chichimecs and
Aztecs between the historic memories of being originally from a
different place. A settlement gave them a place in the world, an
existential point of reference, an identity intimately related to
landscape. We can speculate, however, that there persisted a
nostalgic tension that promoted a division of the personality
manifested in a sense of not belonging, a sense of living in exile.
This tension did not exist in the collective memory of other nations
of Middle America, like the Mixtecs who traced their lineage as far
as the first man and woman born of the original tree at Apoala.327
There is an evident similarity with Jewish history as stressed by Fray
Diego Durn in the sixteenth century. Both pilgrimages, the Nahua
and the Jew, were looking for a "Promised Land. This was
unavoidably imagined as the image of the place they where coming
from, converting the pilgrimage into a return to Aztlan and to the lost
Terrestrial Paradise. In architecture, the tension between nomadic
and settled cultures can be allegorically represented as the
transformation of the tent of the nomads into the temple of the
agricultural communities. As soon as they settled, the vagrant
cultures constructed a temple to their respective gods.
In this process there was an important paradox for the Nahuas: in
honor of which god would they build the temple? To the god who
had led them or to the god who already inhabited the place in which
they wanted to settle. The Mexica, like the Chichimecs, made a
double temple reconciling this dichotomy.
According to Clavijero, after the seven Aztec tribes had left Aztlan,
they arrived at Hueicolhuacan, today's Culiacan, where they made a
wooden statue of Huitzilopochtli and a teoicpalli (chair of god) to
carry him (ixiptla). Teotlamacazque (servers of god), also called
teoamama (god carriers), were elected by the people to carry the god
Figure 25: Genealogical
on top of their shoulders. Tenoch (prickly pear cactus)
of Tlatelolco and
Tenochtitlan's dynasties.
Techialoyan Codex, Garcia
Granados. Len Portilla
327
Codex Vindobonensis, fol. 37. (Codices, 26a-26b).

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 185

In Chicomoztoc (7 caves), the Nahuatlaque tribes came into conflict and divided, leaving
behind the Mexica who later departed to Malinalco, Tula (1196), Zompanco (1216),
Tizajocan (1223), Tolpetlac, Tepeyac, and Chapultepec (1245). They became slaves of
Colhuacan (1314) fighting for them as mercenaries against their old Aztec fellow men the
Xochimilcas.328

2.9 Sacrifice and Architecture 1

Clavijero mentioned that on the orders of the Colhuas, the Mexica had been assigned to
settle down at a place they had named Huichilopochco, today Churubusco, where they
constructed a humble "temple" for their god. The Mexica asked their Colhua masters for a
precious object to be offered. The Colhuas sent a dirty bag with a dead bird inside that
their priest deposited at Huitzilopochtli's altar. At the ceremony of consecration of the
teocalli, with the Colhua chiefs present, the Mexica brought forth four Xochimilcan
prisoners, made them dance in front of the altar and sacrificed them on top of a stone
opening their chest with an obsidian knife and offering their hearts to the sun and their
god, showing their masters how a sacrifice should be properly made.329
This was, according to Clavijero, the first sacrifice of this type made in that "country.
Horrified, the Colhuas let them go wherever they wanted. From this first sacrifice the
Mexica kept the custom of sacrificing human victims. Other "nations" soon followed in
this. Being free to go wherever they wanted, the Mexica left for Acatzitzintlan or
Mexicalzinco, then to Iztacalco and finally to the marshes at the center of the lake where
they founded Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Human sacrifice, however, had been performed in Mesoamerica since the first
agricultural settlements and with the first paradigmatic architectonic model of the
altar/mount/temple which represented the beginning of the Classical period according to
contemporary Mexican historiography and the transition between the Age of Gods and
Heroes according to Boturini's classification. Agriculture, represented by the cornfield,
and architecture, paradigmatically represented as the sacrificial altar, were identified by a

328
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 104-111.
329
Idem., Vol. 1, 112-113.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 186

relationship of correspondence and by the belief in a flow of living energies between
them.
The Aztecs had taken the practice of sacrifice from other altepetl. The slave condition
and the scorn suffered by the Colhua accompanied by the feelings of illegitimacy and
inferiority provoked an exaggerated devotion in sacrificial duties.

Human sacrifice became a megalomaniac cosmic duty for the Mexica, performed in a
scale never seen before, reaching its apotheosis with the consecration of the Great
Temple during the rule of tlatoani Ahuizotl around the year 1486. This would mark,
together with the alliance between Mexica, Texcocans and Tepanecs, as stated by
Boturini, the peak of "Aztec" civilization and the beginning of their decline, the transition
between the Era of Heroes to the Era of Men.330

2.10 Mexico-Tenochtitlan: a metaphoric state of dwelling

This axiom gives us the universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried
over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to signify the institutions of the mind and
spirit.331
Giambattista Vico

In regards to the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Clavijero mentioned that the

Mexica had encountered the signs foretold by their oracle in the middle of the lake: an
eagle on top of a prickly pear cactus sprouting from a stone (tenoch), giving, therefore, to
the "country" and then to the "city" the name of Tenochtitlan. But Clavijero also wrote
that Tenoch had been the name of the leader of the Mexica as well as the name of the
founder of the city. Tenochtitlan was named after Tenoch, as Rome had been named after
Romulus.

330
Struggle for equal civil rights marked for Vico and Boturini the critical transition between the Era of Heroes towards the Era of
Men. Unrest among the subjugated nations was reflected in military fortification and the increase of ritual sacrifices by the members
of the "triple alliance. When the Spaniards arrived, the animosity against the confederation was successfully canalized by Hernn
Corts causing their incredible fall.
331
Vico, New Science, 237.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 187

The Mexica juxtaposed mythic and historic events in a process that was naturally
mediated by Nahua language. Tenoch may have been a historical character, but Tenoch
also represented the foundational and the sacrificial stone: tenoch and techcatl. The
foundational stone/leader representing Tenochtitlan, the place where the water was
burning, atl-tlachinolli, where the foundational stone stood before a spring of water, the
navel of the earth, the xico.
From the sacrificial stone sprouted a desert plant, a prickly pear cactus, maybe the fruit
which had nourished the Mexica during their peregrination form the north lands,
equivalent to the manna for the Jews. The plant came out from the hard stone after the
sacrificial offering at the place and time predicted by the oracle. The stone, acting as a
gnomon, attracted the sun's rays incarnated in its advocate, the eagle, which took in its
claws the fruits/hearts of the sacrificed victim for the nourishment of the solar body.
The prickly pear cactus, a desert plant from the northern deserts, planted into the lake,
represented a great analogy with the Mexica as a transplanted people in the marshes. On
top of the tenoch, the temple and the city were going to be built, at the cemanahuac
yollotli, the heart of the universe.
Agriculture and architecture were bound together by the figure of the sacrificial stone.
The moral authority of the hero invested and sustained symbolically the temple and the
city. The sacrificial stone and the foundational stones were one and the same. Tenoch, the
ancestor and moral leader of the nation sustained the tenochca like the foundational stone
had sustained the temple and the whole altepetl.
Mexico-Tenochtitlan is a compound of two words which were also an agglutination of
other ones. Hermeneutic elucidation of the "real" etymology of Mexico has been a
favorite theme for Mexican historians and linguists. Clavijero already enumerated all the
possible solutions he could imagine for the meaning of the voice "Megico. But the mere
task of finding the "real" meaning of Mexico implies, however, a kind of myopia. In
Claviejero's time, the notion of "truth" has shifted from being "revealed, to being based
on "facts. In a way, truth was narrowed to be univocally based on data. But words, and
specially Nahua worlds are, like the structure of the teocalli, layered, presenting multiple
interpretations. As has been said, in Nahuatl language, meaning is brought forth
metaphorically by the paring of contrary/complementary roots. While new meanings
appeared as the result of the pairings, the original roots remained as a surplus of poetic

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 188

meaning. Not all meanings resonated equally; some were evident and appeared at the
surface while others remained at the core of the word, murmuring.
Clavijero recognized there had been many opinions and disagreements about the
etymology of Mexico:

Some, -he wrote- think it comes from Metzli, "moon, because they (the Mexica) saw the
moon reflected in the lake, as the oracle had predicted.
Others, -he says-, believed it meant "fountain" because of the fact they had found a spring of
pure water at the spot of the foundation.332

Clavijero affirmed that those etymologies were violent. He confesses to having first
believed it came from Megico, the core of the maguey plant, but:

The study of history convinced me that Megico is the same as to say "the place of Megitli or
Huitzilopochtli, like Athens for the Athenians, or Tanum Martis for the Romans. "The
Mexicans, he clarified, took out the last syllable tli and substituted with co, for the locative,
equivalent to the Spanish en.333

Megicaltzinco, Huitchilobusco and Megico, three places where the Mexica had settled
down had the same name: "the site of the house or the temple of the god Megitli" or "the
place where the temple of Hutizilopochtli is.334 Clavijero's interpretation is convincing
because of the precedent of Huitchilobusco, (Churubusco) which clearly means "the
place of Huitzilopochtli. Gutierre Tibn possibly the greatest authority in the subject,
discredits this interpretation affirming that:

La creacin a posteriori de hroes epnimos, con etimologas populares basadas en

semejanzas fonticas (que nunca faltan), llega hasta nuestros das. 335
332
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 113.
333
Idem., Vol. 1, 113-114.
334
Idem., Vol. 1, 114.
335
Tibn affirms that:
Por necesidades de la causa (poltica, religiosa o potica), sacerdotes, mitlogos y aedos han inventado a los hroes
epnimos, -a menudo elevados a dioeses- de sus ciudades y naciones. Mexitli se identifica con Huitzilopochtli.
Mexi, caudillo de la peregrinacin Azteca y hroe epnimo de los Mexicanos, era el hijo menor de Moctezuma. No, por
supuesto, del Socoyote ni de Ilhuicamina, sino de un Moctezuma antiqusimo, rey de Aztlan en el siglo XI. Nos lo dice el
propio nieto del ltimo emperador de Mxico, don Fernando Alvarado Tezozmoc, (Tezozmoc (1949: 19 y 33, texto
nhuatl, 1609). El autor del Cdice Ramrez, afirma por su parte: Llevaban por caudillo a un hombre que se llamaba Mexi,
del cual toman el nombre los mexicanos. Tibn, Historia del Nombre, 225-227.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 189

He shows ironically how this misunderstanding was made by the early missionary
historians:

Motolina hace deribar a los olmecas de Ulmcatl, los xicalanca de Xicalncatl y los mixtecos
de Mixtcatl.336

The identification between the Mextli, the Aztec leader, and a solar god is, however, not
totally arbitrary. In the religions of Middle America it was common to identify leaders
and gods as was the case of Ce Acatl Topitzin Quetzalcoatl, or as we saw in Chapter I,
Moctezuma was named the sun by his people. That means that he was invested with the
solar energy in a greater degree than the rest of mortals, guarantying his mediation
between the sun, as a provider to the community of solar energy for cultivation and
courage for war. He was, in short, the personification of the sun, its ixiptla.
In spite of this, I am inclined to support Tibon's interpretation. According to him, it is
more likely that Megitli, instead of representing an eponym relating the name of the city
with the god of war or a leader-hero a posteriori, referred to Mexictli, (metztli) the
"moon's face" or "center of the moon," cara de luna, centro de la luna.337 After an
incredibly extensive survey to find the meaning of the name of Mexico, Tibn affirmed
that the lunar interpretation discredited by Clavijero was the correct one.338
As we mentioned in the section on Fray Diego Durn, this may be symbolically revealed
with the pervasive whiteness that appeared in the mythical accounts of the foundation of
Tenochtitlan where white frogs, white willows, white fish, and so on, were mentioned.
This whiteness was obliquely referred by Clavijero suggesting that the oracle told the
Mexicans to look for the signs, using the whiteness of the full moonlight reflected on the
surface of the lake as a guide.
The solar stone, the tenoch, met its counterpart: the moon reflected at the middle of the
lake symbolized in the cryptic sign of the foundation, the atl-tlachinolli, water/fire or
burning water. According to Tibn, the lake of Texcoco was called "our mother the
Moon" by the inhabitants of the shore. Like the moon shining in the darkness of the

336
Tibn, Historia del Nombre, 230.
337
On-line Aulex dictionary of Nahuatl, http://aulex.ohui.net/es-nah/
338
Tibn, Historia del Nombre, 141

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 190

night, Tenochtitlan shone in the middle of the lake. Mexico-Tenochtitlan was the
city/stone/moon/pearl reflected on the lake's surface. The identification of the celestial
body with the city was a highly poetic metaphor giving a clear image of the founding
event and the dual lunar/solar character of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.339

2.11 The foundation of the Great Temple according to Clavijero

According to Clavijero, the founding of Mexico occurred during the year Ome Calli
(Two House), which corresponded with 1,325 of the "vulgar era, when the Chichimec
Quinatzin had been king of this "country.
After the "Mexicans" took possession of the site, they built a "hut to honor
Huitzilopochtli. The dedication of the temple "was not made without the shedding of
human blood. Clavijero wrote that, while a brave Mexican went out to find an animal to
immolate for his divinity, he met a Colhua called Jomimitl340. He dominated him and
offered to the god his dripping heart, "this cruelty serving not less as a discharge of their
anger against the Colhua, but as the bloody cult of that false deity.341
Clavijero attributed the rising of the Mexicans to their inventiveness in the creation of
artificial land for cultivation named chinampas on the surface of the lake. This was
indeed a crucial turning point in "Aztec" history which corresponded with the
appropriation of a technology to control their environment equivalent to the clearance of
the forest by fire for cultivation and the appearance of leaders/priests/heroes.
There is no doubt that the creation of highly productive chinampas gave them
independence in comparison with other altepetl.

339
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, 113.
Clavijero made an important observation: They were are Mexicans or Tenochcas because they live in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. How were
they called before their city was founded? They may have been Nahuatlacas or Aztecs, although those terms were generic to many
other tribes like the Xochimilcas and Tlaxcaltecas. It can be argued that a real distinction between the different Aztec tribes was felt
after they had founded their respective altepetl. In that sense, their identity was constituted by the place that they inhabit as much as
their belonging to an original land.
340
Clavijero's version derives mostly from Sahagn through Torquemada. This version differs considerably from others whose primary
source was the Chronicle X, like Tezozomoc's and Durn's, which signal the sacrificial victim as the Malinacla Copil, son of
Huitzilopochtli's sister, Malinalli.
341
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 113.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 191

According to him, after the founding of their altepetl, the Mexica divided their
miserable town into four quarters assigning each part with a patron god aside from the
one that protected the whole "nation. He commented, as Sahagn and Durn had, that
this disposition had survived during the colonial city while giving the original Nahuatl
names of the different districts or calpolli: San Pablo (Teopan and Joquimilca), San
Sebastin (Atzacualco), San Juan (Moyotla) and Santa Maria (Cuepopan and
Tlaquechiuhcan).342
According to Clavijero, up to 1352, twenty seven years after the foundation of the city
the Mexica government was an "aristocracy" governed by a council of twenty leaders
constituted by representatives of the different calpolli, (named one by one by Clavijero)
Tenoch being the leader of them all.
Then the government system changed to a "monarchy, the first "king" being
Acamapichtli, who had ties with the Royal Toltec house of Colhuacan on his mother
side.

Lisongeandose con la esperanza de hallar en el Nuevo jefe un padre, que cuidara del bien del
estado, y un buen general, que lo defendera de los insultos de sus enemigos.343

There is indeed a shift in Aztec political system, but it may hardly be called an
Aristocracy first and a Monarchy later, which are western categories that distort the
actual organization of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as an altepetl. The shift in the way of a
government reflected the transition between a nomad and a settled society, from
collectors to peasants, from the Age of Gods to the Age of Heroes, from the pre-Classical
to the Classical. This was reflected in the discourse while Huitzilihuitl was invested as
the second tlatoani:

... have counsel, knowing that we are under the protection of our great god Huitzilopochtli,
you being his image and occupying his place.344

The tlatoani was invested with a "sacred" aura and was indeed seen as a "father. the
council of representatives remained as a crucial institution in the structure of the altepetl.

342
Idem., Vol. 1, 115.
343
Idem., Vol. 1, 117.
344
Idem., Vol. 1, 121.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 192

The tlatoani, rather than inheriting the "crown" by divine will, was elected by the
members of the council or elderly representatives of the different calpolli. 345
Clavijero went on describing the difficult beginnings of Tenochtitlan until the defeat of
the tyrants Tezozomoc and Maxtla illegitimate tlatoanis of the Acolhuas-Chichimecs and
the restitution of Netzahualcoyotl as the true "Emperor, who was to sign the triple
alliance with the Mexicans and Tecpanecs and so was to originate the Aztec Empire.

2.12 Religion of the Mexicans according to Clavijero.

Axioms XXVIII-XXX establish the fact that the world of peoples began everywhere with
religion. This will be the first of the three principles of this new Science.346

Every gentile nation had its Hercules, who was the son of Jove.347
Giambattista Vico

Clavijero claimed that the Mexica had, as all cultivated nations, clear notions, although
altered by fables, about the creation of the world, the universal flood, the confusion of
tongues and the dispersion of people, all of them represented in their paintings.348
He also thought that their paintings showed how the whole human race had drowned
during the deluge except for a man and a woman called Cojcoj, to whom some had given
the name of Teocipactli,349 and Jochiquetzal, who had disembarked from a mountain
called Colhuacan.350 They had many children, which were all deaf, until a dove
345
Chimalpopoca, was the third tlatoani who died as a prisoner of Maxtla, tyrant of Tenayuca. Izcoatl, was the forth tlatoani; then
came Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. Contrary to the opinion of Durn, Clavijero affirms that Tlalcaelel and Moctezuma were the same
person. Current Mexican historiography recognizes Chiuacoatl Tlalcaelel as the "power behind the thrown" that created Mexica
supremacy based in the cult of Huitzilopochtli. The dual structure of Mexica government and religion seems to evade Clavijeros's
interpretation, maybe because his model to compare them is Rome. Cihuacatl was the "feminine" counterpart of the tlatoani, and was
in charge of the matters that were related to religion.
346
Vico, New Science, 176.
347
Idem., 196.
348
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 225.
349
Cipactli was a sign day within the Mexica calendar. Cipactli was also the island of the Earth, Cemanahuac, that was believed to be
a crocodile floating at the primordial waters of the ocean. Cipatli was also known as the primordial light.
350
There are many Colhuacans, Culiacan (Hueicolhuacan, big Colhuacan) in the actual state of Sinaloa being the most famous.
All of them refer ultimately to the place of origins, Colhuacan-Chicomostoc. Colhuacan was represented as a curved mount. This
curvature was symbolically associated with a humpback and Huehueteotl, the ancient primordial dual god, a Nahua incarnation of the

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 193

communicated to them the different languages. In fact, the Tlaxcaltecans believed that
men who escaped the flood became monkeys; but little by little they recovered speech
and reason.351
Following Boturini, Clavijero affirmed352 the Mexica had, among others, thirteen main
gods to whom they consecrated the thirteen months of the ritual calendar, they also
believed there were thirteen heavens in which the different gods inhabited.
About the idols, Clavijero made an insightful observation:

The majority of their idols were ugly and monstrous

because of the extravagant parts which composed and
represent the attributes and functions they
symbolized.353

Clavijero grasped the combinatory principle for the

representation of the gods which juxtaposed different
attributes related to natural forces to form the god's
ixiptlas. Nahua language mediated in the realization of
all cultural manifestations: poetry, sculpture,
pictographic writing and the construction of double
temples. These compounds made a unit of meaning by
conflating symbols, not necessarily acquiring a
synthetic form, but remaining in most cases as a
frankensteinian ensemble of heterogeneous elements
(See Figure 26, p.194).
Clavijero claimed that the religion of the Mexica was
Figure 26: Coatlicoe,"Serpent-Skirt, sculptural
made up by a series of errors and cruel superstitious monolith, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, Mexico
City..
rites:

Toltec god Ometeotl. See above Part III, A2. 9 Colhuacan teocalli.
351
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 225.
352
Idem., Vol. 1, 226.
353
Idem., Vol. 1, 239.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 194

 such are the weaknesses of the human spirit, which are inseparable from a religious system
that had its origin in caprice and in fear as we see even in the most cultivated civilizations of
antiquity.354

For him, the "mistakes, "abominations" and "errors" of the Mexica were understood as
ignorance or superstition rather than the influence of demoniac factors. For Clavijero, the
plots and machinations driven by the willpower of priests and dignitaries were an
important factor in the pathos of the Mexica. While they were ignorant of the real causes
of things, confusing secondary with primary causes, they were also responsible for their
acts because they were "free" and capricious.
But, in an apparently contradictory statement, Clavijero affirmed that:

The Mexicans had an imperfect idea of a Supreme Being, absolute and independent, who had
to be adored and feared. He had no figure to be represented because He was believed to be
invisible, and they didn't use to give him any other name than the generic "God" which in
their tongue is teotl, more similar in the meaning than in the pronunciation with the Greek
Theos. They used very expressive epithets to signify the greatness and power he was
believed to have. He was named ipalnemoani, the cause of our life, and tloque nahuaque,
the one that has everything in himself. But the knowledge and cult of this supreme essence
was obscured by the multiple omens that their superstition invented.355

Clavijero believed, with Boturini and Vico, that by the direct study of nature, it was
possible to access the notion of a Supreme Being. He gave as an example the religious
beliefs attributed to Netzahualcoyotl, the famous tlatoani of Texcoco. Clavijero
maintained that nothing filled him more greatly than the study of nature and that:

The alert investigation of the causes of the natural phenomena, made Netzahualcoyotl come
to know the vanity of idolatry. He used to say to his sons that in order to conform to the uses
and customs of their people, they may adore the idols, although they should hate in private
their abominable rituals directed towards inanimate beings.356

Quoting Fernando the Alva Ixtlixochitl, Clavijero stated that:

354
Idem., Vol. 1, 223.
355
Idem., Vol. 1, 223-224.
356
Idem., Vol. 1, 176.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 195

 Netzahualcoyotl didn't recognize any other divinity but the Creator of Heaven, and if he did
not prohibit idolatry, it was for not being accused of lack of faith and irreverence towards his
ancestor's beliefs. Netzahualcoyotl prohibited human sacrifices at first; but seeing how
difficult it was to separate the people from their beliefs, he allowed it again, restricting it to
war prisoners.357

The epithets of tloque nahuaque and ipalnemohuani unveiled a very particular vision of
the religion of the cultures of Middle America, as I have exposed in the introductory
chapter of this dissertation. It has to be noted, nevertheless, that these aspects of Nahua
religion have been traditionally revisited through Christian eyes. The Christianized heirs
of the Mexica and Texcocan nobility, Juan Bautista Pomar, and Fernando de Alva
Ixtlixochitl -direct descendant of Netzahualcoyotl- argued that Netzahualcoyotl's god was
an absolute entity. Ixtlixhochitl talked about the "God" of Netzahualcoyotl as the True
God, absolute and independent. This vision has been maintained by scholars like
Clavijero in the eighteenth century and Miguel Len Portilla or the Jesuit Angel Mara
Garibay in the twentieth.
It is evident that Ixtlixochitl wanted to convince the readers that his grand-grandfather's
God was the Christian God he believed in, but the god called ipalnemohuani and tloque
nahuaque clearly did not refer to an absolute transcendent entity as these Christian
authors believed. It is easy to derive Christian ideas from this text. But the image of the
dual god as a plant that grows, giving its flesh to men, is an allegory of the living world,
not of a transcendent one.
Clavijero affirmed that the Aztecs also believed in an evil spirit, enemy of humanity,
named Tlacatecolototl, which he translated as "nocturnal rational bird" that could make
himself invisible and harm humans and make them fear. Tlacatecolotl was the shamanic
nagual. the animal/shadow of every human, revealed the dual human/animal principle of
men that belonged to the shamanic tradition of most North American and Siberian native
cultures.
With regards to the human soul, Clavijero wrote that:

The barbaric Otomies believed it was extinguished together with the body; but the Mexicans,
who had left the barbaric stage, believed it was immortal, although they attribute the same gift
to the soul of the beasts. 358
357
Idem., Vol. 1, 176.
358
Idem., Vol. 1, 224.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 196

For Clavijero, all civilized nations acquired the notion of an immortal soul. But soul for
the Nahua was rather than a separate substance an energy common to all moving
creatures. The Nahua words for soul [anima or alma] were tetonalli and elhuayotl.359 The
first comes from the word teo sacred, and tonalli, the sun's warmth which permeates
the universe and made it move. The second one, elhuayotl had the voice yollot, "heart,
as one of its components and was part of the world nelhuayotl (raz, base, fundamento),
root, base, fundament. The soul was related by these two words with the "sun, the
"heart" and to the fact of being rooted, of having a foundation. This would give an idea of
the vertical relationship soul/sun which maintained a tension, being rooted and at the
same time directed towards the limits by the active force of the sun's warmth. This
revealed the dual universe as a cosmic Tree, which was indeed a fundamental Aztec
metaphor for universe and of human and animal souls conceptualized as forces that
inhabited and circulated between life and death, earth and sky. The afterlife was a
reflection of life, death being the point of inflection or the mirror which reflected the
other.
Clavijero affirmed that the Mexica distinguished three places where the souls went after
being separated from their bodies: the captured soldiers, once sacrificed, went with
women who died at childbirth to the house of the sun, tonatihucalli, who was called god
of glory. In this place the souls enjoyed a life" of joy and delight. The rising of the sun
was celebrated with hymns, dance and music. The Sun was accompanied by the warriors'
souls to the zenith where the souls of the women who had died at childbirth encountered
them to take over and accompany the celestial body in its path down to its setting.
It is to be noted that time was always present in the afterlife; there was not an a-temporal
eternity, or a timeless paradise. According to Clavijero, after four years of that glorious
life in the sun's house, the spirits came to animate the clouds, birds and butterflies being
free to come down to earth to sing and eat from the perfumed flowers.
For Clavijero, the nonsensical system of the transmigration of souls so widely
propagated in the oriental countries had its supporters in the new world. Bur rather than
a transmigration of the souls into a body (like the hand entering a glove), it represented a
reintegration into the world. The warriors souls not just animated birds and butterflies,
they became birds and butterflies.

359
On-line Aulex dictionary of Nahuatl, http://aulex.ohui.net/es-nah/

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 197

The souls of those killed by thunderbolt or having drowned or having died with tumors,
pustules and other similar illnesses related to humidity, like the children sacrificed to
Tlaloc, god of rain, went to a fresh and amusing place called Tlalocan, where Tlaloc
inhabited.
Finally, the place destined to the people who died in all other different manners was
Mictlan, or hell; a dark place ruled by Mictlantecutli and the goddess Mictlacihuatl, the
underground impersonators of Ometeotl. Clavijero affirmed that the Mictlan was located
in the center of the earth where the souls didn't suffer any punishments but only lived in a
dull place.360
For the Mexica, it didn't really matter who you were and how you lived your life, but
rather, how you confronted your mortal destiny. The whole Mexica system was based on
a glorification of death which implied the recycling of cosmic energies. As narrated in the
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, the primordial self-immolation was exemplified by the
gods themselves at the beginning of the fifth era, when Nanahuatzin, showing his
courage, had cast himself into the fire, becoming the Fifth Sun. Ashamed, the other gods
had followed him becoming the moon and the stars. It was desirable, therefore, to die at
war, sacrificed in a teocalli or during childbirth. The Mictlan was not, -as the Christian
hell,- a place of punishment; it mainly lacked the sensuousness of the Tlatocan or the
gloriousness of the Tonatihucalli, the sun's house.
Clavijero made an interesting commentary:

If religion would have no other object than to serve politics, as is stubbornly believed by
some incredulous peoples of our century (XVIII), those nations could not have invented a
more suitable dogma to give courage to their soldiers than the one that assured them such a
relevant prize after death.361

This was clearly manifested in the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, the two
gods that mediated the access to the glorious afterlife of the Tonatihucalli and the life of
delight of the Tlalocan. The Great Temple was revealed, under this light, as a threshold
towards transcendence afterlife by sacrificial death.
360
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 225. According to Clavijero, each altepetl had its own version of the afterlife; the Tlaxcaltecans
believed that the souls of the nobles animated birds that sang beautifully and the ones of plebeian incarnated in beetles and other "low"
animals. The Mixtecs were persuaded that the door of "paradise" was placed at a cave in a very high mountain on their province where
their nobles were buried.
361
Idem., Vol. 1, 224.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 198

2.13 Netzahualcoyotl and the "Creator of Heaven.

According to Clavijero, Netzahualcoyotl, the famous tlatoani of Texcoco, made a tall

"tower" of nine levels in honor of the "Creator of Heaven. The last level was dark, and
its "dome" was painted blue and adorned with gold cornices.
Clavijero recorded that men lived in this temple who were in charge of playing some
instruments of the finest metal. On hearing the sound, the "king" used to kneel and pray
to the "Creator of Heaven.362This "Creator of Heaven," was indeed Ometeotl or any of
his different incarnations. Depending on the source, Ometeotl was believed to live in the
thirteenth or ninth heaven. By the action and reaction of its dual nature, he was the
creator of himself. Netzahualcoyotl made an effort to relate with the source of life
without the mediation of other deities, making a temple to honor the original dual
principle.
Clavijero claimed that:

Netzahualcoyotl's court became the country of the arts and the center of civilization. Tezcuco
was the city where Mexican language was spoken with more purity and perfection; they were
the best artisans, the best poets, rhetoricians and historians. Mexico and other towns took the
laws from them. It can be said that Tezcuco was the Athens and Netzahualcoyotl, the Solon of
the Anahuac.363

It is revealing that the appearance of civil laws instituted by Netzahualcoyotl coincided

with his questioning of the validity of traditional cults and religious norms. In Boturini's
terminology, the era of Men appeared to be substituting that of Heroes. Mesoamerican
Nahua civilization would have reached its peak not at Tenochtitlan but at Texcoco.

2.14 The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan in the Historia Antigua de Mexico

Clavijero commented that:

362
Idem., Vol. 1, 176-177.
363
Idem., Vol. 1, 177.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 199

 Mexicans and the other towns of Anahuac had, as all cultured nations of the world, temples or
places dedicated to the exercise of religion where they gathered to give cult to their deities and to
implore their protection. They called these temples teocalli or teopan, that is, "house of god" and
"place of god. Those names, after embracing Christianity, were more properly given to the
temples erected in honor of the true God.
The city and kingdom of Mexico began with the construction of the temple of Huitzilopochtli, that
is, "Megitli, from which the city took its name. This edifice was, of course, a hut. Izcoatl, the first
king, renovated it after the defeat of Azcapotzalco. Its successor, Moctezuma I, fabricated a new
temple which presented some beginnings of magnificence. And finally, Ahuitzotl constructed and
dedicated this massive edifice which had been originally planed by his predecessor Tizoc. This
was the sanctuary so celebrated by the Spanish which they afterwards ruined. I would have liked
that they be more precise in measuring it, as they were in their devotion to demolish that
magnificent monument to superstition. But they wrote with so much variety, that, after comparing
their descriptions, I haven't been able to obtain its measurements with certainty. I would not have
been able to conform an idea of the architecture of that work if it wouldn't be for the image
presented to the sight by the anonymous conqueror, from which I made a copy to my readers,
although in regards to its measurements I have conformed more with the description than with the
drawing. 364

Figure 27: Francisco Javier Clavijero, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, Historia
Antigua de Mxico.

364
Idem., Vol. 1, 240-241.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 200

Clavijero based his reconstruction on the images presented to the sight by the
Anonymous Conqueror "correcting" its measurements and adding some features
according to the description of "ancient authors.365 Most scholars today consider the text
of the Anonymous Conqueror apocryphal. Yet, although the text may be the account of
an eyewitness, the engraving was clearly the work of a third person (See Figure 24. p.
180).
The Mexica temple was represented in the edition of Ramusio as a serpentine ziggurat. It
is difficult to tell whether the artist misunderstood the text or if he was intentionally
making an analogy of the Mexica edifice with the biblical tower of Babel. What is
evident is that the text and engraving revealed more about the European reception of the
text than about the Mexica temple itself. Clavijero found, however, that the text of the
Anonymous Conqueror was "sincere, exact and curious.366
The text of the Anonymous Conqueror was not clear in the description of the stairways; it
said that once one went up on the "first stairs" to the "first body, one would reach a
vestibule from where one could access the surrounding corridor. The surrounding
corridors created between the different superimposed platforms were integrated into the
stairway forming a vestibule called descanso, by Clavijero. The description suggested
that there was a stair attached to each platform and not a single stair that went from the
lowest to the highest platforms as was represented in most of the codex. There was
nothing in the text, however, that suggested the steps were perpendicular to the platforms
as they were represented in the engraving.
The stairs of the "pyramids" of Teotihuacan, for example, were reconstructed by Manuel
Gamio and Ignacio Marquina in the twentieth century, as separate stairs among the
different platforms, as they were described by the Anonymous Conqueror. This allowed
an uninterrupted circulation around the platforms suggesting ritual perambulations that
corresponded to the cyclical understanding of time and with the visual recognition of the
surrounding area, a central issue for Middle American architecture and religion.
But this wouldn't seem to be the case of the huei teocalli of Tenochtitlan, which had a
single stairway from the lower to the higher platforms without interruptions. This was
necessary for the bodies of the sacrificed victims to roll all the way down to the bottom of
the teocalli, as was described by Clavijero himself. The codex representations and the

365
The Anonymous Conqueror published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Navigazioni e viaggi (Venice: 1563-1606).
366
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, xvii.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 201

archaeological examples showed how the stairs were usually limited at their sides by
balustrades in the shape of descending snakes like the ones that can still be seen at
Tenayuca, Chichen Itza and other teocalli. The disposition of a single stair confined by
wide balustrades made it difficult, if not impossible, to access the surrounding corridors.
None of the rites described by Sahagn suggested these corridors were used for
perambulations or that the ascending or descending stairs had a circular path as is
represented by Clavijero.
We have to note that Clavijero ascended the ruins of the pyramid of Cholula following
a spiral path around it:

I myself climbed it along a spiral road that surrounds the pyramid, which I made on
horseback in 1774. This is the famous mount Boturini thought was built by the Toltecs in
order to survive a flood similarly to the story of Noah.367

Clavijero may have believed he was following the original way up when in reality he was
following a path made by the constant going up and down of people as the original
frontal steps had been demolished long before. This fact may have reinforced Clavijero's
interpretation of the temple as a babelian structure.

367
Idem., Vol. 1, 247.
Celebraron asismismo los Indios su dicho Origen en antiguos Cantares, y tuvieron tan viva la memoria de la Torre de
Babel, que la quisieron imitar en America con varios monstruosos Edificios. Uno de ellos es el famoso Cerro, que toadavia
se v (aunque maltratado por el tiempo) en la ciudad de Tollan Chollollan, fabricado a mano de los Indios Tultcos, por la
mayor parte con adobes, y lodo, dividido en quatro altos, que en la antigedad eran hermoseados de unos encalados, y
argamaza de durisima composicion, dexando en cada plana de las quatro amplio espacio para rodearla. Subiase a su
cumbre por un camino culebreado muy pulido, segn se ve en el Mapa, que tengo en mi Archivo en papel de Metl, el que
de un lado representa el castigo, que hizo Don Fernando Corts en los Cholultcos; la toma de la Ciudad espada en mano;
su pacificacion, y sosiego; el Bautismo de la Reyna Doa Maria Ilamanteuctli por mano de Don Geronimo de Aguilar en 6.
de Agosto de 1521. en que fue Padrino el mismo Don Fernando; y de el otro lado dibuja la hechura de dicho Cerro, el que
se llamaba antiguamente Tultcatl Chalchihuatl on azia Ecatepetl, que significa Monumento, o Piedra Preciosa de la
Nacion Tultca, que anda con su cerviz buscando a la region del Ayre, y el Historiador Indio al pie de la Pintura de dicho
Cerro puso unas Notas en lengua Nacional, como que habla a sus Compatricios Cholultecos, diciendoles: Nobles, y
Seores. Aqu teneis vuestros Papeles, el Espejo de vuestra antigedad, la Historia de vuestros Antepasados, que movidos
de el temor del Diluvio, fabricaron este refugio, este asylo, por si fuesedes otra vez acometidos de semejante calamidad,
que es el mismo motivo, por el qual los Antepasados de estos Indiso fabricaron la Torre de Babel en Asia. Asimismo da
razon de la Santsima Vigen de dicho Cerro, que se aparecin en Roma a un Padre Francisco en los principios de la
Conquista, mandandole, que se fuese a las Indias Espaolas, que hallaria un Cerro fabricado a mano de adobes, y lodo, y
alli le edificase Casa, que seria el Propiciatorio de aquellos Pueblos.
Boturini, Idea, 113-114, paragraph 13.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 202

But the babelian interpretation of the Anonymous Conqueror must also be understood
within the Christian and Renaissance context of the sixteenth century. It is difficult to
argue that in the first image, published in Ramusio's compilation, there existed a clear
intention of identifying the two architectonic institutions; it may have been a
misinterpretation or even an unconscious slippage of the engraver, an unintended
overlapping of myths. But where the relation becomes clearly intentional is in the case of
the famous Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). The drawing attributed to the
Anonymous Conqueror was retaken by Kircher and inserted in his book Oedipus
Egyptiacus about Egyptian culture, and then reinterpreted by Clavijero in his Historia
Antigua de Mexico (See Figure 27, p.200).
The insertion of the teocalli alongside the pyramids of Egypt itself spoke of the desire to
parallel these two gentile architectonic institutions. In Kircher's reinterpretation of the
Anonymous Conqueror temple, two individuals worshiping the sun and the stars were
added. This may tell us that, like the Egyptians, the Mexica didn't have a direct
connection with a transcendent being (as supposedly the Judeo-Christians had) but rather,
that it was mediated by the worshiping of the phenomenal world. This was a common
argument when comparing gentile and Christian religions, as that made in the sixteenth
century by Fray Diego Valads when comparing Christian and pagan wise-men.368
Contrary to some of his contemporaries like Descartes (1596-1650) or Spinoza
(1632-1677), who doubted all mythical accounts, Kircher tried to save and rationalize
them. He intended to prove their rationality, finding similarities and analogies between
the cultures reflected in their cultural institutions. Babel and the pyramids of Egypt
appeared as a common archetype (the sacred mountain/temple). Divine Providence
worked not only for the Jews but for all cultures in the world. It can be noted that, while
in the chronicle of the Anonymous Conqueror a negative aspect of the Mexica teocalli
was inferred, linking it with Babel as the result of the division among men, for Kircher it
only proved the common origin of humanity. He had a positive and conciliatory
understanding of the similitude of cultural institutions. For him, there was a seed of hope
and the possibility of reconnection. Although the Mexica may have lacked what the
Spaniards considered the "True God, a common way or a common sense to relate with
the world allowed them to create analog institutions with other cultures.

368
Valads, Rhetorica Christiana, 56-69.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 203

But Clavijero claimed to "follow what is probable, avoiding the doubtful elements in
order to not overload the imagination with useless data.369 In his desire to reconstruct the
temple as authentically as possible, he left aside many elements, and specially, he left
aside common sense.
Clavijero reacted towards those who had made engravings of Megico saying that:

Not satisfied with all of their unfortunate mistakes, some authors have corrupted the history
of Mexico with false images and lies engraved in copper, like the one of the famous Theodore
de Bry, or the work of Gage and the voyages of Prvost and others which represent a
beautiful road made on top of the lake going from Mexico to Texcoco, which is certainly a
huge mistake.370

Clavijero was right but he was also too picky: three calzadas went from Tenochtitlan to
the shore of the lake; northward to Tepeyac, westward to Tacuba and southward to
Churubusco; there was however a road to the East that didn't reach the shore of the lake
and was mainly used as a port for canoes.
Clavijero rejected Acosta's depiction of the Great Temple by the Royal chroniclers
Herrera and Solis, arguing they referred to another temple than the one of
Huitzilopochtlis and Tlaloc. Clavijero was incorrect; Acosta described the Great Temple
of Tenochtitlan and his account derived from the writings of Durn. In Acosta's
description, there wasn't a clear differentiation between the structure of the teocalli and
the skull-rack or xompantli. That is why in those representations, the xompantli looked
like a teocalli and in the case of the awkward engraving of Theodore de Bry, both
structures were conflated into a single one. Curiously enough, de Bry used a Mexica
strategy to solve the inconsistency of the description, the method of combinatory
elements forming a new one (See Figure 12, p.110). This process of agglutination was
certainly not restricted to the Nahua and seemed to appear as a common mechanism when
two different civilizations met and re-interpreted each other. We have to admit that the
engraving of the declared enemy of the Spaniards was far more interesting than
Clavijero's dry representation.
Clavijero reported that:

369
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 241.
370
Idem., Vol. 1, xxviii.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 204

 Sahagn said that the edifice was a perfect square, while the Anonymous Conqueror, on his
description, as in his drawing, represented it as a rectangle like the ones at Teotihuacan which
served as a model for other temples.371

The building was indeed rectangular but in the opposite way; it was longer in the north-
south direction, which made sense if we consider that the two shrines at the top were
facing west, as Clavijero maintained.

Sahagn gave 360 Toledan feet to each side of the first body, but this measurement should
only be applied for the length. Gmara gave it fifty brazas, and this is the size of the width.
360 Toledan feet make 308 Parisian feet, or a little more than 50 toesas (97.5 m). Fifty brazas
make two hundred and seven Parisian feet or almost forty two toesas (82 m).
At the top of the fifth body, there was a platform that should better be called superior atrium
of forty toesas length (78 m) and thirty four wide (66 m), it was also paved like the inferior
atrium.
In the eastern extreme of the upper atrium were two towers at the high of fifty six feet or a
little more than nine toesas (17.5 m), each of them divided in three bodies; the inferior one
made of stone and lime, and the other two made of wood, well crafted and painted. The lower
body or base was the sanctuary, where the tutelary idols were placed over a stone altar of five
feet high. One of these sanctuaries was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and other gods of war,
and the other to Tezcatlipoca.
The other two bodies served to store the needed utensils for the cult and the ashes of some
kings and lords that in regards of their devotion had disposed it as such.372

Clavijero was confused by Bernal Daz, who wrote his relation forty years after the
conquest and confused Tlaloc with Tezcatlipoca.

The two sanctuaries had a door facing west, and the two towers were also capped with
beautiful domes of wood.373

The "domes" of the "towers" most probably were ornamented walls forming a triangular
roof with a very narrow interior space. They may have looked like stylized pointed roofs
made of wood as can still be seen in some surviving clay temple models. They were
usually plastered and polished with the insignias of the different gods inscribed on them.

371
Idem., Vol. 1, 242.
372
Idem., Vol. 1, 242-244.
373
Idem., Vol. 1, 244.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 205

These ornamental elements were crucial for visual recognition and identification of
different cults from afar. These architectonic "crowns" were called cresterias by
archaeologists recalling the crown of a rooster, and they were certainly different from the
ones depicted in Clavijero's stamp copies from the Anonymous Conqueror which are
clearly a European Renaissance interpretation.
Clavijero mentioned that what he could assure most certainly was that the height of the
edifice was not less than nineteen toesas (37 m) and together with the towers, (the gods'
shrines at the top) its height would have been more than twenty eight toesas (54.5 m).
From this height, was, according to the witnesses,

the most striking view of unmatched beauty of the lake and the cities at its shores.
In the superior atrium was the altar for the ordinary sacrifices, while the inferior atrium was
reserved for the gladiatorial ones. In front of the two sanctuaries were two stone stoves
(hogares) that had the shape of the baptismal fonts of our churches, in which by day and by
night a perpetual fire was kept with the strictest care, because they believed that, if
extinguished, there would be many punishments from heaven. There were about six hundred
stoves of the same size and shape in all the other temples and religious edifices within the
precinct representing at night a beautiful spectacle to be seen374.

In the engraving of the teocalli, Clavijero placed the holocausts at the entrance of each
shrine. According to Sahagn, all fires were extinguished and all pottery was broken
before the New Fire celebration. After the constellation of cabrillas passed the zenith of
the celestial sphere, the new fire was lit inside the opened chest of a sacrificed victim,
impersonating Nanahuatzhin, Xihutecutli or a similar deity. Everybody took fire from
this original source and maintained it alive until the next celebration, 52 years later, as
Clavijero related. The issue was to maintain the fire alive as life had to be maintained.

The Great Temple occupied the center of the city and with other temples and buildings, it
occupied the site where the cathedral now stands, as a part of the main plaza and as a part of
the surrounding streets and houses. The wall that surrounded the place in a square was so big
that according to Corts, it would hold a town of fifty hundred households.
This wall made of stone and lime was very thick, it was eight feet tall and was crowned with
battlements and adornments of stone in the shape of serpents. It had four doors that faced the
four cardinal points. To the east, began a wide road that led to the lake of Texcoco... The
other three doors faced the three main streets of the city, the longest and straightest

374
Idem., Vol. 1, 244.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 206

 communicated with the calzadas of the lake which lead to Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Tepeyac.
Over each door was an armory provided with all kind of weapons meant to offend and
defend.
The courtyard that was in the exterior of the wall was paved with stones so smoothly polished
that the Spanish horses could not give a step without slipping and falling. At the middle of the
patio was a massive squared edifice (the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc) covered by
square bricks and formed by five bodies of about the same high, but different lengths. The top
ones were, therefore, smaller (of their base) than the inferior ones. The first body, that is, the
base of the building, had more than fifty toesas (97.45 m) from east to west and around forty
three (83.8 m) from north to south.
The second body had a toesa less on each side (1.949 m) than the inferior one, and the other
bodies were diminishing in the same proportion, leaving therefore, between each body a
space or open corridor on which three or four men could walk rotating around the superior
body.
The stairs placed at midday (south) were made of large stones, well crafted, and conformed
by a hundred and fourteen steps, each being about a foot high. 375

In reality the stairs were placed on at the west side of the edifice, and they were not
transversal to the platforms but parallel to them. In Clavijero's time almost all the
surviving teocalli had been deprived of their outer layer and stairs. He thought the stairs
of the teocalli at Teotihuacan were also disposed in spirals, having been copied by the
Mexica in their own "temples.
Clavijero claimed that:

There was not a single continuous stair, as it was shown by the author of the Historia General
de los Viajes, and the Mexican editors of Corts' letters. There were as many stairs as building
had bodies, as the illustration showed: once one went up the first stairs, it was not possible to
climb to the next one without turning around the whole building by the corridor around the
second body. One couldn't climb from the second to the third without walking the second
corridor around the third body as well, and so on.
This would be easily understood by seeing the attached print copied from the Anonymous
Conqueror although augmented in its measurements by his own and other writers' information
(See Figure 26, p.181).376

375
Idem., Vol. 1, 241-243. Toesa (toise) was an arbitrary French measure of length equivalent to 1.949 m. The original one was made
in the year 1735 by Langlois, who made two copies of the Chatelet toise of Paris to serve as patron measurements for geodesic
operations. It was soon replaced by the metre that became a standard measurement once the idea of Cartesian isotropic space
pervaded.
376
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 243.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 207

The engraving was evidently westernized, not only with regards to the babelian stairs but
in the architecture of the houses that appeared beyond the wall of the precinct or in the
two towers which seemed to belong to an Italian plaza.
Clavijero reported that the measurements given by Sahagn (and adopted by
Torquemada) of the upper atrium" were not more than sixty Toledan square feet, which
corresponded approximately to ten toesas (19.50 m.).
Clavijero affirmed that:

It was not possible that in such a narrow space, the Spanish would fight against fifty hundred
Mexica nobles as Corts had affirmed. 377

Clavijero reinforced his belief in the monumental size of the great temple quoting Bernal
Daz who reported that beside some battalions which remained downstairs, four thousand
Mexica nobles sought refuge at that "point.
We have to consider that for the Conquerors, the temple or "mosque" was not just the
pyramidal teocalli but the whole ritual precinct. It can also be expected that the four
thousand Mexica nobles fought all around the surrounding corridors of the different
platforms and not only in the uppermost platform. The five hundred noble Mexica
described by Corts and the four thousand mentioned by Bernal Daz, (who made his
account forty years after the facts), do not appear as disproportionate as Clavijero
imagined.
Clavijero complained about the measurements that had not been recorded correctly. His
search for the real temple made him overlook important issues regarding the formal
disposition that could be better inferred by the description of the ritual activities. For
Clavijero any intention to imagine a plot seemed too risky. He allowed no place for
interpretation.
Based on the "fact" that five hundred Mexica were "fortified" in the "upper atrium" of the
"temple, Clavijero concluded that the surface of this platform should have been much
larger than Sahagn had reported. That is why he "corrected" the engraving of the
Anonymous Conqueror by making a massive structure. Clavijero gave priority to an
engraving because it was attributed to an eyewitness and gave credit to some dubious
377
Idem., Vol. 1, 243.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 208

battle numbers in detriment to common sense. He also dismissed the complex plot of
religious buildings and their supportive structures turning it into a gigantic and isolated
babelian platform and a surrounding wall with nothing in between. It is paradoxical that
the scientific Clavijero, who was not given to exaggerations, could propose the
reconstruction of such a gigantic and isolated structure: common sense was left aside and
reason became unreasonable.
In his desire to be objective he distorted reality. Clavijero depicted the Great Temple as
a monumental structure with elements that recalled the most impressive Mesopotamian
ziggurats. The disproportioned monumentality of the altar made it seem like the cultural
center of the whole Mesoamerican world, something like the Saint Peter of Middle
America. This shows how the monotheist vision had transformed the image of the
"Aztecs" into a centralized and monolithic structure. This approach would dominate the
successive reconstructions of the temple influencing not only colonial and modern urban
planning of Mexico City, but even the Mexican society up to our time.
But, as Clavijero reported:

the Anonymous mentioned that inside the precinct was a whole city. Gomara said that the
length of each side was a very long shot by a crossbow. Torquemada, after repeating the same
said that the circuit of the wall was three thousand steps, which was evidently false.378

Although the Anonymous Conqueror mentioned that the precinct was like a whole city,
in his engraving, Clavijero didn't depict the agglomeration of teocalli, calmecac,
xompantlis, tlachtlis, and so on, within the precinct leaving a clear space between the
wall and the temple. This conveyed a distorted view of the ritual precinct. Instead of a
plot of cellular institutions, it appeared as a monolithic one.
Clavijero clarified that in the space between the exterior wall and the "temple" there was
a plaza for religious dances, and more than forty minor temples consecrated to other
gods, some priestly colleges, seminaries for youngsters of both sexes and other various
and singular buildings.

Among the temples, the three greatest ones were the ones of Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc and
Quetzalcoatl. The majority of the temples, although different in sizes were similar in shape,
except for the one of Quetzalcoatl, god of air, which was circular. The door of this sanctuary

378
Idem., Vol. 1, 242.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 209

 was the open mouth of an enormous snake with menacing fangs. Many Spaniards entered this
diabolical edifice confessing they were struck by fear.
These three temples had their facade towards the main temple. Among the other temples was
one called Ilhuicatitlan, dedicated to the planet Venus; in its interior was a great column
where the image of this planet was painted or engraved. At the time of the planet's apparition
in the sky some prisoners were sacrificed beside this column.
There were several colleges for priests and seminaries within the temple's precinct: we knew
about five colleges or monasteries of priests and three seminars for youngsters in particular;
although they were, without doubt, not the only ones because the amount of people dedicated
to serve the gods was indeed excessive.
Other notable buildings were: the Tezcacalli, or house of mirrors which had the lower part of
its walls covered with (obsidian) mirrors. The Teccizcalli, all covered with sea shells which
had an annexed house where the king of Mexico retired to fast and make his prayers.
Poyauhtlan; the house of the Great Priest; the houses for distinguished visitors; other one for
devoted pilgrims visiting the temple; pools for ritual baths and fountains that provided water
for regular use; a pool called Tezcapan was also used for ritual bathing; among the fountains
was one called Tojpalatl, whose water was believed to be holy and was usually drank only on
special ceremonies. In a footnote, Sahagn said that Tojpalatl, whose waters were very good
for drinking, was cut off by the Spaniards after they had ruined the Temple. It was reopened
in 1582 at the Marquez's plaza, today called empedradillo, near the cathedral, but it was
closed again for no apparent reason.
This fountain was a natural spring of clean water in the midst of the marshes. This spring may
have been the main reason behind the Mexica settlement.
There were places for breeding birds, for sacrifice, and gardens to cultivate perfumed plants
and flowers for the ornamentation of the altars; finally, there was a small artificial forest with
representations of mounts, lakes and rocks where they used to perform general hunting.379

Clavijero mentioned that among the most notable buildings was a great jail (jaula), where
the idols of the defeated nations were kept. The jail was called the Coatecalli. There is
no evidence, however, that this edifice was a prison. As I suggested before, the term
Coatecalli may be better translated as a "house of brother twins. This is suggested by the
conciliatory aspect of the word coate, serpent and/or twin brother. Coate is a word
incorporated in today's Mexican Spanish as "very good friend" analogue semantically and
phonetically with the Spanish word carnal, "form the same flesh. Carnal and coate are
used almost indistinctly today. Coatecalli may be translated as the house of our brothers
or friends. The contemporary Nahua words coatlacan: meaning ayuntamiento,

379
Idem., Vol. 1, 244-245.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 210

parlamento and standing even to name the United Nations Organization, 380 clearly
revealed the conciliatory character of this word. This seemed congruent with the Mexica
mentality of appropriation and inclusion.
About the other temples beside the main one, Clavijero reported that there were others
distributed in diverse points of the city, with seven or eight major ones, but the one at
Tlatelolco was above all, being also consecrated to Huitzilopochtli.381
Clavijero reflected a common misunderstanding as the result of European interpretation
of the Mexica urban arrangement. At first sight, Tlatelolco appeared to be a district of
Tenochtitlan because their urban plots intertwined. They were, however, different
altepetl with different tlatoanis, priests, calmecac and so forth.
Tlatelolco was founded when a dissident group from Tenochtitlan separated early after
the foundation forming a different altepetl. The Huei teocalli of Tlatelolco was not
dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, as Clavijero maintained, but to Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking
Mirror, or god of providence.
Tlatelolco was a twin altepetl of Tenochtitlan, its coate; they were collaborators but also
rivals intending to dominate each other like a serpent attacking its image in a mirror.
Tlatelolco was a dangerous clone of Tenochtitlan with similar cosmic ambitions. It wasn't
long before the two altepetl faced each other Tlatelolco being dominated by Tenochtitlan,
although not subsumed by it. It was dominated politically and militarily, but Tlatelolco
maintained its autonomous character as a particular altepetl, maybe because having a
twin altepetl was in accordance to Mexica vision. When the Spaniards arrived, the
independent nature of Tlatelolco was overlooked. They saw it as a district of
Tenochtitlan. This interpretation had significant consequences for the development of the
colonial and independent capital of modern Mexico that lost its dual character.
About the number of temples, Clavijero wrote that according to some authors, there were
in the "capital" as many as two thousand, and the were as many as three hundred and
sixty "towers. If we give credibility to Clavijero's sources, it implied that there was one
teocalli for each day of the astronomic year without counting the five nemotemi or
"wasted" days. If we divide the three hundred and sixty teocalli among the twenty
existing calpolli, it gives a total of eighteen teocalli for each district, the number of
months in a year. Those twenty teocalli may have been concentrated in the calpolco or

380
On-line Aulex dictionary of Nahuatl, http://aulex.ohui.net/es-nah/
381
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 246.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 211

ritual precincts of the different calpolli. Each calpolco was a compound of teocalli with
their supporting buildings, surrounded by a coatenamitl wall, just as the main ritual
precinct. The existence of two thousand "temples" could only be possible if the altars of
households and the ones located at every cross road were counted.
Under this view, the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan represented a closed system that
matched the cosmic calendar. The calendar put a limit to the growth of the city. No
calpolli could be added or taken out without unbalancing the structure that had to match
the cosmic order to magically maintain it. Order in the altepetl signified order in the
universe. It may be concluded that what we designate as the Great Temple of
Tenochtitlan was just one teocalli dedicated to a specific god, which had its place and
time in the urban plot, and which shared the same responsibilities within the monthly
festivities signaled by the calendar with the other teocalli and cults.
It seems revealing that there was no native word to name the whole ritual precinct as a
unit only because it was not a single entity but a conglomeration of different institutions
that, as they grew, came closer to each other. The monolithic and polarized hierarchical
model implemented by the Europeans after the conquest has been in tension with the
native cellular one ever since the conquest, and remains so until today. In general, the
modern municipios, rather than actual towns, represented the historical heirs of the
altepetl that still stand against a centralized Mexican State, heir of the "Aztec Empire"
and Imperial Spain.382
Clavijero mentioned that Torquemada estimated that there were more than 40 000
temples within the "Mexican Empire" but "I think there were even more if we counted
the small ones.383 This is difficult to tell; it may depend on what was considered a
"temple" by Clavijero. A "temple" can go from a simple momoxtli or altar in households
to monumental structures with superimposed platforms. Clavijero mentioned that the
structure of the big temples was similar to that of the Great Temple but there were many
with "different architecture. Some of them, he said, had a single pyramidal body and a
single stairway; others had a single body and several stairs as the one shown by Diego
Valads in his Rhetorica Christiana.
There were indeed many different types of temples, as Clavijero explained, all of them
were, however, variations of the primordial architectonic element of the platform as the
382
More recently, this ancient struggle has been manifested with the Texcocan movement for the defense of the Land in San Mateo
Atenco because of the expropriation of communal land for the construction of the new airport of Mexico City.
383
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 246.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 212

abstraction of the primordial sacred mountain, but curiously enough, there weren't any
temples like the one depicted in his engraving.

Not satisfied with so many temples in their cities and villages, they constructed many altars at
the top of mounts, in forests, and on roads.384

The world was animated by entities that inhabited mounts, roads, rivers and valleys.
There was an altar in each mountain of the valley of Mexico consecrated to the specific
divinity that inhabited the mountain, or rather, to the mountain itself as a living creature.
About the religious hierarchies, Clavijero maintained that there were two supreme
religious chiefs; one was called Teoteuctli, "Divine Lord" and the other huei teopijqui
High Priest, who was always from a noble origin. The High Priest functioned as an
oracle, and was consulted by the "kings" regarding important "state" matters. War was
never undertaken without their agreement. They were the ones who anointed the "kings"
after their election and were also the ones who opened the chests and took out the hearts
of the victims in the most solemn ceremonies.
Clavijero mentioned that:

After the High Priest, the most important religious dignitary was the Megicoteohuatzin,
designated by the High Priest himself. His mission was to follow the correct observance of
rites and ceremonies, to check the conduct of the priests and to punish those who made any
infraction.
The Megicoteohuatzin had two vicars or helpers, the Huitznahuateohuatzin, and the
Tepanteohuatzin. This last one was the General Superior of all the "seminaries. The
Tlatquimilolteuctli was the economist of the sanctuaries. The Ometochtli was the main
composer of the hymns which were sung at the festivities. The Epcoacuiltzin was the master
of ceremonies, the Tlapijcatzin was the Master Chapelan who directed and corrected the
singers. The priests in general were called Teopijpqui, which means, minister of God and is
the same name given to the ones of the true God later on.

Clavijero did not mention whether the high priests belonged to a certain cult or were
independent from them.

384
Idem., Vol. 1, 248.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 213

 In each district of the capital, there was a bishop who coordinated the local festivities and
religious acts, all of them depended upon the Megicoteohuatzin.385
All the other different activities related to the cults were divided among the general priests;
some were sacrificers, some functioned as oracles, some were composers, some sung hymns
at day time, some at night; some were dedicated to the cleaning and ornamentation of the
altars. They were also entrusted with the education of the youth, the arrangement of the
calendar, the organization of the festivities and the realization of the mythological paintings.
Four times a day they brought incense for the idols. The sun was incensed likewise nine
times, four at day and five at night. They used copal as incense but they also used chapopotl
or betn judaico.386
Some priests used to paint their bodies with ash of ocotl, a kind of perfumed pine, and they
put ochre and cinabrio over it; they used to wash themselves every day in the pools of the
precinct.387

Clavijero mentioned that the ordinary priests had the same costumes as ordinary men,
except for a black hat. There were some, however, who had more austere duties and
always dressed in black and had very long hair, all the way to their feet, and knit with
strips of cotton resulting in a thick and uncomfortable mass, horrible to the sight.

Some priests had wives, but they could not meet with them during certain ceremonies. There
was a death sentence and many other punishments if they were caught in any sexual
transgression. They used to live in their own community under the vigilance of their
superiors.388

There were also, according to Clavijero, seminaries for girls who were consecrated to the
religious cults for devotion by their parents, they came at the age of five and at
seventeenth they went out to marry. Any sexual transgression was likewise severely
punished.389
According to Clavijero each god had a religious order to keep the particular practices of
his cult although he only mentioned three of them: the order of Quetzalcoatl called
Tlamacajcayotl, whose members were called Tlamacazquo. They lived together in

385
Idem., Vol. 1, 250-251.
386
Idem., Vol. 1, 251.
387
Idem., Vol. 1, 251-252.
388
Idem., Vol. 1, 253.
389
Idem., Vol. 1, 253-254.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 214

colleges or monasteries and their norms were specially rigid and austere. The superiors of
this order had the title of Quetzalcoatl.
The order consecrated to the God Tezcatlipoca was known as Telpochtiliztli or collection
of youngsters, because it was mainly constituted by young kids of both sexes. They lived
with their families. The order had a headmaster in each district who directed them when
they met at sunset to dance and sing eulogies to their god.
The Totonaque order was dedicated to the cult of the goddess Centeotl. It was made up
solely of honest and chaste widowed men over sixty. They were revered and consulted
not only by the poor but by the High Priest himself and by the "kings.
Clavijero said that although the religious orders received donations from the "pueblos"
each of them possessed some land outside the precincts called Teotlalpan which was
cultivated for their maintenance. 390
The number of priests in the Great Temple was "according to historians, of about five
thousand. Each order had a certain number of "priests. Clavijero thought there were no
less than a million priests in the whole "empire. All living in their own altepetl with
their own cults and following the calendar festivities.

The Lords consecrated their sons for some time to the service of the "temples" and the lower
nobles also employed them in functions of service to carry wood, keep the fire and so on,
thinking it was a great honor.

Indeed, if we include those that made their religious service, something like the military
or social service in our modern democracies, it doesn't seem exaggerated to consider that
there may have been a million "priests" in the whole "empire.391
Clavijero made an important observation:

After what we have said it can be inferred that the High Priests of Mexico were the chiefs of
the religion of this state and not of the other conquered nations, which, even after being added
to the crown, kept their hierarchy as priests.392

390
Idem., Vol. 1, 254-255.
391
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 249.
392
Idem., Vol. 1, 250.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 215

2.15 Sacrifice and Architecture 2

Clavijero confessed he would gladly avoid writing about human sacrifices:

If the laws of history would allowe me, in order to avoid the reader's disgust he will feel on
knowing such abominations and cruelties, because, although there is almost no nation in the
world that didn't practice those kinds of sacrifices, it will be difficult to find one which had
taken it to such excess as the Mexicans did.393

In Clavijero's time it was not clear if the ancient Toltecs performed human sacrifices or
not. He maintained, however, that the Chichimecs didn't practice them at the beginning;
"they didn't have idols, temples, priests, and their gods were just the sun and the moon.
For him, the Mexica were the ones who had started such practices, "erasing in the other
nations the first ideas inspired by nature.394
Human sacrifices were performed in Mesoamerica since the first Olmec urban
civilizations.395 The Chichimec and the original Mexica may have been content with
offering plants and copal without the mediation of images. Although their ritual practices
where not institutionalized before they settled down, both, the Chichimecs of Xolotl and
the Mexica of Tenoch gradually appropriated sacrificial practices from the toltequized
altepetl even before they had definitely settled in Tenochtitlan.
Clavijero maintained that the sacrifices varied according to the place and the festivity. He
referred to the fact that the most common one was the opening of the chest of the victims
taking the heart out from it. But depending on the deity, some victims were also drowned
in the lake, killed by starvation, shut into caverns, buried alive, or victimized in
gladiatorial combat.
Clavijero wrote that common sacrifice was performed by six "ministers, the principal of
which was called Topiltzin, although, in each sacrifice the sacrificer took the name of the
divinity in whose honor the sacrifice was to be made. Both the Topitzin and the victim
where impersonators of the god. The "ministers" took the naked victim by his limbs and
stretched him on top of the stone on his back. With a sharp flint, the Topiltzin opened the

393
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 256.
394
Idem., Vol. 1, 256.
395
See Schele, What the Heck's Coatepec, in Landscape and Power, 47.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 216

chest of the victim swiftly, taking the heart out and offering it to the sun and throwing it
at the feet of the idol.
As Clavijero suggested, this ritual may reveal the transition between the Chichimec
animist origin of the Mexica who used to worship nature directly -as the Huicholes, their
surviving relatives still do today- and the cult of nature mediated by ixiptlas or images.
This process is fundamental in understanding the origins of Mesoamerican architecture,
because the temples were also the ixiptla of the cosmos acting as mediators between men
and nature. There was an evident parallelism between the appearance of anthropomorphic
"idols, "gods, and "images, impersonators of the forces of nature, and the construction
of temples also made in the image of the cosmos. All this process implied the appearance
of architecture as a second nature. Nature and architecture were bound by ritual sacrifice.
In almost all Mexica sacrificial rituals architecture and image mediated the relationship
between humans and the world, assuring their binding, but also distancing the
relationship by convention. While the teocalli tended to be aligned with real mounts, they
also represented mythical ones, as did Tamoanchan, Coatepec, and Tlalocan, amongst
others.
The temples sacrificial altar, the material image and the human priests were receptacles
of the god's energy: they were not entities pers se. The priests were not free; their
personal will could not be other than that of the teotl, they could only fulfill their duty as
impersonators.
Clavijero carried on explaining that, if the victim was a war prisoner, his head was to be
separated from the body and placed at the xompantli. The body was thrown down the
stairs to the "inferior atrium, where the soldier or general who had captured him would
take the body home to be cooked in order to be served to their friends in a great banquet.
They ate the legs and arms and burned the rest or gave it to the beasts of the royal houses.
As the victim was invested with the gods energy, the banquet acquired ritual
connotations. It is revealing that only the arms and legs were eaten: the motor parts where
the capacity of action was concentrated. The person who ate them was appropriating the
god's and the warrior's capacity to act.
About the numbers of people sacrificed, Clavijero declared that there were many
different opinions: Zumrraga, the first bishop of New Spain, in a letter to the general of
his order, said that they were around twenty thousand a year. Others, quoted by Gmara,
affirmed that there were around fifty thousand. Acosta affirmed that, on certain signaled

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 217

days, anywhere from five to twenty thousand people were sacrificed in the whole
"empire. Others still believed that in the Tepeyac mount alone, twenty thousand people
were sacrificed to Tonantzin. On the contrary, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, the defender
of the indigenous, limited them from ten to a hundred maximum. Clavijero believed that
they all exaggerated, Las Casas by shortness and the others by excess.
It is reasonable to think there were less sacrifices in other altepetl than in Tenochtitlan.
As I have mentioned, the "Aztecs" were maniacally pious in their cosmic responsibilities.
Sacrifice was, nevertheless, a common practice in all altepetl in which, for every festive
day, some kind of sacrifice was performed. If we just imagine the number of altepetl and
multiply them by the ritual festivities of the dual calendar then we can have an
approximate picture of the sacrificial pathos of the societies in Middle America.
Clavijero said that:

Not satisfied with the blood of the sacrificed prisoners, they also made prodigious torments
on their own flesh in order to appease the infernal thirst of their gods.
These people were not less pitiless with themselves than with the others. It can not be heard
without terror the penitence they made for the forgiveness of their sins, or in order to prepare
for their festivities. They hurt their flesh as if it had no feelings, wasting their blood as if it
were a superfluous liquid.396

Rather than an expiation of guilt, it was a cosmic and social duty on the part of the
priests. Clavijero describes all the different ways in which the priests pierced themselves
to let their blood flow, especially from their penis. From our perspective it may appear as
a repression from temptation and sexual lust, but blood letting from the penis had
generative connotations. We have to remember that in the creation of the humanity of the
fifth era, Quetzalcoatl formed the humans with the dust of the bones of the extinct giants
that inhabited the past era amalgamated with the blood of his penis.397

396
Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 261-262.
397
Lehmann, ed. La Leyenda de los Soles (Mexican Manuscript, 1558), Quoted in Leon-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture,
107-109.
15. Then Quetzalcatl came back to life; he was grieved and he asked of his nahualli, "What shall I do now ....?"
16. And the nahualli answered, "Since things have turned out badly, let them turn out as they may."
17. And he gathered them ...and then he took them to Tamoanchan.
18. And as soon as he arrived, the woman called Quilaztli, who is Cihuacoatl, took them to grind and put them in a
precious vessel of clay.
19. Upon them Quetzalcoatl bled his member. The other gods and Quetzalcoatl himself did penance.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 218

 Such were the excesses and cruelties that the fanaticism inspired to those unfortunate nations
of Anahuac.398

2.16 Nahua Time: the calendar and the cosmic eras

Since Newton, our common understanding of time has been transformed to be absolute,
mechanistic and independent from the world. Newtonian time is disengaged from the
rhythms of the cosmos. It is like a blank paper where we can mark regular pieces of time
to fill them with our plans. Modern time became homogeneous. In such a time there is no
resistance to implement our ideas, we don't age or die. But for the Mexica, all activities,
from making war to making temples had to conform and follow the calendar that
followed the rhythms of the cosmos. From our modern perspective, they were slaves of
their calendar systems. There was very little left out of this wheel of cosmic events and
festivities. But seen from their perspective it represented a real engagement, an existential
encompassing and contribution with the order of the universe which resulted in a
profound sense of belonging that has been lost to us. Great satisfaction came out of the
fulfillment of cosmic duties. Any failure to keep the rhythm was expected to bring great
catastrophes, not just for the altepetl but for the universe. Between the two calendars, the
religious and the astronomical one, compromises multiplied.
About the Cosmic Eras or "Suns, Clavijero only recognized four: according to him, the
first Sun was called Atonatiuh, "Sun of Water" starting with the "creation" of the world
and finishing with a Universal Flood which destroyed the first Sun and the first humanity.
The second Sun was Tlatonatihu, "Sun of Earth. It was terminated by earthquakes and
the destruction of the race of giants. The third Sun, Ehecatonatiuh, "Sun of Wind,
finished with great hurricanes. And the fourth Sun, Tletonatihu, sun of fire, represented
the current sun, which would be destroyed by fire. Clavijero identified the end of the first
Sun of water with the universal deluge.
There was no homogeneous accordance regarding the order of the different Suns.
Clavijero was the only one, however, to give four instead of five. In the Codex

20. And they said, "People have been born, oh gods, the macehuales [those given life or deserved into life through
penance.]"
21. Because, for our sake, the gods did penance!
398
Historia Antigua, Vol. 1, 265.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 219

Chimalpopoca, for example, the name of the fifth sun is naollin (four-movement) which
will be destroyed by earthquakes.399
The fact of there being five eras seemed relevant. In the monumental Sun-stone, also
called "Aztec Calendar, four eras appeared surrounding the fifth one. The number five
reflected the order of the phenomenal world represented by the quincunx, which
translated into architecture with the platform altar, the momoxtli, the primordial element
of Mesoamerican architecture. In the calendar, time and space appeared as one (Figure 6,
p.63).
About the destruction of the cosmos it can be said that modern Mexico has inherited a
double apocalyptic vision, the Christian and the Aztec. In the Mesoamerican tradition
there wasn't, however, a complete annihilation of the material world. The Sun would
perish as any creature would, but the world was not created from nothing; earth and water
seemed to have been there before the creation of the suns as recorded in the different
myths of creation.400 The Suns were periods of movement between periods of stasis. The
gods were impersonators of the natural forces revealing a self immolating cosmos. The
universe tired, declined and collapsed as any living creature would. The eras originated
again by the heroic act of the gods donating their living energy. Their death did not

399
1. Here is the oral account of what is known of how the earth was founded long ago.
2. One by one, here are its various foundations [ages].
3. How it began, how the first Sun had its beginning 2513 years ago-this it is known today, the 22 of May, 1558.
4. This Sun, 4-Tiger, lasted 676 years.
5. Those who lived in this first Sun were eaten by ocelots. It was the time of the Sun 4-Tiger.
6. And what they used to eat was our nourshement, and they lived 676 years.
7. And they were eaten in the year 13.
8. Thus they perished and all ended. At this time the Sun was destroyed.
9. It was on the year 1-Reed. They began to be devoured on a day [called] 4-Tiger. And so with this everything ended and
all of them perished.
10. This Sun is known as 4-Wind.
11. Those who lived under this second Sun were carried away by the wind. It was under the Sun 4-Wind that they all
disappeared.
12. They were carried away by the wind. They became monkeys.
13. Their homes, their trees-everything was taken away by the wind.
14. And this Sun itself was also swept away by the wind.
15. And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
16. [The date was] 12-Serpent. They lived [under this Sun] 364 years.
17. Thus they perished. In a single day they were carried off by the wind. They perished on a day 4-Wind.
18. The year f this Sun+ was 1-Flint.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 220

represent, however, annihilation but a transmutation; they appeared again as parts of the
world, the Sun, the Moon, the stars and the Planets.
It can be argued that while, during the sixteenth century, the mendicant missionaries
imposed a linear and teleological understanding of time over the cyclical time of the
indigenous, in the eighteenth century, Boturini and Clavijero incorporated a modern yet
nonlinear understanding of time, a cyclical time that revealed a progress and a decline in
human cultures, as the cultures of Anahuac would seem to exemplify. Like the progress
of the cosmos, these cyclical social progressions were intrinsic to society itself, they
constituted a beginning, development and a decline.
For Boturini and Clavijero the "barbaric" nations became "civilized" by the invention or
appropriation of human institutions, and their decline was not only the cause of natural
catastrophes but the internal social struggles among the different factions and
confrontations against "lawless" vagrants.

19. This Sun, 4-Rain, was the third.

20. Those who lived under this third Sun, 4-Rain, also perished. It rained fire upon them. They became turkeys.
21. This Sun was consumed by fire. All their homes burned.
22. They lived under this Sun 312 years.
23. They perished when it rained fire for a whole day.
24. And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
25. [The date was] 7-Flint. The year was 1-Flint and the day 4-Rain.
26. The who perished were those who had become turkeys.
27. The offspring of turkeys are now called ppil-ppil.
28. This Sun is called 4-Water; for 52 year the water lasted.
29. And those who lived under this fourth Sun, they existed in the time of the Sun 4-Water.
30. It lasted 676 years.
31. Thus they perished: they were swallowedby the waters and they became fish.
32. The heavens collapsed upon them and in a single day they perished.
33. And what they used to eat was our nourishment.
34. [The date was] 4-Flower. The year was 1-House and the day 4-Water.
35. They perished, all the mountains perished.
36. The water lasted 52 years and with this ended their years.
37. This Sun, called 4-Movement, this is our Sun, the one in which we now live.
38. And here is its sign, how the Sun fell into the fire, into the divine heart, there at Teotihuacn.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 221

2.17 Notes on the modern vision of Nahua ritual compounds

Clavijero was in some ways a typical XVIIIc. historian, both modern and traditional. For
him, the Mexica couldn't see the causes of things in a "clear and distinct" manner. He
believed, however, in the universal action of Divine Providence acting within indigenous
cultures. He also believed in the common origin of humanity, the existence of a universal
deluge, the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of people.
Clavijero paved the way for contemporary interpretations of Mexico both fair and
misguided. For him, it was necessary to define a common origin of humanity and a
common path towards the future. This implied the consolidation of a national conscience
and political and economic independence from Spain, but also, an integration into a
universal and teleological destiny for the whole humanity led by Divine Providence.
Clavijero's greatness resided in the awareness of his position at the crossroads, and his
clear desire, not only to be fair, but to moderate between positions. In a time that tended
towards polarization, he succeeded in the difficult task of mediating between a modern
rational conscience and a conservative traditional one. It is important to note that
Clavijero's writings were equally prized by conservatives and by liberals during Mexico's
struggle for independence.
Clavijero's modern and traditional positions intended to bridge the chasm opened
between the New and the Old Worlds, between natives, creoles, and mestizos, and
ultimately, between the "others" and "ourselves.

39. It was also the Sun of our Lord Quetzalcatl in Tula.

40. The fifth Sun, its sign 4-Movement.
41. is called the Sun of Movement because it moves and follows its path.
42. And as the elders continue to say, under this sun there will be earthquakes and hunger, and then our end shall come.
Walter Lehmann, ed., Annals of Cuauhtitln and Leyenda de los Soles, in Die Geschichte der Knigreiche von Colhuacan und
Mexico, 322-27. Quoted by Len Portilla, Aztec Thought, 39. Translation from the Spanish version to English by Jack Emory Davis.
400
Garibay, Teogonia, 103-105.

Part II. Modernity and The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan 222

Part III

The post-revolutionary PRI regime and the Great Temple of

Tenochtitlan

As demonstrated by Lockhart,401 the Indian institution of the altepetl adapted and mutated
during the Spanish colonial period (1521-1821). teocalli were substituted by churches
and monasteries, gods were replaced by virgins and saints, and ancient festivities were
adapted to suit, more or less, the Catholic calendar.
Rights to rule by local caciques were promoted as long as they mediated between the
population and colonial authorities. Bureaucracy always limited colonial rule, and this
prevented decisions taken by the Spanish Crown to be fully implanted in the colonies.
Many pueblos remained out of the dominion of the encomiendas,402 especially those in
the care of missionaries, remaining, to a significant extent, independent from the Spanish
Civil authorities and from the secular Church.
The colonial encomienda did not entail direct land tenure by the Spanish encomendero,
and native lands were to remain in native possession, a right that was formally expressed
by the Crown in the Laws of Indies. The altepetl demonstrated a great resistance and
flexibility, and despite the exploitation of the land and its inhabitants, and of the terrible
plagues that devastated the native population, the autonomous structure of the altepetl
survived to some extent.
With the independence from Spain in 1821, chaos shook the land. The nineteenth century
represented a political and social disaster for the independent country. Modern politics,
liberated from the authority of a sovereign, resulted in great polarization. The population
was divided politically between conservative and liberal.
Between 1824 to 1861, from the mandate of Guadalupe Victoria, first president of the
Republic of Mexico, to Benito Juarez's first presidential period, before the second
"Empire, the head of government shifted forty two times.403

401
Lockhart, The Nahua after the Conquest, 427-436.
402
Large portions of land granted to the Conquerors as retribution of their service to the Crown.
403
The first "Empire" of independent Mexico was the one of Agustin de Iturbide (1822-1823) and the second (and last) was the one of
the Absolutist Hapsburg Maximilian of Mexico (1864-1867).

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 223
Conservatives first struggled to establish the local constitutional monarchy of Agustn de
Iturbide, quickly substituted by an unstable democratic republic, which degenerated into
the tyranny of su Alteza Serenisima, Ignacio Lpez de Santana, replaced by the
ephemeral republic of Benito Juarez. This was then followed by the raise of an absolutist
monarchy by the Hapsburg Empire supported by the conservatives, and overthrown again
by the liberals of Juarez, finishing the convoluted century with the "liberal" military
tyranny of Porfirio Daz. Meanwhile, the territory was reduced by half it size due to the
expansionist aspirations of the United States and it suffered the invasion of the imperial
forces of Napoleon III (1862-1867).
The dictatorial regime of Porfirio Daz, the so called Porifiriato, represented a long
period of peace (1876-1911), it incarnated, however, a contradiction that has persisted in
Mexican politics until today: it was radically liberal and profoundly conservative at the
same time. Scientific modernization was the obsessive slogan of his government's
actions. Advised by some positivist intellectuals called los cientficos who followed the
French philosopher Auguste Comte, Daz welcomed foreign investment introducing
railway and industry. These new factories promoted the rise of an urban proletariat.
But his modernization was at odds with the latifundio, large plantations known as
haciendas owned by the plutocracy that had spread across Mexico since Juarez regime as
part of the liberal modernization of the country. Ironically, the pure Zapotec Indian,
Benito Juarez, gave enormous portions of land to private hands in detriment to the
communal properties of the pueblos. Alliances between the local caciques and the central
authorities were overthrown by the newly appointed mestizo owners. The hacendado had
no other obligation with the peones but to give them a miserable salary. The laborer, on
the other hand, had no right over the harvest, having to buy all their basic goods from the
landowner's shops. There was no institution that protected the peones like the regular
missions often had during the colony. There wasn't a legal system to protect them either,
like the colonial Laws of Indies had.
If there was a modern dimension in the mentality of the hacendados, it was their view of
the world. As stated by Heidegger, modernity stressed the understanding of the world as
resources to be exploited indiscriminately. The inhabitants were, rather than inferior
beings, a piece of the productive mechanism. More than a feudal institution, the
latifundio represented the rural counterpart of the factories during the Industrial
Revolution. They were strongly supported by Daz, with a campaign of encroachment

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 224
onto collectively-owned altepetl land, through the armed police forces known as the
rurales.
The independence from Spain, therefore, didn't bring independence to the indigenous
altepetl, much to the contrary. Western utopias and conservative privileges were
reinforced with detriment to native traditional institutions.

3.1 Revolution and the Myth of the Return

As noted by Octavio Paz,404 the Mexican Revolution against Porfiro Daz's regime
(1910-1921) was not the "struggle of the proletariat" commanded by some intellectuals,
but rather, a peasant upheaval which claimed a "return" to a former state. It was a popular
reaction against the totalitarianism of modernity in its liberal incarnation and the
privileges of the plutocracy disguised under the flag of progress.
More than a revolution in the modern sense, it was a rebellion wishing to turn back. It
was not the return, however, to an idealized paradisaical order but for the recognition of
the ancient social structures that inhabited the land as autonomous entities.
The Revolution was the struggle between a gigantic "monad" and the subjugated ones.
This is clear in the Zapatista slogans tierra y libertad and municipio libre. The
altepetl, deprived of its land by the latifundistas called for its land and freedom back. But,
as the popular revolutionary song Carabina 30-30 stated, for the restitution to take effect,
an auto-sacrifice was needed: Y si mi sangre piden, mi sangre les doy. The
revolutionaries blood had to be shed, not to keep the cosmos in motion, but for los
habitantes de nuestra nacin, to reestablish a lost order in which the different altepetl,
incarnated in the pueblos and municipios, would reconstitute its former autonomous
character, their lost identity and the rights of self determination.405
The revolutionary period and the years that followed submerged the country in a constant
struggle. Fights among the Revolutionary leaders and politicians who held power resulted
in self annihilation of the revolutionary factions.

404
See From the Independence to the Revolution in Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude and other writings, (New York, Gorve
Press, 1985), 117-149.
405
It was not until 1934 with the ruling of president Lzaro Crdenas that the division of the land into ejidos was restituted to the
peasants.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 225
There were, however, two important figures that, among the chaos and the military
struggle managed to trace paths of action in the fields of education, identity, and cultural
"development. They were the anthropologist Manuel Gamio, and the philosopher and
politician Jos Vasconcelos. These two figures held in different periods the charge of
Public Education and the direction of the National University. Their vision of the path to
follow was, however, drastically different: Manuel Gamio believed in Science as the
instrument to transform society, while Vasconcelos believed in the power of Beauty as
the primordial force of cultural change.
I will now examine the paths traced by Manuel Gamio and his friend and follower, the
architect Ignacio Marquina, on the one hand, and on the other, the path traced by Jos
Vasconcelos and two of his followers, the painter Diego Rivera and the architect Pedro
Ramrez Vzquez with their respective interpretations of the great Temple of the Aztecs
as a part of the re-invention of a "new" society.

3.2 Manuel Gamio (1883-1960) and "Scientific Indianism"

Manuel Gamio was an anthropologist, scientist and politician. His excavations and
stratigraphic archaeological analysis of the Templo Mayor in 1915, still during the
Revolution, inaugurated a period of empiric research on Mesoamerican cultures (See
Figure 28, p.228).
Manuel Gamio studied in New York with the German Jewish anthropologist Franz Boas,
who is considered the "father of American anthropology.406 Gamio owed Boas the
406
Boas argues against the Natural Determinism of the Enlightenment. He stands instead for a "psychic unity of mankind, a belief
that all humans had the same intellectual capacity and that all cultures were based on the same basic mental principles. Variations in
custom and belief, he argued, were the products of historical accidents. For him the study of the physical context is insufficient to
understand a culture: the history of the people, the influence of the regions through which it has passed on its migrations, and the
people with whom it came into contact, must be considered. Boas sheared an empirical attitude with the theories of Natural
Determinism. For him, science has to be dispassionate, inferential and judicial. The method of science begins with questions, not with
answers. It is not ideology because it is bracketed from emotional prejudice. The culture treated as "context, and the importance of
history are the hallmarks of Boasian anthropology. Boas' theories were defined by Marvin Harris as "historical-particularism. Boas
rejected the prevalent theories of social evolution developed by Edward Burnett Taylor, Lewis Henry Morgan and Herbert Spencer,
not because he rejected the notion of "evolution" per se, but because he rejected orthogenetic notions of evolution in favor of
Darwinian evolution. Orthogenetic evolution was driven by a determinate or teleological process in which change occurs regardless of
natural selection. The difference between these prevailing theories of cultural evolution and Darwinian Theory cannot be overstated:
these theorists argued that all societies progress through the same stages in the same sequence. Thus, although the Inuit with whom
Boas worked at Baffin Island, and the Germans with whom he studied as a graduate student, were contemporaries of one another,

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 226
understanding of a psychic unity of mankind which argues that all humans have the same
intellectual capacity and share the same basic mental principles, while variations in
custom and belief are the result of historical accidents.
For Gamio, an indigenous person was not defined racially but culturally. According to his
beliefs, President Benito Juarez was not really a Zapotec Indian, because he was totally
acculturated. Manuel Gamio did not feel uncomfortable with the color of the Indians
skin, but with their "archaic" culture. For him, Indians were not racially but culturally
inferior to modern men.
It is a shame that Manuel Gamio did not share fully the insights of his professor: for
Boas, contemporary Nahua and Americans, for example, had as much history and were
equally evolved. Boas definitely rejected the distinction between "primitive" and
"civilized, and after Second World War, he even questioned the whole notion of
progress and the validity of science as an instrument to transform societies, which had
been precisely Gamio's agenda in Mexico during forty five years.
For Gamio, the Mexican natives were a problem of security and an obstacle for the
Nation's progress. Social unrest would never stop unless their culture was "updated. He
believed it was necessary to know those cultures scientifically in order to act with
"authority" upon them; for him, that was the "true gospel of good government. The
population was the materia prima and anthropology was the science that could dictate the
right "means" to facilitate their "normal" and "natural" development. In that sense, social
anthropology, as understood by Gamio, was an instrument to act upon indigenous
societies to modernize them.

"orthogenetic" evolutionists argued that the Inuit were at an earlier stage in their evolution, and Germans at a later stage. This echoed a
popular misreading of Darwin that suggested that human beings are descended from chimpanzees. In fact, Darwin argued that
chimpanzees and humans are equally evolved. What characterizes Darwinian Theory is its attention to the processes by which one
species transforms into another; "adaptation" as a key principle in explaining the relationship between a species and its environment,
and "natural selection" as a mechanism of change. In contrast, Morgan, Spencer, and Taylor had little to say about the process and
mechanics of change. Furthermore, Darwin built up his theory through a careful examination of considerable empirical data. Boasian
research revealed that virtually every claim made by cultural evolutionists was contradicted by the data, or reflected a profound
misinterpretation of the data. Additionally, Boas and his pupils rejected the distinction between "primitive" and "civilized, pointing
out that so-called primitive contemporary societies have just as much history, and were just as evolved, as so-called civilized societies.
The devastating World Wars that occurred between 1914 and 1945 crippled Europe's self-confidence leading Boas to put the idea of
progress in doubt. In Mexico, Franz Boas employed Adolfo Best Maugard to make drawings of thousands of posts from the valley of
Mexico, from which they developed an art alphabet for the teaching of children. Abstract from the article on Franz Boas in
Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9015808/Franz-Boas (accessed October 1, 2005).

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 227
Perpetuating a Western tradition of intervention, indoctrination into the new faith of
progress was the main problem to deal with in order to govern a convoluted nation. As in
the case of the missionaries of the sixteenth century, his anthropological project intended
to use the information gathered from the indigenous for a social project of acculturation.
Gamio intended to apply his scientific formula promoting the creation of Indianist
Institutes in most of the Latin American countries. These Institutes were subordinated to
the Instituto Indigenista Interamericano directed by himself, forming an impressive net
of modernization throughout the continent (1947-1965).

Figure 28: Plan of the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc based on archaeological evidence, Manuel
Gamio, 1950. In Ignacio Marquina's, El Templo Mayor de Mxico.
Gamio's scientific indianism was the modern version of the missionary enterprise of
the sixteenth century. Their activities were undertaken with apostolic spirit. Its goal was
not the salvation of Indian souls, but to "save" them from ostracism, underdevelopment,
and superstition in order to incorporate them into a world of material development.407
407
Manuel Gamio, Consideraciones sobre el problema indgena (Mxico: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, serie Antropologia
Social, 1966), 3.
La tendencia bsica del Instituto no es la de mejorar el tipo racial de los aborgenes, sino satisfacer las necesidades y
aspiraciones biolgicas econmicas y culturales de los grupos que vegetan en las ms bajas etapas de evolucin, sin parar

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 228
But while the work of the missionaries resulted to the indigenous, more or less
meaningful in regards to their own believes, promoting the conflation of cultural
expressions, the world of progress as stated by Gamio implied a totally different world
view and provided no significant accommodations in cultural productions. While the
missionary documents produced during the sixteenth century were participative, complex
and multivalent, thus allowing a synthesis of cultures, this possibility seemed to be
suppressed in the documents produced by the modern indigenistas. The dry statistical
charts gathered by Gamio don't say anything important about the studied cultures. The
empiric method suppresses experience, human contact, and intuition as real sources of
knowledge, giving preeminence to pseudo-objective data.
An aspect of the anthropological enterprise implies the objectification of the indigenous:
they were not people to have a dialog with but things to be studied and valued in a
laboratory. Gamio's indigenismo presupposes the Indian's inferiority. "Underdeveloped"
was the tag to qualify the economically weak groups, reinforcing unilateralism. There
was nothing the "first" world could be expected to learn form the "third" one.
The policy of acculturation and integration of the Mexican scientific indianism whose
ultimate goal was the disappearance of the natives identity and the rejection of their right
of self-determination came into severe criticism by authors like Arturo Werman and
others.408 Gamio's Indianism was the heir of the liberal positive thinking of the Porfirian
cientficos of the nineteenth century, and it failed in recognizing and positively valorizing
the altepetl's identity and being.
While the ideology of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) planned the
"restitution" of the indigenous world, the Institutos Indigenistas were working on their
integration into modernity, objectifying their culture. They were not considered as equals
as long as they didn't adopt the dogma of progress. They were living archaisms fit only
for a museum. The "restitution" provided by the Revolution became an imposition. The
mientes en que su tipo racial sea el indgena puro o bien el mestizo en cualquiera de sus gradaciones. No vamos en efecto a
ocuparnos de hombres que ya viven en superiores etapas evolutivas y cuentan con medios econmicos suficientes para
satisfacer normalmente sus necesidades y aspiraciones, por el solo hecho de que son indgenas, puesto que no slo no
necesitan de nuestra preocupacin, sino que les resultara inaceptable y contraproducente e que se pretendiera aplicarles
tratamientos de mejora social adecuados slo para grupos que viven en etapas evolutivas inferiores. En Mxico, por
ejemplo, no se puede ni se deben aplicar mtodos indigenistas de mejora econmico-cultural a hombres de tipo del gran
Presidente Jurez, al ilustre Arzobispo Prspero Maria Alarcn, del eminente polgrafo Ignacio Altamirano, aun cuando
sean indgenas de pura raza, puesto que la mayor parte de sus caractersticas econmicas y culturales han dejado de ser de
tipo indgena.
408
See Arturo Werman, ed. De eso que llaman Antropologa mexicana, (Mexico City: Editorial Nuestro Tiempo, 1970).

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 229
ignorant other was not invited to participate in the official recreation of their own past,
but were merely objects of study.
The ideology of the PRI, like the Porfiriato, had a double antithetical discourse: one
traditional and one modern. On the one side, the official version of the Revolution was
presented as a restitution, a return to the mythical time of "our" ancestors, mainly
"Aztec, and on the other hand, it represented the point of departure towards a "bright"
future. It seemed eventually as if both discourses neutralized each other, there was no
restitution, neither was there a clear perspective of a better future world.

3.3 Ignacio Marquina and the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan

Ignacio Marquina Barredo was born on May 4th, 1888, in the street of Acequia, a few
blocks away from the place where Great Temple of Tenochtitlan had once stood. He
became an architect in 1913 during the ephemeral government of Francisco I. Madero in
the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura, where he started teaching architectural
composition some years later.409
Marquina met Manuel Gamio at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria around 1910 while
they were still students. Five years later they met again when Gamio was excavating the
west side of the Great Temple. Gamio incorporated Marquina into his archaeological
survey at Teotihuacan commissioning him to make a map of the archaeological ruins
from which a reconstruction of the site was going to be planned and executed.
Marquina recounts that Teotihuacan "looked just like mounts covered with vegetation.410
What we see today at Teotihuacan and many other archaeological sites in Mexico, are to
a great extent, the hypothetical reconstructions of Marquina and his collaborators.
Marquina discovered and restored the complex of the ciudadela at the southern side of
Teotihuacn. The ciudadela is possibly the best archaeological example to show a ritual
teocalli compound consisting of a dual temple dedicated to Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, a
spacious esplanade formed by platforms on top of which there were small surrounding
temples and a central square altar or momoxtli (See Figure 29, p.231).

409
Ignacio Marquina, Memorias (Mxico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, 1994), 14.
410
Marquina, Memorias, 14.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 230
 Figure 29: Ritual precinct of La Ciudadela, Teotihuacan, pre-Hispanic, reconstruction by Ignacio
Marquina, 1924.
In 1939 Marquina participated in the creation of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e
Historia. He was involved in the archaeological discoveries and restorations of almost all
Mexican archaeological sites for a period of thirty years. In his massive work
Arquitectura Prehispnica,411 he showed the results of this collaborative enterprise in
which thousands of people, from archaeologists, to anthropologists, architects,
restaurateurs and construction workers participated.412
Marquina's architectonic re-constructions, both physical reconstructions of archaeological
sites and hypothetical scale models and perspective images, had the purpose of
scientifically recovering the culture of our ancestors. His strategy was to re-create
images and ruins within a scientific objectified framework from which time was basically
suppressed.

411
Ignacio Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica. 2d ed. (Mxico: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, Secretaria de
Educacin Pblica, 1964).
412
Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica, 2.
As pues, solo la comparacin de los datos obtenidos por todos los procedimientos de investigacin de que disponemos,
sometidos a una crtica realizada con un espritu estrictamente cientfico, podr llevarnos a un conocimiento cierto de
quines construyeron los monumentos, cmo vivieron y en qu pocas florecieron con ms intensidad sus culturas.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 231
Tenayuca

From 1923 to 1934, Marquina made excavations at Tenayuca. Tenayuca was an

important Chichimec center, ten kilometers northeast of Tenochtitlan. Its dual teocalli
represented the closest archaeological example of the teocalli of Tlaloc and
Huitzilopochtli at Tenochtitlan.413
Marquina pointed out that Tenayuca appeared in some chronicles with the name of
Oztopulco, which was the center of the "Chichimec Empire" in the 11th c. a culture that
flourished between the Toltecs of Tula and the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, representing an
historical link between the two. He also noted that Bernal Daz called it el pueblo de las
sierpes due to the numerous sculptures of serpents that surrounded the teocalli.414
The Chichimecs of Xolotl had a similar story as the Mexica a hundred years earlier. In
the Tlotzin and Quilatzin maps it is shown how the Chichimecs departed from Oyome,
their place of origin, in the year 5 Tecpatl (1224)415 settling first at Xaltocan and finally at
Tenayuca.
According to Marquina,416 the first tlatoanis, Xlotl, Nopaltzin and Tlotzin lived in
Tenayuca, but the fourth one transfered the "capital" to Texcoco, promoting the decline
of Tenayuca.417 Texcoco became the most prestigious city of the whole Anahuac, part of
the Triple Aliance (better known as the Aztec Empire) with the Tepanec and the Mexica,
and governed by the prominent characters Netzahualcoyotl and his son Netzahualpilli.
Both, Texcocans and Aztecs, although proudly Chichimec, claimed to be heirs of the
Toltecs. The weight of genealogical partnership with the civilized Toltecs played a
great role in the legitimization of the altepetl.
Both groups of people, the Acolhua-Chichimec and the Mexica-Tenochca were indeed
cultural heirs of the Toltecs. The teocalli of Tenayuca, like the "Great Temple of
Tenochtitlan, had a series of over-imposed structures which told us about the dual
character of the world vision and its cyclical reconstruction in space and time.

413
The excavation and documentation of Tenayuca was a huge collaborative enterprise; the results were published in four volumes: I.
Historic background; II. History of Tenayuca on pre-Hispanic and colonial sources; III. Archeological survey and IV. Architectural
Study, all of them published in 1935.
414
See Part I: A.5. Sahagn, Coatepec, the serpent mountain.
415
Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica, 164.
416
Marquina based his information in the study of Jose Juan Palacios, Tenayuca, 1935.
417
Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica, 165.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 232
Marquina reported that the teocalli appeared, before its reconstruction, as a mound of 90
meters long by 17 high. The first excavations revealed that its stairs were, like those of
the Mexica temple, oriented towards the sunset. Because the most superficial layer was in
very bad conditions, what we see today is in reality the reconstruction of the second layer
(See Figure 30, p. 233).

Figure 30: Ignacio Marquina, Reconstruction of the huei teocalli of Tenayuca based on archaeological evidence. The
balustrades are descending serpents. The first basement has serpents all around and the surface of the structure is
covered with emerging serpents heads.

The stairs covered almost the entire structure on its west side and had no interruptions
from top to bottom. They were limited and divided by two by balustrades with serpent
heads at the bottom as they appeared in Tula, Chichen Itza and Tenochtitlan. The teocalli
appeared surrounded by a base, sixty centimeters tall. On top of this base there were a
hundred and three serpents with their heads looking down, "connecting" to the earth. At
the north and south of the platform, two altars were made with a pair of rolled serpents
with an ornament on their heads which recalled the stars, alluding, according to
Marquina, to fire serpents carriers of the sun advocation of Xiuhtecuhtli,
Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca.418
It was possible to have a clear picture of the inner structures of the teocalli because the
archaeologist made tunnels along the layers following the shape of each structure
revealing that there were eight or nine superimposed layers. Along with the ones of the

418
Idem., 172.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 233
surrounding platform, the ones embedded in the body of the building and in the stairs,
Marquina calculated there were eight hundred representations of serpents found in the
out-most layer of the monument. Quoting Alfonso Caso, Marquina identified the
platform with serpents as the coatepantli, the "serpent wall" as described in the
chronicles.419 But, a platform is not a wall. The presence of serpents in the platform did
not justified their identification. While the serpents in the platform had a connective
function, the ones of the coatenamitl had a limiting quality. The first were orienting
elements that clearly signaled the four directions of the cosmos, the above and the below,
the others gave a sense of wholeness and unity. The first propitiated the connection
between sky and earth, the second made a clear differentiation between the interior and
the exterior. The serpent represented a fascinating element in pre-Hispanic architecture
that was implemented and articulated for different, and even contrary intentions.
The serpents in the south side were painted blue, the ones on the east had green feathers,
while the ones on the north were black with white spots. The archaeologist Enrique Juan
Palacios, a collaborator of Marquina, interpreted these colors according to the cardinal
directions of their respective gods. Tezcatlipoca, god of the North, was always painted in
black, as the starry night, and Huitzilopochtli, god of the south, was blue as the day sky,
while the green feathered serpents of the East were an evident allusion to Quetzalcoatl.
With the collaboration of the architect Luis R. Ruiz, Marquina made a study of the
orientation of the teocalli, finding that its axis was rotated seventeen degrees to the north
of the astronomic sunset, the same angle in which the whole city of Teotihuacan was
rotated. He concluded that this rotation was meant to precisely align the front facade of
the teocalli towards the sunset on the precise day in which the sun passed through the
zenith of the site, that is, the day of the equinox in which night and day had the same
duration. He also noted that the Xiuhcatl serpents on the sides of the teocalli had their
faces pointing to the solstices.420
419
Marquina alludes to Alfonso Caso's interpretation of the surrounding serpents of the Aztec Calendar as the Xihucoatl or carriers of
the sun. See Part I, A.11. Coatenamitl.
420
Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica, 174.
Esto condujo a conocer por qu dice Sahagn, que las constelaciones ms observadas en esta poca, eran las Hyadas,
llmadas Mamalhuaztli, constelacin en la que se encuentra Aldebarn (Yohualtecuhtli) el Seor de la Noche, que recorre
diariamente en el cielo el camino del sol en el da de su paso por el cenit. Las Plyades (Tianquiztli), el Escorpin (Clotl-
ixaycatl), y Orin (Citlallachtli) que marcan aproximadamente los ocasos del sol en los das de los equinoccios y de los
solsticios.
Marquina maintained that the teocalli was dedicated to the solar cult, emphasizing the coincidence of the sunset of the astronomic
zenith with the occlusion of Aldebarn, determining the end of the 52 year cycle...Ruiz made a plate marking the settings of

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 234
Marquina argued that this was a common orientation in most teocalli facing West. He
pointed out, however, that if there appeared a natural obstacle blocking the sunset, as in
the case of Cholula's teocalli with the Ixtlacihuatl volcano, then the rotation of the
monument changed. In this case it was only of eight degrees north. It is odd that
Marquina didn't consider the Ixtlacihuatl volcano as an orienting reference. The teocalli
had multiple and layered points of reference. The sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains,
rivers, lakes, springs, were all referential points of orientation. The volcano was not an
"obstacle"; it certainly was the reason why the teocalli was placed precisely there.421
An altar with skulls and crossed bones was found west of the teocalli. Marquina referred
to Caso's interpretation regarding the fact that it represented the death of the sun at sunset,
tlachitonatiuh, concluding a bit rapidly, that the teocalli was dedicated to the sun, and the
serpents placed at the sides were the xihucoatl fire-serpents, that accompany the sun
towards the Earth goddess with its open mouth, tzontemoc, to be swallowed in order to be
born in the underworld and to illuminate the land of the dead.422
But the teocalli was a double temple that may, very probably, have been dedicated to
both the Earth and the Sun. The figure of the serpent, Xihuacoatl, connected, brought,
facilitated, propitiated the connection between them. It connected between contraries in a
metaphoric principle of the union of opposites which propitiated rain, the growth of
crops, and ultimately, provided with existential meaning.
For the Nahua, the sun actually died at sunset. Each time it appeared in the east it was
actually born again. The serpents propitiated the cycle of life and death. This connection
seemed to work in both ways: bringing the precious blood of the sacrificial victim to the
heavens and bringing the sun's warmth back to Earth in the form of life-giving solar rays
and rain.
Marquina observed that the pyramid of Tenayuca belonged to a generalized type of
teocalli which could be considered a direct survivor of the Toltec flourishing. This can be
extended to Tenochtitlan's teocalli. It was a particular recreation of a Toltec institution
and not an original Mexica one.
Aldebaran, Vega de la Lira, and Espiga de la Virgen, for the year 1415, in relationship with the xiuhcatl serpents. He pointed out that
in the Aztec calendar, the two arched xiuhcatl serpents that limited it had exactly the same function of carriers of the sun, as those
which were at the sides of the pyramid.
421
Palacios, assured that the cycle of the Aztec calendar started the 26 of July, the first day of the month of Tlaxochimaco, (and the
first day of Pop in the Mayan calendar) In the year of 4 Acatl, (1507) which was the beginning of the astronomic "zenithal" year and
the beginning of the "century.
422
Marquina, Arquitectura Prehispnica, 176.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 235
Marquina's Reconstruction of the Great Temple

Tenayuca's archaeological survey gave Marquina elements to elaborate a hypothetical

reconstruction on the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (1946-1956) (See Figure 33, p.241).
For the reconstruction, Marquina considered many sources like Batres' (1900) and
Gamio's (1916) archaeological surveys at Tenochtitlan itself, the surveys of Vaillant at
Chiconautla, and Martnez del Rio's at Tlatelolco. He also revisited the studies by Lucas
Alamn, Orozco y Berra, Marroqun and Gonzlez Obregn on the Actas del Cabildo
which recorded the distribution of land by the conquerors, among which was the site that
belonged to the ritual precinct. The Actas del Cabildo recorded the titles of property of
the old houses and the situation of the acequias (secondary artificial roads along the lake)
and channels of the beginning of the colonial period.
Lucas Alamn found some records that documented the properties in the place where the
teocalli of Tlaloc and Huichilobos was: it had become the property of the conqueror
Alonso de Avila. This land was located on the southwest corner of the present streets of
Seminario and Argentina, and was known because there was a record of how the houses
were demolished as the result of the conspiracy of Don Martn Corts, the oldest son of
Hernn Corts, to establish a kingdom which would be independent from Spain. Martn
Corts was supported by the de Avila brothers, sons of Don Alonso, owners of the
solares which occupied "una tercia parte del huichilobos. The other two houses which
occupied the site belonged to Antonio de la Mota and Don Luis de Castilla, limited on the
west and north respectively.423
Marquina said that the excavations made by Gamio at the corner of Seminario and
Guatemala streets had corroborated the situation and orientation of the temple: "the
Temple is facing west, and its stairs would start at this corner.The steps ran towards the
north below Guatemala Street and below the houses at the east side of Argentina Street.
Gamio unearthed the most superficial layers of the teocalli undertaken by the tlatoanis
Itzcoatl, Moctezuma I (around 1435), Tizoc and Ahuizotl (around 1487) and the last
unfinished one by Moctezuma II (See Figure 28, p.228).424
For his reconstruction, Marquina also took into consideration some Aztec artifacts like
teocalli clay models. These models had very probably ritual functions. It is possible they
423
Ignacio Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico (Mxico: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, 1960), 43.
424
Idem., 42-43.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 236
acted as ixiptlas of the real teocalli, that is, they re-enacted a teocalli in household altars.
From the Nahua point of view, making offerings to the gods in front of a clay model was
the same as making offerings in front of the actual teocalli.
Marquina then referred to the Teocalli of the Holy War; an artifact found at the
foundations of the current National Palace, the former house of the tlatoanis. This artifact
is a monolith of 125 cm high in the shape of a stylized teocalli (See Figure 31, p. 237). It
has a pyramidal base with simulated stairs in front; all of it is covered with insignias.
Marquina remarks that the stairs were characteristically Aztec because the balustrades
changed inclination after a molding at its top, just like in the teocalli of Tenayuca.

Figure 31: Teocalli of the Holy War, monolith, 125 cm. high. Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc are at the sides of
the solar disc, from their mouths appears the atl-tlachinolli symbol, at the balustrades, two cuauxicalli
vessels and two calendar symbols, one tochtli and two atl.

Marquina followed Alfonso Caso's interpretation of the artifact: at the bottom part of the
balustrades there were two squares engraved with the dates Ce Tochtli (1 rabbit) and
Ome Acat; (Two Cane). On the top part were two cuauhxicallis or blood/heart recipients.
At both sides of the upper volume were two pairs of gods: Tlaloc god of rain and
Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, lord of the sunrise and the planet Venus; and Xiuhtecuhtli, lord of
fire and of the cycle of the year, and Xochipilli, god of vegetation. From their mouths
sprouted the atl-tlachinolli symbol identified with the Florid War.
Atl-tlachinolli represented the dual presence of Ometeotl as the generative principle
promoted by the movement between natural forces. This principle was extensive to ritual
war, but was not exclusive to it, it permeated everything.425 It seems revealing that the
atl-tlachinolli appears similarly in the symbol of authoritative "speech" that defines the
role of the tlatoanis (he who speaks). Atl-tlachinolli, "burning water, reflected the
425
See Part I, A2.6, Teotlachlti.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 237
authoritative poetic speech of the gods; together, water and fire sprouted from their
mouths as a creative/destructive force.
Marquina described that at the sides of the monolith there were the signs Ce Miquiztli and
Ce Tcpatl, the days that initiated the 6th and 10th cycles of thirteen days which were the
only ones presided by the sun in the ritual calendar. An elaborate solar disk appeared
engraved at the front of the monolith flanked by two ixiptlas of Huitzilopochtli on the left
side, and Tezcatlipoca on the right side. They are piercing their ears with maguey pits and
are offering their blood. From their mouths also sprouts the atl-tlachinolli.
At the top platform, the "Monster of the Earth" is devouring the sun. This is a similar
representation as the one on the west side of the teocalli of Tenayuca. The shields of
Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca, crossed by arrows (atlatl) appear on both sides.
On the back of the monolith is represented a prickly-pear cactus sprouting from a
Chalchiuhtlicue (green stone) surrounded by water. The fruits of the prickly-pear cactus
clearly resemble human hearts. Over the cactus stands an eagle; form its eyes came rays,
and from its beak comes also the atl-tlachinolli sign; in its claws there are two
fruit/hearts.
There is a constant relationship between language, duality, and war in Mexica
representations. Caso pointed out that the monolith celebrated the "florid war" in order to
obtain blood to feed the sun. It also seems that the artifact commemorated the foundation
of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. This artifact more than any other archaeological discovery,
revealed the intrinsic relationship between sacrifice and the architecture of the Great
Temple.
For his reconstruction, Marquina also revised the accounts of Hernn Corts, Bernal
Daz, Andrs de Tapia, the Anonymous conqueror, the Primeros Memoriales and the
Florentine Codex of Sahagn, and the Historia of Durn. He recalled the map attributed
to Hernn Corts, signaling how the city had grown around its center by the construction
of artificial terrapins, called chinampas, leaving channels of water between them.
In the Plano en Papel de Maguey a piece of a colonial map used to register the
ownership426 of the chinampas representing part of the city at the east of Tlatelolco; it is
possible to have a glimpse of the actual urban plot of Tenochtitlan. In the map the main
circulations were a combination of roads and canals (azequia y canal) while the
426
Private ownership was not known among the Aztecs. The different fields were entailed by the community to the whole family that
worked and inhabited it. See in the General Introduction, The Nahua Altepetl.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 238
chinampas were all surrounded by small waterways. Marquina explained how the
chinampas were made by posts hammered into the bottom of the lake and tied together
forming wooden frames. Mud and dirt was then poured within the frame and compressed.
The roots of the cultivated plants consolidated the terrain. For Marquina, the technology
to create floating gardens made possible the growth of the city around the central
island, a process that was continued by the Spaniards.
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, like most altepetl, did not have a surrounding wall to define its
territory. At first sight we may visualize the possibility of a continuous undefined growth
by the addition of chinampas. I would argue, nonetheless, that the organization of the city
in calpolli controlled the growth of the city. Its structure had to match their understanding
of the cosmos reflected in the calendar. A constant undefined growth would have debased
the original plot of districts. In his reconstruction, Marquina did not recognize the
calpolco or ceremonial centers of the different barrios or calpolli. The calpolco were
fundamental to understand the inner structure of the altepetl.
A network of plazas in the colonial capital of New Spain may reveal the original network
of calpolco rather than Spanish urban planning. Together with the houses of the
conquerors, the administrative civil and religious apparatus of the colonial capital were
located within the precinct of the Great Temple. With the Spanish administration and
their notion of a centralized hierarchical organization, the colonial city started growing
from its center to the periphery, overriding the calpolli network.
Marquina reported that the weight of the colonial constructions made them sink on the
muddy surface of the island. The buildings constructed over the pre-Hispanic ones
pushed them down so deep that they can be found eight meters below the ground of the
present-day city.
Taking into account all of this documentation, Marquina made his reconstruction placing
the hypothetical spot of the foundation of the city "thirty meters east from the corner of
the present streets of Argentina and Guatemala (See Figure 32, p.240).427

Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico, 44.

427

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 239
The ritual complex was united to the main land by three wide avenues known as
calzadas that ran among the chinampas. To the south was calzada Ixtapalapa with
division in Churubusco going towards Coyoacn. Marquina recalled how in the middle of
this calzada Hern Corts and his soldiers had met Moctezuma and his committee for the
first time. Corts wrote: "era ancha como dos lanzas y muy bien obrada que pueden ir
por toda ella ocho de caballo a la par.428

Figure 32:Hypothetical reconstruction of the main ritual precinct at Tenochtitlan over a layout of the
actual city. Ignacio Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico.
The calzada of Tepeyac led north and Tacuba west. Those calzadas penetrated the urban
fabric of chinampas and converged into the ritual precinct at the courtyard of Tlaloc and
Huitzilopochtli. The calzadas were interrupted by canals that had wooden bridges made
with long beams. Marquina relied on Bernal Daz's account of the dramatic Spanish
retreat from the city by the calzada of Tacuba. It had five divisions; one at the limits of
the city, and four more along its way into the lake.

428
Idem., 25.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 240
There were two aqueducts supplying the city with fresh water: one coming from
Chapultepec and another from Coyoacan. When the aqueducts entered the city, they were
covered with a vault until they reached the ritual precinct.
Marquina described the precinct as a rectangular platform of approximately 350 by 300
meters (more or less the actual size of the main square plaza). It was limited on the east
by the streets of Carmen and Correo Mayor; to the west with Monte de Piedad, to the
north with San Ildefonso and to the south with Moneda and part of the present day
Zcalo.429

Figure 33: The Ritual Precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Ignacio Marquina, 1950.

Marquina determined the approximate size of the teocalli from the records in the
chronicles. Thus, the "pyramid" (without the surrounding platform) would measure a
hundred meters form north to south, and eighty meters from east to west. It was
composed of four or five pyramidal platforms, one on top of the other, not very steep
with promenades among the superimposed platforms.430 The frontal stairs were very
ample occupying almost the whole west facade of the structure. They were limited by
wide balustrades and divided into two symmetric parts by a central double balustrade; the
four balustrades were represented as descending serpents. At the upper platform, the
balustrade changed inclination becoming almost vertical and forming a pedestal where
banners were placed.
429
Idem., 32-37.
430
Idem., 44.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 241
Marquina inferred the height of the teocalli by the average number of steps recorded in
the chronicles which were 113 or 114. Considering each step to be twenty five
centimeters high, the pyramidal structure would have been of approximately thirty meters
high from the ground level to the upper platform.431
The stairs would lead to an ample platform at the top. On the east side of this higher
platform the two teocalli would stand close to the east side leaving a small passage
behind. Tlaloc's teocalli would have been on the northern side while Huitzilopochtli's
would have been at the southern side. Each teocalli had a single entrance in front of
which a sacrificial stone, techcatl, was placed. The lower part of the teocalli walls
(rodapies) made of stone would have had a slight inclination, from which vertical walls
of adobe would rise. The teocalli was crowned by a truncated pyramid roof made with a
wooden structure and plastered with a thick stucco layer. Boards were formed on each
side of the four surfaces of the pyramidal roof. Each was decorated differently: Tlaloc's
teocalli had blue and white vertical lines while Huitzilopochtli's would have had inlaid
stone skulls on a red background. They were finished with polished stucco or inlaid with
shiny stones, conferring a reflective quality which was certainly an important visual
effect. These boards may have been aligned in order to reflect light to specific points at
specific moments.
Quoting Tapia, Marquina argued that, not counting the pyramidal base, each of the upper
shrines had three levels, the top one being a place to keep an arsenal for defense.
Although Marquina represented them much smaller, he argued that together, the three
volumes of the shrines had a similar height as the four platforms that formed the base.
The total height of the teocalli would be, therefore, sixty meters approximately.
In his second perspective of the Great Temple (See Figures 33, p.241 and 34, p.243),
Marquina suppressed the top wall, or "crest, following more closely the images of the
codex. According to the Codex Ixtlixochitl (See Figure 42, p.264), instead of being
crowned with a wall, the truncated pyramid was crowned with battlements in the shape of
conch shells in Tlaloc's teocalli, and butterflies in Huitzilopochtli's one. The conch shells
had an evident relationship with the ocean as the paradigmatic limit of the cosmos.
Butterflies seemed like an ironically peaceful emblem for the god of war. Yet we may
remember that, according to Clavijero, after four years of living in the house of the sun,
the souls of the sacrificed victims returned to earth as birds and butterflies, which
would explain their representation.
431
Idem., 44.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 242
The roof was of primary importance for the recognition of the specific deity which
inhabited the teocalli. Its form, color, the insignias and its orientation always had
symbolic connotations.
Following the chronicles, Marquina reported that the teocalli was "decorated" with
sculptures and painted in bright colors; in its interior, the idols would be placed on
pedestals. The idols were covered with mosaics of nacre shell and turquoise and were
adorned with gold jewels. They were accompanied by minor gods associated to them
(like Painal for Huitzilopochtli and the Tlaloques for Tlaloc). Marquina omitted the gory
descriptions of the thick layers of blood that covered the teocalli and the idols as
described in the chronicles. As proof of the fulfillment of their cosmic duties, the blood
of the victims was never removed and represented an authentic thick red carpet from the
top to the bottom of the pyramid's stairs. This appears in many colonial and pre-Hispanic
representations.
Stoves slightly shorter than a man's height, in the form of two cones united by their tips
and tied with a kind of ribbon were placed around the higher platform; they kept a
perpetual fire that could be seen night and day signaling the teocalli as constant visual
points of reference.
The archaeological surveys have shown, as in Tenayuca, a chain of twisted serpents in
the lowest basement. Like for Tenayuca, Marquina confused this basement with the

Figure 34: Ignacio Marquina, The Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 1968.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 243
coatepantli (serpent wall).432
The most questionable aspect of Marquina's reconstruction was the fact that he took the
map of the Primeros Memoriales as if it were the actual representation of the ritual
precinct of Mexico-Tenochtitlan making it the main guide for his reconstruction. I have
already argued that this map depicted Tepeapulco's ritual precinct and not Tenochtitlan's
(See above, I:A.1.). The first evident distortion was that he tried to make all the structures
recorded in Florentine Codex, fit in a single cell, distorting its real nature as a
conglomeration of ritual compounds.
At the center of the map of the Primeros Memoriales, in front of the main teocalli a
momoxtli (a square central altar with stairs at the four cardinal points) is represented,
exactly like the one in the ciudadela complex at Teotihuacan that was unearthed by
Marquina himself. Marquina placed, however, the round teocalli of Quetzalcoatl at the
center of the courtyard, just in front of Huitzilopocbhtli's temple. This is highly
speculative. First of all, it was most probable that Quetzalcoatl's teocalli had its own patio
for its own ceremonies with its own group of supporting buildings around it. It seemed
very probable that the huei-xompantli, which served Huitzilopochtli's cult, was situated
just in front of the Great Temple at the other side of its courtyard, as described by the
many rituals in which both structures were involved.433
Marquina, nevertheless, interpreted the momoxtli in the map as the round temple of
Quetzalcoatl.434 He copied the only surviving cylindrical teocalli from Aztec times in the
archaeological site of Calixtlahuaca, in honor of Quetzalcoatl, and placed it in his
reconstruction.
Following the Primeros Memoriales, Marquina represented the ball-game or teotlachtli at
the west side of the "Temple of Quetzalcoatl, creating an east-west axis with the
teocalli. Marquina took the measurements and proportions of the ball-game from Tula.435
432
See above Part III. 3.3: Tenayuca.
433
Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico, 80-85. See also Part I, B.6: The rituals at the Great Temple as described by Fray Diego
Durn.
434
Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mexico, 67-72.
The round temple of Quetzalcoatl was described by the conquerors to be "frontero al Huichilobos, but this description doesn't seem
to be precise enough to justify Marquina's interpretation. The temple was described by the conquerors as having its entry in the shape
of a monster's open mouth, just as they appeared in the Coatlicoe monolith and in the round temple carved in the mountain's slope at
Malinalco. For more about serpents and thresholds, see Part I, A.2.12: Teoquiyaotl, the sacred portals.
435
Marquina, El Templo Mayor de Mxico, 72-80.
Marquina argued that in Tula and Tenochtitlan's ball-games, similar sculptures of supporting atlas and an image of Xochipilli were
found. The heroic supporting characters may refer to the gods supporting the sky in the myths of creation.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 244
It is surprising that Marquina's did not respect the east-west orientation of the ball court
of the Primeros Memoriales, rotating it ninety degrees. There is no apparent reason to do
so; furthermore, it seemed most probable that, if the ball-game had cosmic connotations,
the east-west orientation, matching the movement of the sun with the movement of the
bouncing ball would make more sense.436

Figure 35: Ignacio Marquina, Model of the ritual precinct of

Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, in Ramrez
Vzquez en la Arquitectura, p.72
Marquina also placed the skull-rack to the south of the ball-game, while in Sahagn's
plan it appeared between the central altar and the ball-game along the same east-west
axis. According to Marquina himself, part of the skull-rack was found by Batres in 1900
along Guatemala Street when drainage was introduced, exactly at the center of the east-
west axis of the precinct.
Marquina argued that, although Tezcatlipoca's teocalli didn't appear in Sahagn's plan,
Durn referred to it as being on Moneda Street, where the archiepiscopal building was.
According to Durn, it had eighty steps. It was, therefore, approximately twenty meters
high.437
Following the same source, Marquina placed Xipe Totec's teocalli with a gladiatorial
stone in front of Tezcatlipoca's teocalli, and guided by the chronicles, he gave
approximate locations of other structures like the Ciahuacoatl teocalli the teocalli of the
436
See Part I, A.2.6: Teutlachtli, the game of the gods.
437
Measurement conversions by Marquina.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 245
Sun and the Eagle's House close to the west door of the precinct. He also placed the
coateocalli, the house of the "prisoner" gods, at the cross road of the present Donceles
and Argentina Streets. Marquina also referred to other buildings mentioned in the list of
the Florentine Codex, like the houses of priests, the houses of penance, the schools for the
young novices and others, arguing that there was not enough evidence to give their
approximate location.

Notes on Marquina's reconstruction

Marquina's reconstruction of the ritual precinct is still considered the most authoritative,
providing the most accepted visual reference of the Great Temple. He made several
perspective representations of the precinct that had a great impact on public education;
their wide diffusion in official school texts acquired social and political relevance.
His recapitulation of all the sources around the Great Temple revealed layers of living
history, his interpretation of facts was, however, limited by his scientistic views. There
are aspects that distort the vision of the temple and of Mexica society, its monolithic
character being the main problem. Marquina failed to understand the cellular disposition
that formed the ritual complex. He only needed to observe structures, like the "schools"
and "houses" of priests repeated several times in Sahagn's list. A hermeneutic approach,
rather than a pseudo-objective archaeological one, would have given him a better
understanding of the relationship between the ritual calendar and its incarnation in the
fabric of the city and its surrounding landscape; that is, between the crucial role of
architecture as mediator between man and cosmos.
Marquina's perspectives intended to show what the Temple looked like at the moment
of its destruction; like a photograph capturing in one shot the whole "Aztec" civilization.
This gives the idea of a complete culture paralyzed at the peak of its "development. The
pictorial reconstruction is not innocent, it closes the gap between this "frozen" moment of
history and the present, collapsing what is in the middle, and inferring a kind of
uninterrupted continuity, obliterating the fact that the apparatus with which "Aztec"
culture is observed, the perspective method, is a western fabrication with its own
epistemological presuppositions. Perspective extracts time from the real, implying the

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 246
incarnation of the infinite into worldly experience. Denying temporal distance flattens the
depth of the layered experience of history.438
Marquina selected the data he needed for his representation, ignoring evidence and the
complex process of interpretation. It is unfortunate that he did not apply any of the
conclusions about the orientation of the teocalli of Tenayuca to Tenochtitlan. He didn't
examine the ritual activities, the cosmic alignments, and the relationship between the
structures with the physical context and the sacrificial nature of Mexica architecture.
Furthermore, it seemed that Marquina adjusted the background of his perspectives
placing the Popocatepetl and Ixtlacihualt volcanoes between the Great Temple and
Tezcatlipoca's temple. The surrounding background is fabricated in an aesthetic manner,
to give a picturesque impression, denying the real alignments between architecture,
topography and cosmos.
In collaboration with Carmen Carrillo de Antnez, Ignacio Marquina made a large scale
model of the ritual precinct (1:100). The model is now in the Aztec Hall of the National
Museum of Anthropology (See Figure 35, p.245).
Marquina's reconstruction is dominated by a symmetric idea which can be appreciated in
his scale model of the ritual precinct. This "idea" of the temple is the same one
Renaissance men saw in Corts' map of Tenochtitlan in the sixteenth century. This
idealized view is understandable in the eyes of painters and architects who considered
lineamenti as the traces which reflect the ideal in the world of experience, but it was
hardly the case of the Aztecs whose cultural manifestations were a response of the
phenomenal world mediated by their mythological narratives.
It is not the fictitious aspect or the lack of accuracy of Marquina's representation that is
questionable, but its claiming of "truth" according to "fact"; its alleged objectivity. This
scientistic obsession ultimately got in the way of recovering the poetics of Mesoamerican
architecture. It was revealing that, when criticizing the National Museum of
Anthropology, Marquina could only judge it from its functional and economic aspects.
He was against, for example, the construction of the central umbrella, he couldn't find in
it any meaning that recalled pre-Hispanic architecture. He argued, however, that there
would be cheaper ways to cover visitors from rain.439

438
For more about the Western construction of the perspective image see Alberto Prez-Gmez, Architectural Representation and the
Perspective Hinge (Cambridge, Masashusets: MIT Press,1997).
439
Marquina, Memorias, 16. See also Part III, 3.6., The Umbrella.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 247
 Figure 36: Ignacio Marquina, El Templo Mayor, 1950. Model of an hypothetical reconstruction of
the ritual precinct based on archaeological evidence, and historic narratives, and land property
records from colonial time.

Notes on Scientific Indianism

The Indigenista project of Gamio and the archaeological surveys and reconstruction of
Marquina represented a massive enterprise undertaken with enthusiasm during periods of
political and social uncertainty; it was, however, a top down intervention which lacked
participation from the studied cultures. The "Indians, were not invited to participate in
the re-creation of their own past. Archaeologists had the sites ready for official
inaugurations and for tourists' cameras, alien concerns for the real heirs of those cultures.
For archaeologists, the link between those ruins and the descendants of the people who
had built them was lost. The irony was that, while their ancestors were revered, living
indigenous were alienated.440 The reconstruction of archaeological sites hasn't brought
pride to native communities, nor has it helped understand the contemporary reality of
Mexico.
Modern architectural institutions which accompanied the modernization of the county
after the revolution, (the rural school, the rural clinic, the casa tipo de inters social, etc.)
were not a variation or reinvention of their own institutions of teaching, healing and
440
Manuel Gamio, Consideraciones sobre el problema indgena. 2. ed. (Mxico: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, 1966), 31.
En grupos indgenas de etapas evolutivas ms elevadas el porcentaje de objetos de origen prehispnico es menos y el de
objetos de procedencia europea mayor,

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 248
dwelling but rather the imposition of alien practices which overthrew their traditional
ones. Oral tradition was marginalized, schooling was exclusively in Spanish, and ancient
knowledge of plants and remedies was obliterated by allopathic medicine.441 Their way to
inhabit the world was not understood or valued but restructured in a totally alien way.

3.4 Jos Vasconcelos and the power of Beauty

Jose Vasconcelos developed the ideas of Andrs Molina Enrquez regarding Mexican
identity. In a classical text Los Grandes Problemas Nacionales, written in 1906, Molina
defined Mexican identity based exclusively upon the mestizo. Mestizo refers to the
intermixing of European and native races, a process that began almost immediately after
the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519, and constituting today the large majority of Mexican
people.
Although this definition of Mexican identity was necessary and made sense because the
majority of the population is mestiza (around 70%), it alienated other groups that formed
it: pure natives, constituted by hundreds of different groups, European descendants or
criollos and other minorities.
Molina defined identity not culturally but racially. He argued that the mestizos were
distinguished:

Not because of their beauty nor for their culture, not in general by the refinement of races of
advanced evolution, but rather by the conditions of the incomparable adaptation to the
environment, by the qualities of their powerful animal force.442

Molina applied Darwinian theories to the social realm:

The only advantage of being mestizo is their biological and cultural capacity to adapt to new
circumstances.443
441
Gamio, Consideraciones, 14
Si en pueblos indgenas se introducen modernos servicios mdicos y si a curanderos-brujos de millares de pueblos, hasta
los que no pueden llegar tales servicios, se les suministran los modernos conocimientos que posee la enfermera de ms baja
categora, disminuiran sensiblemente la mortalidad y las enfermedades.
442
Andres Molina Enrquez, Los grandes problemas nacionales (Mexico: Impr. de A. Carranza e hijos, 1909), quoted in Desmond
Rochfort, The Murals of Diego Rivera (London: South Bank Board in collaboration with Journeyman, 1987) 22.
443
Idem., 22.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 249
In La Raza Csmica444 (1925) and Indologa (1926), Vasconcelos followed this idea
giving it a teleological spin. He believed that History of Humanity was divided into three
evolutionary stages: a first "material" and "military" stage; a second "intellectual" and
"political, and a last "aesthetic" and "spiritual" one to come, governed not by "force" or
"law, but by "love" and "beauty. Vasconcelos saw in the future a kingdom he called
Amazonia, situated in the tropical lands of South America. It was there where the third
stage would take place, and the mestizos, having demonstrated an extraordinary ability
in the creative arts, would be the chosen race.445
Vasconcelos' theory derived, as other utopias, from the Christian visualization of the
kingdom of God at the end of times recalling particularly the proto-evolutionist ideas of
Joachim da Fiore.446 His theory represented a modern rendering of those ideas under the
light of genetics. In the Third Era, all the races would mix, forming a single one: the
"fifth" race. The recessive genes of the less "advanced" races would be amended by the
dominant genes of the "superior" ones, putting an end to the conflicts among them by the
pervasiveness of Beauty. He announced a world without differences, populated by the
unique beautiful mestizo race that would have the full spectrum of human skin tonalities.
Peace would come not from egalitarianism in the economic sense but through racial and
aesthetic reconciliation (See Figure 37, p.251).
Aside from his Christian origins, Vasconcelos' views were also influenced by Hegelian
idealism, the new science of genetics and, even Aztec cosmology. For the Aztecs, the
appropriation of the culture of the "other" was analogous to a pervasive principle of
appropriation that was extensible to the whole living universe. Unconsciously,
Vasconcelos gave voice to a common Mexican feeling: hay que mejorar la raza, let's
make the race better; an ironic expression that sees the intermixing of races in a positive
sense.

444
Notes on Vasconcelos from Rochfort, The Murals, and Jos Vasconcelos, The Cosmic Race (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1997).
445
Rochfort, The Murals, 22.
446
In the thirteenth century da Fiore divided the stages of humanity in the Era of God, the Era of Christ and a last Era of the Holy
Spirit which would last a thousand years after the second coming of Christ and before the end of the world. New Advent Catholic
Encyclopedia.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 250
 Figure 37: Jorge Gonzlez Camarena, fusion of all peoples into a unique mestizo race,
Museo Nacional de Antropologa, in Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, 64.
While Minister of Education during Alvaro Obregn's regime (1921-1924) Vasconcelos
initiated a "crusade" giving an impetus to popular education which carries to this day. At
its origins, the most notable character of this "crusade" was its apolitical character,
supported by the belief in the power of Beauty reflected in the arts to cure and transform
the human soul. Rather than involving a political agenda, it was the visionary project of a
man that announced a better world, not just for Mexicans but for the whole humanity.
His belief relied on the conviction of a common ground and a common end for humanity.
The popular exposure to literature and to plastic arts was crucial in making the illiterate
confront the high forms of the manifestation of the "spirit" to positively transform and
involve them into a compelling action towards beautiful manifestations.
As a Minister of Education during the ephemeral government of Ignacio I. Madero,
Vasconcelos convoked poets, dancers, musicians and painters to the task of
reconstructing the country ravaged by the revolution. In his plan, mural painting was
going to be a central instrument for the sensitization of the masses.
In 1912 Vasconcelos contacted Diego Rivera in Paris while he was experimenting with
cubism, convincing him to go to Italy to study Byzantine, Etruscan and Renaissance
frescoes. The walls were distributed among young painters like Jean Charlot, Roberto
Montenegro and Ramn Alva de la Canal giving them complete freedom and not
imposing any aesthetic or ideological dogmas on them.
Octavio Paz wrote eloquently about Vasconcelos:

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 251
 He was inspired in his artistic policies not only by the great examples of the religious painting
of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but in New Spain, specially in the XVI century: in
almost all monasteries of that time, mural painting had a central place. But Vasconcelos,
differently from the Church, gave the artists liberty to express themselves.447

In July 1922, Vasconcelos gave a speech during the opening of the new building of the
Ministry of Public Education where he outlined his historic and cultural project. He
invoked the four figures that appeared in the corners of the main patio of the building:
Plato: the origins of western civilization; Quetzalcoatl: the ancient native civilizations;
Bartolome de Las Casas: the apostolic Christianity, and Buddha: the future synthesis
between East and West made possible by the mestizo Indo-Iberic stirp.
The first period of the movement was a creative and powerful acceleration of the
imagination, a re-encounter with the past and, at the same time the reconstruction of the
country. Octavio Paz points out that this was the doctrine that inspired the origins of
Mexican Muralism, which later derived in different contradictory tendencies with
socialist profiles or dominated by the ideology of the state government. The artistic
movement was seen by Plutarco Elias Calles and his government as an opportunity to
express its ideological agenda defined as revolutionary nationalism.448 Mexican
muralismo became, ironically a revolutionary art and an official art at the same
time.449

3.5 Diego Rivera and the re-invention of Mexican culture

Beyond its artistic merits, the importance of the work of Rivera depicting the pre-
Hispanic past, concerns the great impact it has had on the general public. As Betty Ann
Brown notes:

If you have seen images of the pre-Columbian world on a street side mural in East Los
Angeles, or on a restaurant menu, or on a souvenir box, odds are they were derived from the
work of Diego Rivera, rather than from pre-Columbian originals.450
447
Octavio Paz, Los privilegios de la vista: arte de Mxico, (Mxico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 1987), 230.
448
Paz, Los privilegios, 245-250.
449
Idem,. 230.
450
Diego Rivera, A Retrospective, (Detroit: Founders Society, Detroit Institute of Arts in association with Norton, New York, c1986),
155.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 252
Rivera's painting retook the image of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica and
represented it with renewed eyes, to the point that they became the most important
popular reference of those cultures. Despite Rivera's empathy with the indigenous, his
approach was idiosyncratic. His approach to the natives was as compassionate, but it was
also alienated, like Gauguin's view of the Tahitian natives.

I am thinking on the walls where he recreates with real talent the double lesson of the painters
of the Quattrocento and of Gauguin. This last one was fundamental in Rivera's interpretation
of nature and the Mexican man. The Indians of Rivera come from Gauguin.451

Paz clarified that the aesthetic European revolution initiated by the Romantics in the XIX
century, turned their eyes towards exotic cultures, and that, without those artists, the
Mexican muralists, (Rivera in particular), wouldn't have been able to apprehend and
recreate the Mexican indigenous tradition with renovated eyes. In that sense the
Mexican Muralism at its beginnings, has to be contextualized in a larger cultural
movement that started with the Romantics and not just as a self-recreating movement of
national reconstruction.452
Rivera soon tried to find his way between his communist beliefs, his experience as an
avant-garde painter, his passion for the pre-Hispanic past and also the ideology of the
ruling party. To realize it, he made use of the pastiche or eclectic agglutination of
heterogeneous elements. The word "pastiche" has an ambivalent relation with the words
"past" and "paste. By its reference to the past, it refers to historic elements in an
heterogeneous mixture; the term "paste" recalls to the capacity to amalgamate different
elements with a mixing unifying substance.
"Pastiche" is usually a pejorative term because it does not achieve an apparent synthesis
into a new "style. Serge Gruzinski observed, however, that the pastiche was a part of the
"mestizo strategy" of selective appropriation between cultures.453 The pastiche is in fact a
natural response in certain creative historical moments in which anarchy prevails, like the
period between the two world wars, (avant-garde movements) the first period of the
Spanish Colony (colonial codex) and the post-revolutionary regime in the first half of the
451
Paz, Los privilegios, 232-233. Paz refers specifically to the murals at the Secretary of Public Education and the ones in the
University of Chapingo.
452
Idem., 231.
453
Serge Gruzinski, The mestizo mind: the intellectual dynamics of colonization and globalization (New York: Routledge, 2002).

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 253
twentieth century (Mexican muralismo). It is to note that what is called Mexican Social
Realism -as it is known in Anglophone contexts- rather than reflecting a social reality,
is rather a distortion of social reality. Seen under a more positive approach, it is a re-
invention of society. In Rivera's paintings, there was indeed a juxtaposition of different
historic elements permeated by visionary ideas and personal passions. Rivera's claim of
authenticity is for that reason ironic:

I took great care to authenticate every detail by exact research, because I wanted to leave no
opening for anyone to discredit the murals as a whole by the charge that any detail was a
fabrication.454

Any objection to Rivera's painting would not be towards its sources but towards the use
he made of them. Betty Ann Brown argued that:

Rivera sometimes combined elements and figures in a manner that was both chronologically and
spatially eclectic. What might be termed poetic license by a generous reviewer or historical vagary
by a critic, led him to create scenes involving people separated in time by as much as two
millennia or in space by hundreds of miles.455

The collapsing of characters and artifacts from different places and times in a single
composition shouldn't be so strange, what is questionable is its claiming of being real.
Rivera collapsed, for example, the "holy war, the "war of conquest, the "struggle for
independence, "reformation, "French and American Interventions" and the
"Revolution" in a collage in which these historic conflicts became a single one: they
became mythic.

The Murals at the National Palace: glorifying the Aztecs

In the frescoes at the National Palace, painted between 1929 and 1951, Rivera depicted
his version of Mexican history. The National Palace was situated on the same site where
Moctezuma's palace and the house of the Viceroys had been, along the south face of the
precinct of the Great Temple forming the east side of the main plaza or Zocalo. In this
historically loaded place, Rivera painted an allegorical portrayal of the history of Mexico

454
The past idealized, in Rivera, a Retrospective, 154.
455
Idem., 155.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 254
in two parts: a triptych named, "From the Conquest to the Future, on the walls of the
building's entrance staircase which lead from the ground level to the second level where
he painted around the surrounding corridor eleven panels on movable frames between the
doorways, each of them containing a separate composition having a series of grisaille
below them, emulating sculptural reliefs.
The theme of the frescoes on the top level was: "From the Pre-Hispanic Civilization to
the Conquest. With this division of Mexican history the Spanish conquest represented
something like the birth of Christ for western tradition: the point which divided Mexican
history into "before" and "after.
Up from the patio to the staircase, the first scene is the battle of the Spanish conquest
which represents the dialectic conflict par excellence in Rivera's imagination. For Rivera,
the conquest was the hinge which divided Mexican history into a paradisaical pre-
Hispanic one, and the violent unfolding of history into the future.

Figure 38: First sketch for the National Palace mural at the central staircase where are depicted the battles
of conquest, (center), independence, (above), French and American Interventions on the left and right, and
the Revolution; all of them rotate around a teocalli whose model was the Teocalli of the Holy War. Note
the central motherly figure was eliminated in the final version.
The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan is referred several times in the murals. In the
introductory fresco, Rivera represents the battle between the Spanish soldiers and the
Mexica warriors in its courtyard. Around the battle, other conflicts rotate and unfold:
independence, reformation, American and French military interventions, revolution, and

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 255
a brightly and egalitarian future represented in a series of frescoes that took him twenty
three years to complete; twenty three years in which the country hadn't had a moment of
tranquility.
The triptych of the staircase include two blind-arched side walls flanking a central blind-
arched wall forming a U-shaped surface below a five-part vaulted ceiling. The west wall
faces a broad observation area treated as a continuous panorama. The flanking walls at
either end of the staircase were treated as separate compositions.456
As we can see in a sketch for the mural, (Figure 38, p.255) Rivera planned to recreate the
Great Temple using as model the Teocalli of the Holy War, a Mexica monolith in the
shape of a teocalli with ritual and commemorative engravings (See Figure 31, p.237).457
In this sketch, the teocalli dedicated to the sun was aligned vertically with a monumental
feminine figure, a kind of westernized Coatlicue who watches over the nation's history
from her mountain/altar. A motherly goddess, this figure resembles the regenerative
powers of nature represented at the University of Chapingo by Rivera as female figures.
This central figure seems to allegorically represent a motherly principle that entails
regeneration, growth and care for the nation's children.
For the final painting, however (See Figure 39, p.257), Rivera changed his mind, leaving
only the basement of the teocalli, the solar disk engraved in its facade, and the eagle with
the atl-tlachinolli (burning water) symbol of the florid war in its beak. Rivera also
substituted the feminine figure by historic figures embodying dialectical mementos of
Mexican history.
It seems a real shame that Rivera changed his first sketch of the mural. The reason may
never be known. In such an important fresco reflecting the Nation's self-understanding,
there was, by necessity, a lot of negotiations with the federal government and the
presidency. I can only feel sorry about Rivera's decisions for two reasons: the first is that
the pyramidal structure at the center of the composition reflected the sacrificial
foundational event of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the tenoch or foundational stone, and it
would have also been an interesting blending between painting and architecture, between
the real stairs of the building with the stairs of the painted pyramidal structure, and
between the two, the spectator caught among the battles; that would have given the

456
This triptych was painted in two periods: the west and north walls of the staircase from 1929-30, and the south wall in 1935. The
north and south walls are 7.49 by 8.85 meters and the central west is 8.59 by 12.87 meters.
457
For a fast reference of the monolith's symbolism see Part III, 3.3. Marquina's Reconstruction of the Great Temple.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 256
spectator a greater sense of immersion in the scene. The female figure is the other
lamentable omission. In a scene where war and chaos prevails, the motherly figure would
have compensated the martial themes; the solar character of the ritual reflected in the
solar disk and the eagle with the atl-tlachinolli symbol at the center would have a lunar-
female counterpart with the female figure at the summit of the central axis.

Figure 39:"From the Conquest to the Future," Diego Rivera, Mural at the National Palace, Mexico City:
Detail of the war of conquest, the eagle is at the top of the prickly pear cactus which sprouts from a momoxtl.

As Octavio Paz noted, if there was a Mexican painter who loved voluptuous women and
who loved the world as if it were a voluptuous female substance, if there was an artist
who had reflected the material world as a substance that devoured what existed but, at the
same time, unfolded itself in a constant act of giving: that was Diego Rivera. This first
sketch reflected better Riveras' own inclinations that characterized the best of his frescoes
like the ones at the University of Chapingo and in the Ministry of Public Education's
building.458
458
Paz, Los privilegios, 224-225.
Si el espectador se detiene ante la obra de Rivera, descubre inmediatamente que este pintor no es tanto un materialista
dialctico como un materialista a secas; quiero decir; un adorador de la materia como sustancia csmica. Rivera reverencia
y pinta sobre todo la materia. Y la concibe como una madre: como un gran vientre, una gran boca y una gran tumba.
Madre, inmensa matriz que todo lo devora y engendra, la materia es una figura femenina siempre en reposo, soolienta,
secretamente activa, en germinacin constante como todas las grandes divinidades de la fertilidad. El erotismo monumental
de este pintor lo lleva a concebir el mundo como un enorme fluir de formas contemplado por los ojos absortos y fecundos
de la madre. Paraso, procreacin, germinacin bajo las grandes hojas verdes del principio. Una gran corriente ertica
atraviesa todas sus creaciones. Como en esos microscopios de laboratorio biolgico que tanto le interesan, en sus muros
pululan hombres, plantas, mquinas, signos. Hay algo oriental en esa riqueza de grmenes. Su horror al vaco le hace llenar

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 257
Even though Rivera depicted modern machinery, it did not represent the triumph of man
over the world, but it was more like mythological creatures, monstrous female idols,
Serpent-Earth goddesses from the origins of time: the female principle in its darkest side.
The substitution of the motherly figure reflected a shift in the character of Rivera's mural
painting, from one in which he wanted to represent Mexican history in wider universal
terms, to a more chauvinistic and local one. This transformation may reflect an increasing
concern of Rivera with regards to a dialectic materialist understanding of history; but it
may also reflect a submission towards the Revolutionary Party's ideology.
Rivera did not completely eliminate the presence of the teocalli at the center of the
composition. He left it as a simple platform similar to an altar or momoxtli. This solar
platform, the sacrificial altar appeared as a battlefield of the mythical moment of
destruction of Aztec civilization, the point of departure of dialectical history. This central
platform was seen by the Nahuas as the simplest representation of the universe, from it,
everything rotated, it was the place that aligned with the solar disk and where the eagle
descended, speaking the dual tongue of the gods, with the atl-tlachinolli symbol, where
the water is afire, the principle that embodied regeneration and conflict.
The battle is tense and dynamic and it contrasts with the upper part in which dialectic
materialism is exemplified allegorically, placing the different antagonists of Mexican
history in the five arches of the ceiling (See Figure 39, p.257). The characters in the
lateral arches seemed to represent antithetical forces: Emperor Itrubide/Dictator Santana,
Emperor Maximilian/President Juarez, and so on. In the external arches appear the
French and American military interventions during the nineteenth century while in the
el espacio de figuras, de modo que el muro, cualesquiera que sean sus dimensiones, parece que va a estallar por la presin
de los seres que hormiguean en su interior. Nada ms opuesto a esta repleta inmovilidad de primer da del mundo que el
dinamismo, hecho de oposiciones y reconciliaciones, de una concepcin dialctica de la historia. Y de all que Rivera caiga
en la ilustracin cuando intenta acceder a la historia. Como muralista, es el pintor de la creacin y recreacin incesante de
la materia.
Los privilegios, 230.
Hay, adems, un rasgo que lo separa radicalmente de sus compaeros y por el que se hace perdonar muchos kilmetros de
pintura plana y montona: su amor a la naturaleza y su amor a la forma femenina. rboles entrelazados, flores hmedas y
mujeres que tienen tambin algo de plantas. No pintura materialista sino pintura animista.
Los privilegios, 238-239.
Cmo olvidar la terrestre hermosura de los desnudos de Chapingo? Pero tambin fue un pintor fro: El Diego Rivera
didctico, discursivo, prolijo.
En materia de moral y poltica Diego fue lo contrario de un eclctico: fue autoritario y fantico.
No fue, en dominio estricto de la pintura, un revolucionario o un innovador: fue un asimilador y un adaptador.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 258
middle we find the "synthetic" heroic characters of Mexican history like Hidalgo,
Morelos and Zapata.
From this central point, if we take the stairways to the left hand side, we reach the fresco
of the "Present and Future" of Mexico (See Figure 40, 260). The greedy capitalists and
the exploited workers, the tyrant general Calles, and Karl Marx with the communist
manifesto under his arm, signaling to the proletarians the way towards the future. Behind
Marx the sun rises announcing a bright future.
If we were to go from the middle step to the right hand side instead, we'd go into the past,
to the pre-Hispanic world represented by the messianic figure of a fair haired
Quetzalcoatl and his pupils, reminiscent of a Renaissance fresco of the Quattrocento
alluding to the figure of Christ with his disciples. Rivera adopted the criollo messianic
belief formulated since Diego Durn at the beginning of the colonial period that
Quetzalcoatl was a European man, maybe Saint Thomas himself.
In the same fresco, at the top right side, Quetzalcoatl departs on a flying serpent. A
setting sun announces obscurity to come (the Spanish invasion). The image of
Quetzalcoatl flying is disturbing; it appears as an anomaly within the realist context of
the mural, it represents an exception in its own context, the introduction of a surreal and
mythical element.
Rivera combined two completely different notions of time and space: the modern future
oriented dialectic one which unfolds into an invariable absolute time, and the mythical
cosmic time ontologically tied to the qualitative place of the Mexica. He naturally
undertook the Mexican mestizo strategy of the double ambivalent view, reflected in his
combinatory recipe of artifacts, characters and techniques, like the simultaneous use of
collage and perspective united by his passionate brush.
With regards to the U-shaped structure of the triptych, the figures of Quetzalcoatl
departing in his flying serpent and Marx pointing towards the future are in front of each
other: Marx and Quetzalcoatl are represented as analogous messianic characters.
Paralleling pre-Hispanic mythical past with a Utopian future makes Mexican history
cyclical. The two characters are pointing towards the openness of the patio; the cycle
opens to the future with Quetzalcoatl leaving and promising to return, and with Marx
pointing out to a re-encounter of the past into the future.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 259
 Figure 40: Diego Rivera, Mural at the National Palace. The pre-Hispanic world with the messianic figure of a blond
Quetzalcoatl preaching to his followers and departing on a feathered serpent. Confronting fresco of the contemporary
time of Rivera. The flying Quetzalcoatl appears opposed to Marx in a relation of analogy while at the center,
Quetzalcoatl appears confronted with Plutarco Elias Calles in a relationship of opposition .

The panels of the corridor patio at the fist level were meant, according to Villa-Gmez, to
be a ring which:

had all the projected panels been completed, would circle the patio and join with the left side of
the stairway decoration, thus not only adding artistic splendor and symmetrical decorative
program to the building housing the presidency but also linking the indigenous soul of the nation
to the proletarian social order of the future, this being the logical path for the nation to follow in
fulfilling its destiny. 459

Communism would prevail as communalism such as in pre-Hispanic times: History

would repeat itself again, at a different level. Ironically, this theory may have been taken
from David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rivera's colleague and ideological opponent who had a
similar idea but his idealized past was not that of the pre-Hispanic world but of primitive
Christianity.460 It seems that Rivera took Siqueiros' historic beliefs and replaced the actors
that performed it.
459
Adrian VillaGmez, 1983. Quoted in Rivera, a Retrospective: 263, and in Rochfort, The Murals, 81.
460
Paz, Los privilegios, 269.
En sus escritos se unan los dos extremos: el arte pblico del pasado (sobre todo el del cristianismo) y el arte colectivo de la
nueva sociedad comunista. Sequeiros vea en la Revolucin rusa algo semejante a lo que l crea que haba sido el
cristianismo primitivo, slo que en una etapa histrica ms elevada.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 260
If there is a dimension within Rivera's drawings at the National Palace that invoke the
structure and significance of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, it is the ambivalent
pairing of ideologies, characters and historic periods of Mexican history. The reading of
the fresco is not simple; the characters are related by analogy, like Marx and Quetzalcoatl
but also by opposition: sitting in front of each other as antithetic characters, is
Quetzalcoatl, -preaching to his pupils- and General Plutarco Elias Calles (the founder of
the PNR: Partido Nacional Revolucionario) compromising the nation to the greedy
capitalists. In these antithetic figures a mythological confrontational pair is recreated in a
truly Mexican fashion. This reading of the fresco is revealed by the declarations of Jose
Vasconcelos, a close friend of Rivera during those days, identifying himself as a kind of
modern Quetzalcoatl. He, like the mythical hero, had had to flee into exile because of
political persecution after his fraudulent defeat while running for President against a
candidate supported by Calles. Vasconcelos argued bitterly that the myth of Quetzalcoatl
summarized the whole history of Mexico:

Wherever a Mexican Quetzalcoatl emerged, he was immediately destroyed politically or

physically... we have known long, sterile, evil periods under the sign of Huichilobos the
cannibal!461

Without being totally aware, in his frescoes at National Palace, Rivera managed to
reconstruct the most intrinsic characteristic of the Aztec temple: its ambivalent double
nature. Huitzilopitchli appears again in the criollo reinterpretation of pre-Hispanic
mythology as the antithetic figure of a fair westernized Quetzalcoatl. Huitzilopochtli
(Plutarco Elias Calles) and a Westernized Quetzalcoatl (Karl Marx) embodied
contemporary mythic characters facing each other at both sides of the U-shaped frescoes.
The murals of the corridor patio in the first floor, From the Pre-Hispanic period to the
Conquest were painted ten years later, from 1945 to 1951. The eleven frescoes portray
different pre-Hispanic cultures. The first fresco is named under the chauvinistic title:
"What the World owes to Mexico, then "The Culture of Ancient Mexico, "The Great
City of Tenochtitlan, "The Tarascan civilization, "The Zapotec civilization, "The
Totonac Civilization, "Indigenous Rubber Production, "The Huastec Civilization,
"Harvesting Cocoa, "Maguey Industry" and "The Arrival of the Spaniards in Veracruz.

461
Jos Vasconcelos, Breve historia de Mxico, 5th ed. (Mexico: 1944), 164-171. Quoted in Benjamin Keen, The Aztec Image in
Western Thought, 487.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 261
Except for the last fresco, Rivera underlined the harmonious collective way of production
and commerce among the indigenous downplaying Mexica tribute, slavery and sacrifice.
In the fresco of the Great city of Tenochtitlan(4.92 by 9.71m) (See Figure 41, p. 262),
made in 1945, Rivera, instead of depicting a sacrificial rite, the Mexica image par
excellence, depicted a scene at Tlatelolco's market in two terraced levels backed by an
aerial perspective of the valley of Mexico. The scene wanted to reflect abundance,
collectivism and order.

Figure 41: Mural panel composed by a scene in the Tlateloco's market and an aerial view of the Valley of Mexico.

It is ironic that Rivera placed the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc in Tlatelolco's
market. Tlateloco was not a district of Tenochtitlan but of its twin and enemy brother, a
completely different altepetl whose main teocalli was dedicated to Tezcatlipoca.
Below the mural are five grisaille panels depicting (1) the planting and cultivating of
corn, (2) the harvesting of pumpkins, beans, and fruit, (3) the counting of tribute for the
nobles, (4) the gathering of cotton and weaving of cloth, and finally, (5) the processing of
food.
There is a transition in the treatment of space in the fresco. It goes from plain
representations in grisaille at the bottom to a combination of perspectives with a
panoramic view of the valley at the top of the composition. The grisaille panels stressed
the thickness of depth rather than isotropic space, or avant-garde construction quite
appropriate for Mesoamerican symbolization. Behind the market is the panoramic view
of the valley with the city of Tenochtitlan at the middle of the lake connected by perfectly
straight calzadas. At the vanishing point, we see the huei teocalli surrounded by the rest

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 262
of the teocalli of the precinct. The mountains and volcanoes echoed the shape of the
pyramidal temples.
Rivera opened the perspective with lines pointing either towards the horizon at both sides
of the composition or towards the Great Temple in the center, combining one and two
point perspectives. This may be interpreted as the Mexican way in which Rivera changed
his points of view, his perspective of the world and history. In the one point perspective,
the mythic is stressed while the two point perspective, the perspectiva per angolo
introduces a kind of "collective" view in which the artist declines his personal view in
favor of the collective point of view: an art for the masses.462
From the aerial view, the great organization of the city is evidenced; the grid of the
chinampas, the canals, the roads, the trajineras, and the temples surrounding the main
precinct reveal a social order in accordance to a phenomenal one. Contrary to Marquina's
representations, Rivera succeeds in representing the cellular fabric of the Mexica altepetl,
as a plot of calpolli and calpolco which played in correspondence with the mountainous
background.
Rivera introduced between the scene of the market
and the aerial view, an odd image of the Great
Temple. The exaggerated inclination of the
stairways, the smooth plasticity of its surface, the
filleted corners, its primitiveness, give the
sensation of a plaster model rather than of a real
building. The temple looks indeed as a
spacialized glyph. This was consistent with
Rivera's aesthetic intentions; in fact, all of the
composition has a cartoon like quality, possibly
influenced by fauvism. His representation of the
teocalli is evidently taken from the Ixtlixochtil
Figure 42: Huei teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and
Codex (See Figure 42p. 263). Tlaloc at Texcoco, Relaciones Geogrficas,
Codex Ixtlixochitl, fol. 112.
It would seem revealing that Rivera would feel
more comfortable referring to colonial codex rather than to pre-Hispanic ones. That may
just reveal Rivera's western background and preconceptions, the colonial artifacts are
462
The Galli Bibiena brothers re-created for the first time the two point perspective in which multiple observers are implied as opposed
to the one point perspective view that implies a fixed single observer. See Alberto Prez-Gmez, Architecture and the Crisis of
Modern Science (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1983), 191.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 263
closer to him. Due to a period of adaptation between two completely different visions, the
colonial codex was rude and childish, but it was direct and more universal because its
function was to act as a bridge between cultures. The mural's simplicity intended to
address a wide audience from different backgrounds, and the colonial codex provided a
historic model that suited those intentions.
It is understandable, according to Rivera's materialistic view, that there would be an
emphasis on the economic aspects of Mesoamerican civilizations. Still, Rivera didn't
depict it fairly: he left aside ritual war, slavery and tribute. The pre-Hispanic world was
rendered almost paradisaical. How could dialectic materialism unfold in paradise? It
could only be explained by the violent intervention of Europeans as depicted in the last
fresco which closed the sequence of the eleven panels. At the arrival of the Spaniards to
Veracruz, the greed, cruelty, and moral sickness of the Conquerors was stressed almost to
the level of caricature. Goldman noted that, like other indianists of the period, Rivera
took an advocacy position that "tends to glorify the Indian heritage and vilify that of the
Spaniards as a means of rectifying a historical imbalance.463
For Rivera, the conquest of Mexico acquired a mythical status equivalent to the original
sin in Judeo-Christian tradition. Spanish corruptive avarice was equivalent to the snake's
temptation at the beginning of history. The pre-Hispanic world portrayed as a terrestrial
paradise fell into history as the result of the invasion of the Spanish conquerors.
Rivera's historical rectification did not, however, convey reconciliation within Mexican
contemporary reality. It invokes hatred towards a foreign/fatherly figure and blind
veneration towards an indigenous/motherly one. But, behind the glorification of the
Aztecs (the victims), there subsists a sense of guilt by criollos and mestizos. This
glorification also promotes, (not openly but in evident symbolic terms) the implantation
of an authoritative Westernized model legitimatized by its supposed Aztec background.
The glorification of the Aztecs was certainly promoted by the ruling party.
While the Indigenismo Cientifico of Gamio represented a continuation of the positivist
thinking of the nineteenth century, indianism understood by Rivera represented a
reaction to it. One implied the cultural inferiority of the indigenous, the other their
idealization. One sought technical "solutions, the other historical "justice. For Gamio,
the indigenous people were a "national problem, for Rivera they were a reason to fight

463
Rivera, a Retrospective, 154.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 264
for. Both were reductive, myopic and neither of them promoted reconciliation but
intolerance and hatred.
In spite of this, Rivera re-created a pre-Hispanic world through the passion of his brush as
an exuberant idealized world. His expression was always in a precarious equilibrium
between apparently irreconcilable forces, like the two snakes facing each other in Mexica
iconography. He was the naive/sophisticated interpreter that speculated between symbolic
and mimetic representations, that mediated between the ancients and the moderns,
between Mexicans and Mexica, between myth and history, between the others and the
us. He negotiated styles and ideologies in a process similar to the "mestizo strategy" of
selective appropriation. The irrational and ambivalent character of his ideologies entailed
the capacity to visualize the aporia: historic change and permanence; linear development
and yet the same recurring myth, being and becoming, modernity and tradition. His
changing ideological positions which oscillated between confrontation and reconciliation,
led him to create inconsistent but powerful manifestations. The inconsistency of his
ideology was also the richness of his expression, his creative impulse preceded his
thinking, his paintings opened up new possibilities for action related mostly to his
concern for social justice, his passionate view of the other and his voluptuous passion
for life, but they also recalled violence, hatred, antagonism and conflict.

The temple of the artist: the Anahuacalli

Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo built two important buildings in Mexico City: a
functionalist house in San Angel district, and an atelier known as the Anahuacalli in the
Reloj district, near Tlalpan. The house in San Angel was the design of the architect Juan
O' Gormman while the Anahuacalli is usually attributed to Rivera with O' Gormman as a
consultant.
Formally the two buildings couldn't be more different: while the house in San Angel
reflects the most abstract example of modern architecture, the Anahuacalli resembles a
Mesoamerican teocalli (See Figure 43, p.266). Anahuacalli literally means, house near
water although it also refers to a house in the Anahuac, the Valley of Mexico.
The Anahuacalli was built on the solidified strata of the Xitle volcano by the margins of
Xochimilco lake. The urbanization of those rocky lands, including the National
University and the Pedregal de San Angel, by Luis Barragn, may be seen as a kind of

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 265
return to the stony land of the origins reflected by dryness and sharpness of the black
volcanic rocks, full of caves, but also by the archaeological surveys that uncovered the
ancient civilization of Copilco, the first agricultural civilization established on the valley
which dated from Olmec times buried under the volcano's eruption.
The Anahuacalli is constituted by an exterior esplanade surrounded by separate service
buildings and the massive structure of the studio recalling a pre-Hispanic ritual precinct.
All buildings and the esplanade around it are made with the same black stone taken from
the place suggesting a continuous volcanic strata.
The Anahuacalli is clearly understood by the painter as a "sacred" mountain. The ground
level represents a dark cave. After entering the building, the contrast of the sunny exterior
to the dark interior is almost painful to the eyes. Narrow vertical windows covered with
yellow onyx stone provide a dark yellowish penumbra. Rivera's collection of pre-classic
indigenous artifacts is displayed in this level.

Figure 43: Anahuacalli, Studio of Diego Rivera in Tlalpan as a Mesoamerican teocalli, made from
stone from the Xitle volano.

A small stair leads down to the basement containing a small pool of water and an image
of Tlaloc. Rivera referred, maybe too literally, to the relationship between the sacred
mountain with the watery earth interior as understood by the Mesoamerican people. This

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 266
relates to the now almost vanished Xochimilco lake, but, in a wider sense, it speaks of
cemanahuac, the universe, as a floating island, and the caves, in the interior of the
mountains, as conducts of the liquid source of life provided by Mother Earth.
The Anahuacalli is clearly the design of a painter. As with the Great Temple represented
at the National Palace, its model seemed to be a teocalli's glyph. This is reflected in the
strange cartoon like aspect of the building. While the Indigenous representations of
temples were glyphs rather than copies of buildings, the colonial representations were a
mid-point between a glyph and a copy of a teocalli. Rivera's decision to "spatialize" a
glyph rather than to refer directly to archaeological examples represents a kind of
"involution, or a return before the mimetic understanding of a pictorial representation
introduced by the missionaries. While pre-Columbian glyphs were displaced by mimetic
representations of "real" buildings or artifacts, Rivera retook the glyph as the source of
architecture. The intentions are interesting although the result is awkward. The process of
translation between symbol and architecture was not completed, it feels as if the building
escaped from a colonial codex. What I have said about the childish characteristics of
the colonial codex can be said, to some extent, about architectonic qualities of the
Anahuacalli; it is a hybrid between two totally different means of expression.
The Anahuacalli was a painter's studio made in the form of a teocalli. The studio of the
artist is situated at the summit of the pyramidal cave. It is a square ample sunny space
with wide windows and high ceilings with no external terraces but with a balcony. It was
the place were the artist met with his inspiration, where he became the god of demiurgic
re-creation. The overlapping of forms and uses provokes the juxtaposition of meanings.
In the same manner that Andrea Palladio gave the Venetian villas the status of Roman
temples raising the understanding of humans under a divine aura, the Anahuacalli
converted the act of the painter into a ritual, an act proper of the gods.
The ambivalence of the Marxist Rivera is reflected in the ambivalence of the
Temple/Studio of Anahuacalli. It prefigured the ambivalence of forms and uses between
historic and modern buildings which also appeared in the National Museum of
Anthropology building, in which the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was re-enacted as a
modern museum.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 267
3.6 The National Museum of Anthropology: The Great Temple reinvented

The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City is perhaps the

most important effort to integrate modern architecture and the pre-
Hispanic legacy during the twentieth century. I will try to raise general
questions on transferred historic models, technology, structure,
ornament, myth and politics in Mexican contemporary architectural
practice through a reading of the museum's architecture.
The architect Pedro Ramrez Vzquez has demonstrated a special ability to negotiate with
contrasting different sectors of society. He has designed iconic buildings among which
are the National Museum of Anthropology, the Legislative building of the Federal
Government, the Soccer "Aztec Stadium" and the most venerated pilgrimage site in the
American continent, the Basilica of Guadalupe.
The economic growth of Mexico during the fifties and sixties created a feeling of
stability. This period of "consolidation" after the Revolution had to be manifested with
solid, monumental works of architecture that would exemplify, on the one hand, the
economic social and political achievements of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario
Institucional) and on the other, its historic social roots.
After receiving the commission for the museum, Pedro Ramrez Vzquez asked President
Adolfo Lpez Mateos what he expected from it. The President told him that every
Mexican that visited the museum should feel proud of being "Mexican.464 The program
of the Museum was therefore intended to develop a sense of identity among Mexicans.
The President wished to reinforce the connection between the ancient Mexica and modern
Mexicans, to promote the belief among contemporary Mexicans of being heirs of a great
civilization: to visualize a glorious past for a bright future. The museum was to function,
therefore, as the metaphorical link between the State Party, the Mexican people and the
ancient cultures of Mesoamerica.
But the conditions that gave birth to the museum were not only the political will of the
president and architect, or even the existence of hundreds of pre-Hispanic artifacts
recovered by archaeologists, but the social and political need, after almost two hundred
years of tyrannies and military struggles, to restructure a fragmented history and integrate

464
Pedro Ramrez Vzquez, Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, (Mxico: U.N.A.M., Facultad de Arquitectura, Diana, 1989), 42.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 268
it into a coherent narrative. This need required that the museum functioned as an
orienting device, a referent to the past and a point of departure.
Ramrez Vzquez organized hundreds of historic artifacts, the pieces of a fragmented
history, knitting them in an ambivalent scientific/mythological narrative. The analysis of
the museum and its critique leads to a dead end if we try to find meaning by purely
rational points of view; we have to consider a multivalent and metaphorical capacity of
architecture as poiesis to reveal an existing order which was not evident prior to the
architectonic manifestation.
In a conversation I had with Ramrez Vzquez, he declared he hadn't anticipated any idea
on how the Museum had to "look. He claimed proudly that he hadn't "invented" its
architecture, but rather that architecture was given to him by the existing
circumstances. That is why, according to him, he never developed a personal "style";
because each of his works reflected different circumstances and programs.
According to Ramrez Vzquez, the challenge was to construct a contemporary building
that could "function" as a modern museum, and yet was not alien to the pre-Hispanic
legacy. But a modern architecture implies, by definition, a self-conscious break with the
past and a search for "new" forms of expression.
The question was whether it was possible for a traditional architecture, generated mainly
by ritual observations, to be translated into a modern one without losing its capacity to
express some kind of meaning. Could the museum reflect some aspects of the
Mesoamerican teocalli if the notions of place and time have varied so drastically? Wasn't
it a formalistic and empty transposition, or could the museum acquire an ambivalent, or
even multivalent status and become a kind of reliquary?
On the one hand, Ramirez Vazquez declared to have borrowed and reinterpreted some
forms from history, but, on the other hand, he signaled practical reasons to justify crucial
elements defining the project. His pragmatic and functionalist approach towards
architecture is in accordance with his formation under the school of Jos Villagrn
Garca. Villagrn Garca defined architecture to be a discipline of service, putting on a
secondary level, or even neglecting aesthetic and symbolic considerations. I will argue,
however, that the most significant achievements of the architecture of the Museum
consist in a metaphoric dimension that fortunately surpasses the reductive scope of
Villagrn's formulations.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 269
For the planning and construction of the Museum, Ramrez Vzquez was assisted by
several architects among which were Rafael Mijares and Pedro Campuzano, and by a
large corps of engineers, artisans, laborers, scientific consultants, sculptors and painters.
The architect's role was to direct a massive opera in which the players had diverse and
even antithetical views and understandings of what the museum had to be.
Among so many people working in the project and many tendencies at work, two clear
positions could be recognized: the "hard core" of the scientific school of Manuel Gamio
lead by Ignacio Marquina who was the coordinator of the asesores cientficos in charge
of providing a scientific narrative for the display of the different artifacts, and the
artistic and visionary narrative of the Vasconcelists clearly reflected in the mural
paintings of the different halls. These antithetic tendencies came along together,
intertwining like the serpent heads of the Coatlicoe materializing in a precarious
equilibrium in the architecture of the Museum.465
Ramrez Vzquez considers himself a Vasconcelista.466 We may remember that
Vasconcelos' main plan for the education of the masses, more than the indoctrination in
any ideology, was the exposure to the arts, that is, the exercising of the censorial
recognition of Beauty in human manifestations. Although the original ritual nature of the
pre-Hispanic artifacts displayed at the museum was lost for the modern observer, he may
been able to recognize the intrinsic and powerful directness that vibrates in them, making
them beautiful and terrible. The task of architecture would be, under a Vasconcelean
perspective, to reveal in those artifacts their intrinsic beautiful characteristics.
Vasconcelos believed in reality as one ultimate substance, a unitary whole with no
independent parts. In a monist arrangement there are no real parts, or the parts are
wholes in themselves. The parts are wholes and make, when they are together, a whole.
This sense of wholeness is radically manifested by the museums' architecture and the
organization of the different halls towards a vestibule/precinct.
Ramrez Vzquez affirmed that the generous use of space was characteristic of pre-
Hispanic architecture and that this survived during the colony in the open chapels of the
fortress/monasteries. He argued that this generous use of space" has survived in places

465
President Adolfo Lopez Mateos promoted with enthusiasm public education during his presidential period (1958-1964) assisted in
the Secretary of Public Education by a renowned Vasconcelista, the poet Jaime Torres Bodet. Vasconcelos' desire to bring "classic
culture" to the common people was best achieved after his own death.
466
Personal conversation. November, 2006.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 270
like Ciudad Universitaria which shows a considered relationship between open spaces
and the surrounding environment.467
Ramrez Vzquez also affirmed that pre-Hispanic architects never created a structure that
conflicted with its surroundings. There is indeed a relationship of correspondence
between the architecture of pyramidal platforms and the topography of Mexico, but for
Mesoamericans, transforming nature and taking from it, like opening the earth for
harvesting or making the foundations for building a temple, was an unavoidable
transgression that provoked an ambivalent and shifting feeling of fear/love and a
profound and obsessive desire to restore the disturbed order in sacrificial retributions.
The relationship towards nature was ambivalent, it was founded on respect and
veneration but there was also great fear towards it. This was manifested in architecture
with the sacrificial altar platform or momoxtli the place in which the natural order
disturbed by men was reestablished by ritual sacrifice. Ramrez Vzquez invoked these
existential and even ethical concerns, beyond the aesthetic harmonization of the building
with its surroundings.
The ambivalence in the architect's stated intentions and his underscoring of the functional
over the historic is crucial to understand the "mestizo" process of design. The architect
focused the project with different lenses alternatively, the historic/mythic and the
practical/functional. This shifting of points of view is an unconscious, not rational but
metaphoric process of culture-making.
Concerning the choice of Chapultepec Park to build the Museum, for example, he
signaled that it was an accessible location where 250 000 people could gather in a festive
day.468 He also recognized the historical significance of the place in relation to
Tenochtitlan. Chapultepec constituted one of the earlier Mexica settlements before the
founding of Tenochtitlan. The Mexica considered Chapultepec as a xico, a navel where
life sprouted as water springs. Mexico-Tenochtitlan maintained an "umbilical" life link
with Chapultepec by means of an aqueduct that came from there above the surface of the
lake and reached the ritual precinct of Tenochtitlan.
In the nineteenth century, Emperor Maximilian constructed the Paseo de la Emperatriz, a
diagonal avenue that went from downtown, the former Tenochtitlan, to Chapultepec,
where he had his residence. Every morning he used to go from Chapultepec to the
National Palace, downtown, and returning by way of the imperial avenue where the
467
Pedro Ramrez Vzquez, The National Museum of Anthropology (New York, Abrams, 1968), 16-18.
468
Ramrez Vzquez, Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, 42.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 271
Empress Carlota awaited him. This avenue broke the orthogonal plan of the city traced
with respect to the movement of the sun, it emphasized, yet, the symbolic link between
Tenochtitlan and Chapultepec. With the defeat of the Second Empire by the liberals, the
Paseo de la Emperatriz became the Paseo de la Reforma. Chapultepec is not a neutral
place. It is charged with historic significance, but it may have been, as Ramrez Vzquez
pointed out, the best place to build the Museum because of its accessibility and because
the site was in a free plot in an already densely constructed city.

The Museum

Figure 44: General lay-out of the National Museum of Anthropology..

The Museum is constituted of three main parts: an exterior esplanade, a large vestibule
and the quadrangular patio surrounded by the different exhibition halls with the Mexica
hall opposite the entrance.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 272
Although this arrangement closely resembles a prototypical Mesoamerican Temple
compound, Ramrez Vzquez clarified that this distribution was chosen because it
solved functional problems (See Figure 44, p.272).

...to encourage a casual and fluid circulation by the public, giving it free access to the rooms
either in the consecutive manner or according to personal preferences led to the conception of
a central nucleus of distribution created in the form of a courtyard or esplanade, which on
account of its magnitude might have become a patio. An intermediate solution, (between a
closed patio and a totally opened esplanade) known as the quadrangle layout, was borrowed
from classical Mayan architecture. It consisted of a kind of patio bound by enclosed buildings
that communicated with the outside by means of clear spans of their corners and through
doorways, arranged in register between galleries, thus maintaining a sense of the exterior
merging with the interior.469

Ramrez Vzquez claims the Museum recognized its surroundings; this recognition is,
however, reduced to two apertures of the central patio that goes down to the cafeteria
located at one side of the museum facing the Paseo de la Reforma. This recognition is
more rhetoric than an effective visual relation; there is no direct relationship with
Chapultepec mount nor with Reforma Avenue. The courtyard of the Museum is not,
however, totally closed like the fortress monasteries of the sixteenth century. It
recognizes, although not in an explicit way, that there is something outside itself.
According to Ramrez Vzquez, problems of functionality he found in the Louvre
Museum (before its renovation) gave him insight for his museum's scheme. The linear
sequence to visit the different halls of the Louvre made it impractical and tiring. The
patio/vestibule of the Museum of Anthropology was the consequent "solution" to this
problem. From the central patio, the visitors could directly go to any section they
wished to visit.470
But the Museum of Anthropology's resemblance with a historic model is more than
superficial. The layout of the museum closely followed the archetypal Mesoamerican
temple: the surrounding wall, the courtyard and the altar-temple as is clearly shown in the
plan view (See Figure 44. p.272). The practical and the historic model came together as
the best option for the layout of the Museum.

469
Ramrez Vzquez, The National Museum, 20.
470
Ramrez, Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, 54.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 273
The architect signaled the Cuadrngulo de las Monjas at the archaeological Mayan site
of Uxmal as the formal model to configure the Museum's patio.471 The "Nunnery" is a
magnificent complex formed by platforms and elongated buildings whose facades were
conformed of prefabricated masonry work. The different levels of the platforms and the
separation between the buildings containing a central space allowed a fluid continuity
with the surroundings by the extension of the views from the interior to the exterior and
vise versa. The proportions of the "Nunnery" between the austere ground level and the
ornamented second floor were applied to the Museum's patio. In the "Nunnery" the unity
of the assembly was given by the platforms at different levels, in the museum, on the
contrary, it was granted by the central umbrella.
It is important to point out, however, that the Nunnery doesn't have a teocalli. The
"Nunnery" may have been the palace of a dignitary instead of a ritual complex. Ramrez
Vzquez may have chosen this structure of uncertain program for its aesthetic attributes
as the model of the Museum because it resembled the cubic and neutral orthogonality of
modern architecture.
And yet, in an apparent contradiction with the scientific script, and to achieve the
president's intentions to promote a sense of pride among Mexicans, Ramrez Vzquez
proposed a Mexica temple, with the Aztec hall analogous to the place of the teocalli. This
is clear if we compare the layout of the museum with the Ciudadela at Teotihuacan
unearthed and remodeled by Ignacio Marquina (See Figure 29, p.231).
The Ciudadela is very probably the surviving pre-Hispanic structure that represents most
clearly the paradigmatic Mesoamerican ritual precinct. It is conformed by a ceremonial
plaza with a double teocalli in honor of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc, facing west, and a wide
ceremonial entrance opposite it. At the center of the courtyard there is a stout momoxtli
with stairs on the four cardinal points. Small temples or altars were placed around the
ceremonial plaza, just as the different halls of the Museum.

The Esplanade

A monumental monolith of Tlaloc, god of rain, announces the Museum to the passersby
on Reforma Avenue. Only a blind masonry wall behind the trees can be appreciated. The
esplanade blends naturally with the sidewalk of Reforma Avenue leading the visitor to

471
Ibid, 60.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 274
the austere main facade. A more dramatic access to the esplanade is possible going down
the tunnel under the esplanade used by the cars on their way to the parking lots and
taking the stairways at the middle of the tunnel that lead to the center of the esplanade
confronting the main facade frontally. Approaching the museum from the tunnel it is
clearly revealed as a Mesoamerican temple (See Figure 45, p.275).
The esplanade offers an austere but at the same time monumental entrance. The facade
extends all along the west side of the esplanade; it is composed by two blind volumes of
yellowish masonry with an encrusted white marble horizontal volume at the center. The
eagle devouring the serpent, symbol of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan is
engraved at the top of the central door.
Access to Mesoamerican religious compounds were usually signaled by changes of level.
The up and down movement was a favorite architectonic strategy in Mesoamerican
architecture to delimit places and to mark entrances, a natural movement in the
mountainous Mexico. It was an architectonic response to the topography that recalled the
cyclical understanding of time and space and the sequence and progressions of an
appearing and disappearing landscape.

Figure 45: Entrance to the Museum of Anthropology from the stairs at the center of the
esplanade.
In the museum a similar sensation is created without the up and down movement and
without visual references to the landscape, but through the differences in the heights of
the ceilings and by means of a filtered visibility from one section to the other contrasting

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 275
with sharp difference in light qualities. The shadowy area of the vestibule contrasts with
the sunny hardness of the exterior esplanade of black volcanic stone. One goes from light
to shadow to semi-shadow to light again before entering the artificially controlled light of
the halls.
The esplanade, the vestibule and the patio, maintain the same width and the same ground
level. From the vestibule, a panoramic window as wide as the vestibule itself maintains a
visual relationship with the central patio transferring a sense of monolithic unity. In the
patio we see a huge umbrella through a slightly curved glass window blocked by the
circular marble podium at the center that works as a presidium for official events. Behind
the umbrella the light of the open patio is enhanced by the shiny reflection of a serpentine
aluminum lattice placed all around the second level of the open patio.
This circular podium of white marble of the vestibule clearly recalls a momoxtli, an altar
placed usually at the center of the ritual precincts in front of the teocalli.
The entrance to the central patio is on the right side of the central podium creating a
counter-clockwise processional circuit, like the typical Mesoamerican processions. In the
central patio the sound and breeze of falling water over the black volcanic stone is
dominant. The water falls from the top of the huge umbrella in the fashion of an inverted
pyramid miraculously supported at its lower vertex by the central post.
The quadrangular patio is divided into two. The first part is covered by the umbrella and
the back side is open. The open part of the patio has a pool with water lilies, carps and
turtles in it. The aluminum grid in the open air section is formed by vertical undulating
elements placed along the facade of the second floor. According to the architect, this
lattice functions as an "Arabic jealousy" (celoca) blocking the view to the upper halls,
yet letting the visitors of the second floor see into the patio. The sculptural elements
realized by the sculptor Manuel Felguerez resemble falling serpents.

Ornament and Technology

Ramrez Vzquez remarked that colors and textures in pre-Hispanic architecture

demonstrated an "understanding" of the intrinsic qualities of the building materials. He
also claimed that the indigenous builders recognized and utilized the possibilities of the
sun's light intensity enhancing color and texture":

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 276
 to a degree that these became not accessory values but harmonious elements of structure in
themselves as can clearly be seen in the powerful sculpture of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in
Teotihuacan, the Xochicalco reliefs and the compositions of the main pyramid of El Tajin, or
in any Mayan architecture. Work conceived from such premises enriches the landscape and at
the same time blends with it unobtrusively472

The sun's light, tonalli, was indeed an important element in Mesoamerican architecture,
maybe the most important element. As we saw in the section dedicated to Ignacio
Marquina, teocalli and complete cities were oriented towards the sun. But this orientation
didn't follow "aesthetic" intentions, as Ramrez Vzquez may have suggested. For the
natives of Mesoamerica, the sun gave its vital force as warmth in an act that resembled an
auto-sacrifice. The orientation of teocalli towards the sunset were meant to recognize this
belief and to pay back with sacrifice.
According to the architect, the same building materials and the skilled craftsmanship of
the artisans ensured a "plastic continuity" between the ancient and modern architectonic
manifestations. He also mentioned that the Maya had developed an "advanced"
prefabricated decorative overlay alluding again to the Mayan example of Uxmal. He
assured that it is impossible to conceive the:

precisely executed and marvelously intricate ornamentation of Mayan architecture without

assuming that the builders must have had some pre-set design and a system of mass
production involving precision-methods of assembly and fabrication. Such likelihood of mass
production implies, moreover, the existence of a highly skilled labor force and a disciplined
social organization with great respect for technical achievements and supervision. Manifest in
the purity and profusion of Mayan ornamentation and in the imposing scale of pre-Hispanic
building complexes, is the unity of an era and a group-imagination of constructive boldness.473

To present the Mayan prefabricated ornamentation as "mass production" invoking

precision methods of assembly, pre-fabrication and supervision is, of course, fallacious.
Modern technology implies the instrumental capacity to transform the world. This is in
total discordance with a ritualistic attitude, which was the central issue in Mayan
architecture. Ramrez Vzquez argued that "technical boldness" should be recognized as
another constant in the tradition of Mexican architecture. The huge umbrella represents

472
Ramrez Vzquez, The National Museum: 18
473
Ibid., 19.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 277
without discussion a technical achievement, but, should we understand that technology as
an instrument was a part of ancient Mexican culture as it is understood for us?
There is no precise word in Nahuatl to designate what we call "technology. The word
tecnolotiliztli is evidently derived from Spanish, while amantitztihuiliztli, "technician"
comes from amanteca-tl, -oficial de arte mecnica- originally referred specifically to
feather workers. The word amanteca-tl has the special sense of healer, curandero, while
it is also used as interlocutor, "speaker, which radically contrasts with technician as an
operator and technology as an instrument. In those terms, a tecnolotiliztli represents
someone who reveals, who heals, who makes things appear to the eyes, and who speaks
well, and not a mechanical technician.

The Umbrella

Ramrez Vzquez gave a practical reason for the realization of the central umbrella.
According to him, a portico around the patio was not a good solution to protect the
visitors from the rain because it implied following a linear path from one hall to another.
The umbrella allowed the liberty to visit any hall in a random sequence at any time.

In order to enhance the feelings of spaciousness and permit free circulation at all times in this
essentially outdoor area, it was desirable that part of the patio be covered, especially because
of the annual rainy season. Therefore, borrowing from man's practice of shielding himself
from the elements, the designer used an umbrella-like form to protect the space. Also, since
the museum is situated amid the luxurious vegetation of Chapultepec Park, it was feared that
the rain run-off would be blocked by falling leaves and would result in an uncompensated
load on the umbrella roof. To eliminate this possibility, a circular area concentric with the
column, was opened in the roof to allow the rainwater to drain off freely. Furthermore, to
make this practical necessity into an ornamental feature and to call attention to it, a
continually running stream of water was introduced in the form of a gentle, veil-like
waterfall.474

474
Ramrez Vzquez, The National Museum, 20-23. My emphasis.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 278
 Figure 46: The central umbrella at the Museum's patio.

But the relevance of the umbrella goes beyond its technical achievement. Without being
completely conscious of it, and by paring the practical with the aesthetic, the umbrella
may well be the most interesting aspect of the museum. The umbrella is a fountain. This
pairing of antithetical functions converted the element into a real metaphor, an
architectural poetic image.
It does not seem possible that all the symbolic connotation of the "umbrella" escaped the
architect's intentions. Ramrez Vzquez himself declared that pre-Hispanic architecture
responded to the hierarchical nature of the world, the result of the articulation of
"vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions:

along the vertical axis, the structure exalts divinity; through its horizontals, man remains
linked to earth. Thus architecture, open spaces, and landscape are all fused into a single and
indivisible whole.475

475
Ibid., 15.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 279
When interviewing the architect, he alluded to a cross section of the umbrella as a tree,
reading his own architecture in a different manner from that of the original configuration
as being exclusively practical (See Figure 47, p.281). A huge concrete base with piles
revealed in the cross section resemble the roots of a gigantic ahuehuete, the stout trunk
and the four main branches appear as four open arms towards the sky. The "trunk" breaks
the "foliage" rising to the heavens, the tree's foliage is suspended in fact, by eighty cables
that tie the top of the central post to the exterior of the hanging surface. The real
supporting structure of the "tree" is hidden to the visitor, it appears as if the enormous
inverted pyramidal structure is supported by its vertex: a poetic inversion of the
pyramidal teocalli.
The historic example of the pre-Hispanic cosmic Tree reinterpreted as an atrial cross in
the sixteenth century monasteries is enlightening. Christ appears conflated with the cross.
Christ was the god/tree: a perfect hybrid between Christian and Mesoamerican
traditions.476 It could be argued that the umbrella at the Museum reenacts both, the
Mesoamerican cosmic tree and the Christian atrial cross at the center of the cosmic and
transcendent models, sustaining, separating and connecting earth and sky.
The dripping water reinforces the attraction between earth and sky narrated in the myths
of creation of the world.477 Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, converted into serpents
dismembered and separated the goddess of the Earth who was wandering on the top of
the watery matter in the beginning of time. With the dismembered body of the goddess
they created Heaven and Earth. They acted as serpent/trees/atlas/columns sustaining the
sky. 478 The gods separated and maintained the distance between sky and earth, which
were originally together. This created a tension, a desire to become one again, that is, to
collapse into each other, manifested in rain and thunderbolts as the momentary union of
the primordial elements.
The parallelism between the umbrella and its mythical resonances with the Papantla
Fliers who perform their show outside the Museum is relevant. The performance of the
fliers represents a surviving example of Mesoamerican ritual which involves the figure of
the Tree as the center of the cosmic order, recalling in particular the rituals in honor to
Tlaloc narrated by Durn (See Figure 13 p.121).479
476
See Part I, C.1. The altepetl in the Rhetorica Christiana.
477
Garibay, Teogonia, 103-105.
478
In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan, (a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age) who for his part in
the Titan's revolt against the gods was forced by Zeus to support the heavens on his shoulders.
479
See Part I, B.9. The Tree and the Trinity.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 280
At the top of a post of approximately thirty meters, five people dressed in traditional
attires perform the "ceremony. While one dances and plays a flute and a tambourine on
top of the post in an area of about one square foot, the other four descend circling the
post, tied by the ankle with a rope which surmounts the post, describing in their rotation a
pyramidal structure. Each flier makes thirteen rounds before touching the floor, which
adds up to fifty two: the Mesoamerican "century.

Figure 47: Cross section of the umbrella at the National Museum of Anthropology.
The umbrella hangs from the central post recalling the cosmic configuration
enacted by the Papantla Fliers.

The Promenade between science and myth

The promenade through the different halls of the museum begins on the right side of the
vestibule in a counterclockwise direction following a chronological order. It starts with
the "Introductory room, the "New World Origins and pre-History hall, the "pre Classic
Archeology hall, then the "Archeology of Teotihuacan hall, the "Toltec Archeology
hall, and at the end of the patio, the "Mexica or Aztec Archeology hall. After the Aztec
hall, the chronological order is broken; the rooms are then organized by regions: "The
Archeology of Oaxaca, the "Archeology of the Gulf of Mexico, "Mayan Archeology,
"the Archeology of Northern Mexico, ending with the "Archeology of Western
Mexico. On top of each room is inscribed a quotation which defines the culture exposed
in the different halls.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 281
 The museographical conception was meant to provide a scientifically exact presentation which, at
the same time would be so visually effective that a museum visit might constitute a true dramatic
show and experience. Because the prime concern was to bring the cultural message of the museum
to all its visitors, the architectural aim was not merely to create a space with the usual structural
elements of floors, walls and ceiling, which would provide adequate quarters for observing the
pieces comfortably, but also to create the means of preserving and displaying these properly, to
awaken and enhance the observers interest and enjoyment and to elicit some emotional response
before the relic or work of art. Construction of this building required the utmost in technical
resources and innovation.480

The sequence, description of the pieces and the order of display were given by the
"scientific advisors" coordinated by Ignacio Marquina. A linear promenade was proposed
according to the Western conception of history. This linear conception was combined,
however, with another Western conception of history which seemed to be more
reconcilable with the Mesoamerican understanding of time: Mexican historiography was
divided into Pre-classic, Classic, and Post-Classic, which roughly corresponded to
Boturini's division of eras of Gods, Heroes and Men. This division recognized a kind of
cyclical development of native civilizations; origin, rise and decadence. This organization
allowed a reconciliation between the cyclic and linear understandings materialized in the
spatial sequence of the museum.
Ramrez Vzquez mentioned that each independent hall was meant to be a whole in itself,
prepared by completely different work teams. The halls were not meant to grow with
time even if relevant archaeological pieces were to be found. This gave each hall a
specific character.
The exhibit halls had a single height introductory areas while the exhibition area were
double height. The visitors experienced a sequence of changing ceiling heights; from the
open patio under the "umbrella" to the single height of the introductory area, to the
double height of the exhibit areas and back to the open patio; starting again in a different
hall, creating a kind of cyclical sequence over their heads in which each hall represented
a cycle.

480
Ramrez Vzquez, The National Museum, 29.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 282
The Aztec Hall

Ramrez Vzquez mentioned that:

The chronological nearness to the Mexica culture does not imply it should be considered more
important or more developed than, for example, the Mayan or Olmecan, only that it is the
nearest to us.481 Don Alfonso Caso asked that a phrase that expressed the imperial spirit of the
Aztecs, Cem Anahuac Tenochca tlalpan, "the world is the land of the Mexica, should be
engraved at the entrance. The phrase, however, caused us certain apprehension, so we left it
in the original Nahuatl.482

Figure 48: National Museum of Anthropology, view of the central patio

and umbrella from the Aztec Hall.
This reveals the slippery intentions behind the project of the Museum. Ramrez Vzquez
remarked that the place of honor the Mexica had in the museum was not because they
were the most advanced culture in Mesoamerica, but, because they were the "nearest to
us. He probably meant they were chronologically closer. There are, however,
contemporary cultures of the Mexica like the Mixtecs, Texcocans, Tlaxcaltecan or
Cholulteca that were not even represented in the Museum. The nearness between the

481
My emphasis.
482
Ramrez Vzquez, Ramrez Vzquez en la Arquitectura, 43.
La cercana cronolgica de la cultura Mexica no implica que se considere de mayor importancia o de ms alto desarrollo
cultural que, por ejemplo la maya o la olmeca, sino que es la ms cercana a nosotros. En la Sala Mexica, el asesor, don
Alfonso Caso, pidi que se grabara una frase que expresara el espritu imperial de los aztecas; ponerla en espaol, sin
embargo, nos caus cierta aprehensin, por tal razn la transcribimos en nhuatl. Cem Anahuac tenochca tlalpan, que
significa: "El mundo es tierra de los mexicanos.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 283
contemporary Mexicans and the ancient Mexica was not only chronological but symbolic.
As Paz pointed out emphatically, "they (the Aztecs) inhabit us.
The identification goes beyond the names: the Nahua sentence at the entrance of the
"Aztec" hall revealing Mexica "imperialism" is hidden behind the language barrier
because it caused some "apprehension" to our democratic sensibilities. As we saw in
the section on Diego Rivera, the glorification of the Aztecs was part of the ideology of
the State Party, implying a non spoken but evident legitimization of its hierarchal
structure of domination with supposedly native background.
Ramrez Vzquez was in a precarious situation trying to balance between the "they" and
"us, the "mythical" and the "scientific, the "traditional" and the "modern" the
"institutional and the revolutionary, totalitarianism and democracy. The whole
point was to reach an equilibrium between contradictory positions; with the credibility of
his project at stake.
In another publication, Ramrez Vzquez openly gave the supremacy to the Aztecs:

At the other end of the courtyard is the largest and most important exhibition hall, the Mexica
Room, characterized by a strongly ceremonial air that causes an immediate respectful
response.483

In order to acquire a "strongly ceremonial air, the level of the Aztec hall was raised
some steps with regards to the patio, and contrary to the other halls which have an
introductory area in single height, it has a continuous double height. The layout of the
hall is organized as a nine sections grid with its center occupied by the Sun Stone, the
main relic of the museum. As Octavio Paz observed, the scientific promenade
culminates apotheotically with the sacrificial stone.
Beyond the Mexica hall came the great Zapotec and Maya culture halls, but the climax
has already passed, they are left to one side of the cultures at the highlands at the top of
the "pyramid. And even if we accept the modern arguments of progress, it is
unreasonable to consider the Aztecs as the most "advanced" culture of Mesoamerica. The
Mixtecs or Maya were more sophisticated in their astronomic observations, in their
calendar and numerical systems, in the refinement of the architecture and pictographic
representations.

483
Ibid., 73.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 284
In the architecture of the museum, science and myth are forced together. As Paz pointed
out, "The glorification of Mxico-Tenochtitln in the Museum of Anthropology is an
exaltation of the image of the Aztec pyramid, now guaranteed, so to speak, by science.484
The Museum incarnated the contradictions of the PRI's ideology. It indoctrinates the
masses in the new religion of progress, -a necessary discourse of any modern state,-
finishing with the glorification of the Mexica ancestors.
In the same manner that Mexicans do not question their "Mexican-ness, the symbolic
relationship between the Great Temple and the Museum of Anthropology is
unquestioned. It is not a logical but a metaphoric relationship, it is implied, and therefore,
partly unconscious. An important issue concerning Mexican society is clearly reflected in
the Museum: its ambiguous identity. The paradox is that in order for this symbolic
relationship to work, it has to maintain its ambiguity, it has to keep its mask.
As president Lopez Mateos dictated, there is an evident association between ancient
Mexica and modern Mexicans that played an important role during the process of
configuration of the museum in order to develop a "sense of pride" in the Mexican
visitors. The Great Temple, the Museum of Anthropology, the PRI and the "Mexican"
people were analogized as solid pyramidal institutions.
But if there is an historical aberration within the conceptualization of the Museum, it
should not only be attributed to the PRI or to the architect's intentions, they only
reenacted what had been a common attitude even before the independence from Spain:
the majority of the inhabitants of the territory contributed in what can be called the
"Mexican Dream for the Return": to dream about the powerful nation "we" once were.
The crucial question is about the goal as such: a return to what? To the network of
autonomous altepetl or to "Aztec imperialism" re-interpreted under Westernized
thinking?485 There is an important difference between having as a model a teocalli, and
the huei teocalli of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. One recognizes the principles that originated a
net of independent social settlements, while the other implies centralization and
domination by one of them.
As Paz notes in The Other Mexico, Mexican society, as any other culture, represents a
double face:

484
Octavio Paz, The other Mexico, in The Labyrinth of Solitude and other writings (New York: Grove Press, 1985), 324.
485
This contrasts with the Zapatista revolutionary movement which is also a dream for the return, not to the centralized structure of
domination but to the cellular structure of an organic net of altepetl.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 285
 On one side it is a shield, a wall; on the other a symbol, a covered surface, a hieroglyph.486

The incapacity to read the signs, the hieroglyphs on the face of Mexico, the organic unity
of altepetl and the metaphoric mind, has lead to the imposition of authoritative models
that have alienated a great part of the population.
The cyclic promenade of the Museum finishes again at the vestibule, starting again on the
second level with the ethnographic halls where contemporary indigenous cultures are
displayed. The fact that from the pre-Hispanic cultures we jump to contemporary
indigenous, creates a void which flattens the historical distance. The culture and artifacts
of contemporary indigenous groups are displayed in the museum as living archaisms, as
disturbing echoes of the past. In the logic of progress, those cultures are left behind; they
are displayed because they have their days counted until "progress" reaches them. The
apparently benevolent intentions to include them has not helped to bring them closer to us
but has alienated them even more. It is to note that after a few years, the ethnographic
halls presented a shameful degree of deterioration with regards to the rest of the museum.

Notes on the Museum of Anthropology

As the Aztecs once did, bringing the enemy idols as "prisoners" from the different
altepetl, the post-revolutionary regime brought them all to be displayed according to its
political interests and understandings of history. The housing of the pre-Hispanic artifacts
from all over the country could have been better "solved" by the creation of several
regional museums, reinforcing the social fabric as a participatory net of cultures.
An interesting case is the "abduction of Tlaloc": the huge monolith of the god of rain
taken from the town of San Miguel Coatlinchan to signal the entrance of the Museum
alongside Reforma Avenue. San Miguel Coatlinchan retained pre-Hispanic roots. There
was strong local opposition against the mobilization of the stone. The argument was
simple: they needed it to have rain for their crops. For the authorities in charge these
reasons were ridiculous. The monolith was moved against the will of the locals. While
the "idol" fulfilled its original purpose in its original place, for the modern planner it was
a necessary piece for its "puzzle of pride.

486
Paz, The other Mexico, 215

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 286
The Tlaloc monolith "abducted" by Ramrez Vzquez has a curious parallelism with the
"idols" abducted by the Mexica from the subjugated towns. For the Mexica, however, the
foreign idols retained their magic qualities and were housed in a special temple called the
Coatecalli, "brotherly house.487 In a modern mechanistic understanding of the world the
function of ritual artifacts as mediators is lost, they are harmless. It may have made
more sense for Moctezuma to see the Spaniards throwing the "idols" down from the
teocalli than to see them displayed in the museum. The neutralized artifacts are, however,
recycled: they became the pieces to build a national history and identity. They are the
witnesses of history and devises for orientation that retain a fetishistic aura.
The ceremonial reading of the Museum contrasts with Ramrez Vzquez's explicit
intentions to crate a "scientific museum to serve an educational purpose for a broad
public. Did Ramrez Vzquez accomplish the point in which all positions could stand in
a miraculous equilibrium sparking meaning for the common viewer? Or did he fall into
the eulogy of the Aztecs, promoted by the State Party, hidden behind the mask of science
and democracy?
The only possible answer is ambivalent or better yet, multivalent. Yes, it achieves this
point of poetic meaning, and yes, it also surrenders to the ideological agenda of the State
Party. For Octavio Paz, the non spoken relationship between the museum and the Great
Temple was ominous. Alarmed, he related that the "signs became transparent" as he
realized the significance of the Museum as the re-invention of the Great Temple of
Tenochtitlan. Paz's commentaries were written some months after the unfortunate
massacre of students in October, 1968 by the military forces under the command of the
federal government. For him, there was a repulsive parallelism between the killing of the
students and the glorification of the "Aztecs" in the Museum.

The brutal repression of the students was an instinctive repetition that took the form of an
expiatory ritual. Its resemblances to Mexico's past, especially to the Aztec world, are

487
Maria Rivera, Un buen aguacero cuesta 1500 pesos, La Jornada, May 25, 2002, Back Page, Mexico City edition.
El culto a Tlloc, deriv en la festividad de la Santa Cruz, mezcla de la cruz cristiana y la prehispnica, que simboliza los
cuatro puntos cardinales y la planta del maz. Esta fiesta se preserva todava en varias comunidades indgenas, como
celebracin pagano-religiosa "Cuando estaba la piedra (comenta Gabriel, un "granicero" aludiendo al monolito de
Tlloc, que se encontraba en la vecina comunidad de San Miguel Coatlinchn), bamos a visitarla. Entonces caan por aqu
hasta tres aguacerazos al da. No echbamos abono a las siembras, porque haba suficiente agua. Pero todo fue que se la
llevaran y toda la lluvia se fue para Mxico. Era una adoracin de los de antes. Dicen que es malo adorar una piedra, pero
yo pienso que Dios le dio bendicin y espritu. Est viva la piedra esa. Tiene corazn! Cmo desde que se fue dej de
caer agua aqu, y ahora en Mxico les llueve a cada rato?"

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 287
 fascinating, frightening, and repelling. The massacre at Tlatelolco shows us that the past
which we thought was buried is still alive and has burst out among us. Each time it appears in
public it is both masked and armed, and we cannot tell what it is, except that it is vengeance
and destruction. It is a past that we have not been able to recognize, to name, to unmask.488

Octavio Paz signaled the possible totalitarian consequences of a modern state which
identified itself with historic/mythic civilizations. He said of the National Museum of
Anthropology:

It is not a Museum, it is a mirror except that in its symbol-crammed surface we do not reflect
ourselves but instead contemplate the giganticized myth of Mexico-Tenochtitlan with its
Huitzilopochtli and his mother Coatlicue, its tlatoani and Serpent Woman, its prisoners of war and
hearts-as-fruits. In that mirror we do not see deep into our own image: we adore the image that is
crushing us.489

To enter the Museum of Anthropology is to penetrate an architecture built of the solemn matter of
myth.490

This exaltation and glorification of Mexico/Tenochtitlan transforms the Museum of Anthropology

into a temple. The cult propagated within its walls is the same one that inspires our schoolbooks
on Mexican history and the speeches of our leaders: the stepped pyramid and the sacrificial
platform.491

We have to agree with Octavio Paz that the pairing of myth and modern thinking can
easily result in totalitarianism as has been experienced with Nazism, Communism and
Liberalism. The dangers of falling into a unilateral image of how the world "has to be"
legitimized by god, by law or by ancestors, must be confronted by its critique:

If politics is a dimension of history, a critique of history is likewise political and moral

criticism. We must oppose the Mexico of the Zcalo, Tlatelolco, and the Museum of
Anthropology, not with another image -all images have a fatal tendency to become petrified-
but with criticism, the acid that dissolves images. In this case (and perhaps in others),
criticism is but one of the imagination's ways of working, one of its manifestations. In our age
the imagination operates critically. True, criticism is not what we dream of, but it teaches us
to distinguish between the specters of our nightmares and our true visions. Criticism is the
488
Paz, The Other Mexico, 236.
489
Ibid., 321-322.
490
Ibid., 322.
491
Ibid., 322.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 288
 imagination apprehended in its second turn, the imagination cured of fantasies and
determined to face the world's realities. Criticism tells us that we should learn to dissolve the
idols, should learn to dissolve them within our own selves. We must learn to be like the air, a
liberated dream.492

In spite of Paz's sharp declarations unveiling the Museum as a Temple and its ominous
association with the PRI, we have to recognize that the Museum is not just a teocalli, that
the PRI is not quite "the Aztec Empire" and that, for some reason, it hasn't become the
totalitarian regime Paz was so afraid of. The Museum is still a museum which fulfills
pedagogic scientific and even aesthetic necessities. It also fulfills its central role as a
device of cultural orientation that goes beyond political ideologies, and, although the
organization of the museum is mediated by a Westernized vision of history,
contemporary Mexicans are far more Western than what they are willing to accept.

492
Ibid., 324-325.

Part III. The Great Temple and the Post-Revolutionary Regime 289
General conclusions
According to Nahua metaphoric way of acting and producing culture, these conclusions
are paired to create tension and movement, accommodation and differentiation, progress
and return, poetry and knowledge. They have to be presented in a way in which they may
give, if not answers, impetus to produce meaningful manifestations, and as architects,
impetus to re-create places to interact as coates, carnal/twins.
It is crucial to recognize, therefore, the irreducible tension produced by the fact of being,
simultaneously, from the same flesh and totally others among ourselves and between
us and the world. In other words, it is crucial to address the double nature of
humanity, its inherited carnal bind to the world, and its mortal nature which project our
conscience towards something other.

Altepetl / Empire

In the same way that Sahagn reshaped Nahua culture under Christian categories, those
in charge of restructuring the urban and architectonic institutions reshaped the physical
organization of the altepetl under their own understandings. For the Spaniards, these
communities were formless and unbound, but, they were, in reality, perfectly organized
and determined; only the logic of their organization was different from the one of the
Europeans. The Spaniards tried to concentrate natives in more densely populated urban

General conclusions 290

areas. The most notorious consequence of the colonial arrangement was the polarization
between urban and rural and the disproportionate hierarchical weight of the capital,
subordinating local authorities to the political and religious hierarchies of the Spanish
Crown and of the Catholic Church.
During this process of adaptation, there were interesting coincidences and resonances
between the natives and Europeans which promoted their mingling, but there were also
differences and misunderstandings which continue to be carried in contemporary
Mexico . The most radical one is very possibly the vision of a monolithic Aztec Empire
overriding the real existence of a group of civilizations of native cultures in
Mesoamerica.
After Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the disproportion between the capital
and the different communities grew, giving more impetus to Western hierarchical
models. A sense of guilt and illegitimacy lead the creoles and mestizos to glorify the
Mexica and to identify with them, legitimizing, at the same time, a totalitarian scheme
with supposedly native background.
As I have tried to demonstrate through some well-known primary sources, even when the
Mexica had the strongest dominion within the Anahuac, Mesoamerican societies had to
be considered an assemblage of nations which considered each other as totally different
(some of them confederated, some in constant conflict), and never as an Empire or
Nation. They were best compared by Lockhart as cells which could integrate or
separate from the organism that gave them origin and migrated, adapted and expanded, as
far as the circumstances were adequate to recreate, not only practical necessities, but
symbolic references to their place of origin.
In spite of the strong imposition of the Western imperial, and later, modern models
perpetuated until today by the liberal PRI regime, its conservative successor, the PAN
and the leftist democratic party PRD (the Party of the Aztec Sun!), the altepetl has
managed to survive not only in native speaking communities, but also in mestizo Spanish
speaking ones.
The logic of the altepetl organization is still ruled by a symbolic representation of the
place of origins, which is, simultaneously a representation of the cosmos. This
organization appears first of all at the level of symbolic relationships, giving these
communities the strength of being transparent or even invisible to the Western eye. The
identification of the altepetl organization in today's communities is a matter of study by

General conclusions 291

scholars and these studies should be extended to communities of Mexicans migrating to
the United States.

Huei Teocalli / Great Temple

Just as the Mexica were seen as the Romans of the New World, their main temple,
the teocalli of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc was seen as a kind of St. Peter's Cathedral, the
headquarters of a theocratic Empire. Huizilopochtli was the principal god of the
Mexica in general, and in particular, of some internal faction. But it is a fact that each
district had their own patron god with its own cult and architectonic institutions which
had some autonomy among themselves.
The different altepetl considered themselves as being completely different people.
Although they worshiped the same gods, each of them had, likewise, their own hierarchy
of priests that did not depend on the ones of other altepetl, not even Tenochtitlan's.
The fact was that the Mexica appropriated the Toltec gods and culture from other towns,
and not the opposite way, and although the cult to Huizilopiochtli was promoted by
Mexica influence, the reality is that all of them maintained a considerable degree of
politicAL and religious independence.
Regarding the adoption of historic models for political, social or architectonic action,
there is an important difference between recognizing and supporting the existence of the
altepetl as a native way of being in the world, and appropriating a westernized Aztec
model. There is, likewise, a crucial difference between taking as a model a teocalli and
taking The Great Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as a model. One promotes autonomy
but also integration. It relies in both a phenomenal alignment with the place and the
surroundings, but also in a symbolic reference to the place of origins: Aztlan, Tollan,
Chicomostoc, Huehuetlapalan, Oyome, and so on, which are likewise models of the
cosmos: Cemanahuac. The other model, the supposedly Aztec one, promotes
domination, dependency, and authoritarianism.

Teocalli / Monastery

The Franciscans constructed Christian monasteries over the native teocalli. From the
native point of view, these buildings were strikingly resonant with their original ones.

General conclusions 292

Aside from their formal analogies (both being basically an altar within an enclosed
courtyard), I argue that the most important similarity was a kind of portability, a certain
degree of autonomy with regards to the place where they were sited.
They were somewhat independent from the place, but also from each other. For this
reason, both institutions had a great flexibility to adapt to different circumstances. What
made a teocalli and a monastery really similar was the fact that they had a referent
beyond themselves and beyond the place where they were situated, one being the place
of origins, Tollan, Colhuacan-Chicomostoc, Aztlan, and the other the biblical
Tabernacle in the Desert.
From the Franciscan point of view, however, they were completely different institutions.
While the symbolic referent of the Nahua ritual precinct was the place of origins, the
Tabernacle in the Desert, was the product of a revelation from a transcendent God to
man. The Tabernacle in the Desert was totally placeless. It did not really matter where
it was situated. A teocalli, on the contrary, had to be situated in a place that could recall
the place of origins symbolically but also physically. This makes Nahua foundational
rituals depend not only on a revelation by a god but on a recognition of the elements that
recall this primordial land. These two different referents promoted a totally different
relation to place: while one implied a careful weaving between the architecture and the
cosmos, between the natural and the social, the other implied the construction of an ideal
structure, that is, an irruption or an imposition of the ideal into the world of experience.
An other important difference between the two institutions was their relationship with
time. While one recreated the present as mythical, that is, it magnified the present as
eternal, the construction of tabernacle/monasteries prepared the conditions for the
advent of the second coming of Christ and its kingdom on earth for a thousand years
before the End of Time. This created in the native mind a displacement from the ritual to
the theatrical, that is, from the real enactment of the mythical time to its mere
representation. It also transferred the focus of attention from the here and now to the
there and after.
While the millennial Franciscans tried to implant autonomous institutions to prepare for
the end of time, the Dominicans focused more on the temporal aspect of the missionary
enterprise, i.e., being Solomon's Temple, rather than the Tabernacle in the Desert. The
Dominicans had, likewise, a more temporal sense of justice. The issue was not only the
salvation of indigenous souls but the equality between natives and Europeans. In that

General conclusions 293

sense, the Dominicans appeared to be closer to the modern project of constructing the
Utopia than the Franciscans.
While the Mexica lived their myths "here and now, the modern world portrays an ideal
world in the future. The task of contemporary men would be to recognize and engage
with the cycles of the cosmos, to feel an empathic relationship with the world. In Octavio
Paz's words: to insert the "now, explosive and orgiastic by nature, in the time of history.
And at the same time, to visualize the possibilities of actively constructing a better world.

Teocalli / Museum

Just like the Mexica once brought the enemy idols as prisoners from the different
altepetl, the post-revolutionary regime brought them all to be displayed in the National
Museum of Anthropology according to its political interests and contradictory
understandings of history. The housing of the pre-Hispanic artifacts from all over the
country could have been better "solved" by the creation of several regional museums,
reinforcing the social fabric as a participatory net of semi-autonomous cultures. Beside
the necessity to reconstruct and recreate the historic memory in which many cultures
were included, there was also authoritarianism demonstrated in the case of the monolith
of Tlaloc which was brought to the Museum in spite of local opposition.
The model for the Museum of Anthropology is a Mesoamerican ritual compound. This
can be two faced intention. There is an important difference between having as a model a
teocalli or having as a model the huei teocalli of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Fortunately, the
architecture of the Museum goes beyond the ideology of political parties in power. The
museum represents a reliquary of artifacts which are recycled as parts of the puzzle of
history succeeding in recreating a mystic aura, and at the same time, neutralizing them.
Ramrez Vzquez shifts between the functional and the historic, between a sacralized
museum and a desacralized temple. The Museum/Temple is not a temple or a
museum; it may be considered a post-modern hybrid institution. The museum embodies a
hybrid category -not rational, but poetic- of space, which is not isotropic or totally
qualitative. The narrative that plots its spaces also oscillates between a linear and a
cyclical concept of time and history.
The structure of the museum reflects a wider aspect of how Mexicans still construct
reality: by confronting contradictory pairs as the result of the hybridization of culture, the

General conclusions 294

mestizo strategy. This way of constructing reality (and architecture) reflects the fact that
Nahua language is still active in the Mexican psyche, full of layers, resonances and
contradictions.
Ramrez Vzquez intended to make a modern museum although one not alien to the
Mexican pre-Hispanic tradition. This seems paradoxical considering modernity is a
constant negation of traditional models. Ramrez Vzquez, however, didn't seem to find
any contradiction in his intentions. What is most interesting is that while the combination
of pre-Hispanic and modern architectures was a central issue during the configuration of
the project, the elements that best evoked pre-Hispanic tradition were not evident to
Ramrez Vzquez himself. The intentions of the architect seemed to be unconsciously
subverted by a primordial ethical base.

Tree,/ Cross / Umbrella

The vision of the pre-Hispanic world rendered in the Museum of anthropology was
necessarily mediated by western pre-conceptions and also by the political ideology of the
State Party. In spite of this, I believe there exists a dimension in the architecture of the
museum that is both authentically native and universal at the same time. There is a
natural combination of native and modern elements that can not be analyzed under the
light of rational thought, but can only be apprehended by poetic imagination which is not
exclusive to indigenous people but which works also in the creative work of mestizos and
of criollos.
This is most clearly exemplified by the central umbrella in the courtyard. When I asked
Ramrez Vzquez about its significance, he was emphatic in maintaining that it had no
symbolic connotations, but had originated solely from the practical necessity of covering
people from rain and sun, and allowing visitors to move freely (from hall to hall) without
any pre-established itinerary.
The fact remains, however, that the umbrella resonates strikingly with the pre-Hispanic
tradition. It directly recalls the ahuehuete tree planted at the momoxtli during the
celebrations of the god of rain. The umbrella does protect people from rain, but it also
makes rain, providing a joyful micro-climate within the patio. This subverts an otherwise

General conclusions 295

practical intention, and converts it into a poetic event, beyond the architects original
intentions.
A cross section of the umbrella reveals how the structure hangs from the central post,
recalling the Nahua rituals to actualize the limits of the cosmos in which thick ropes were
tied from the central tree to four other trees. It also shows that the umbrella is a bold
inversion of the pyramidal mountain/altar, as if reflected by a mirror into the sky, where
its true nature is revealed.
In the cross section we can see the large foundations as roots, recalling the dual
connotations of the cosmic tree again, which is at once the tree of life and the tree of
death. It is significant that during my interview with Ramrez Vzquez, upon seeing the
sectional drawing of the umbrella he remarked: it is a tree!
Just as in the sixteenth century the monasterys courtyard crosses were reinterpreted by
the natives as surrogates of the cosmic tree, so the umbrella at the Museum seems
perhaps unconsciously- to invoke its structure and significance. That is to say, it invokes
not only the form of a tree, but also its ethical/practical concerns and its metaphoric
transformation into a fountain that makes rain.
The thread that connects the three central elements of the historic buildings, (teocalli,
monastery, museum) -tree, cross and umbrella,- is their ethical dimension. There is a
relationship between the desire to have a balanced cosmos, the cleansing of the soul and
the cleansing of the atmosphere, all of them related to water. These elements have a role
as points of existential, transcendental and physical reference.

Coatepec / Tlalocan

The Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, named the Coatepec by the
indigenous informants of Sahagn, lies at the foundation of Mexico City. The temple
conveys its ethos to the city and its inhabitants. Its presence still strongly reverberates in
places like the Zcalo, the National Palace, the Cathedral and the Museum of
Anthropology.
But what made the place meaningful to the Mexica that settled down there around 1325 is
that it recreated the place where they were supposedly coming from. The Mexica, like all
other Nahua groups, recognized within the landscape their mythical narratives. A dual

General conclusions 296

vision permitted to accommodate their own narratives with the narratives of the people
that inhabited the places where they were arriving. In that sense, there was a careful
alignment of the buildings and place to recreate complex and juxtaposed representations.
In the Codex Aubin it is narrated how Tlaloc, the local god of rain, gave the welcome to
Huiztilopochtli, the patron god of newcomers, inviting him to be his coate and to share
the same house with him. The dual temple, therefore, impersonated both, Coatepec, the
place of birth of Huitzilopochtli, where he had fought with his sister Coyouxahuqui, and
Tamoanchan, the paradisaical mountain where Tlaloc lived. This ambiguous relationship
of the coates was materialized in the double structure of the Coatepetl shared by both
gods: Huitzilopochtlis shrine was at the south side of the uppermost platform and Tlaloc
s was to the north side. This association implied alternatively, or even simultaneously,
reciprocity and conflict, communion and violence, hospitality and hostility, debt and
fulfillment, birth and death. Both sides of the relationship being, to the Nahua mind as
equally positive.

National / Universal

Clavijero was already a modern historian and his mission was temporal: historic justice
and the shaping of a national character capable of embracing the wide mosaic of cultures
living in Anahuac. His understanding of Mexican history, reducing the mosaic of cultures
to one nation, leaving the European component marginalized, would prevail among
both liberal and conservative thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in
independent Mexico.
Clavijero imagined a nation called Anahuac. But Anahuac, rather than being a
political and social entity was another name to designate the universe. This was an
image of the world as an island shared by a conglomerate of cultures who considered
themselves as totally different from each other. They never understood their political and
social institutions as a society united by a central state, even though one had military
dominion over the others.
Clavijero was, however, not just motivated by a nationalist agenda. He was, after all, a
citizen of the world. Rather than glorifying the Mexica, he tried to insert them in a wider
universal context signaling that they had, as any other nation of antiquity, a beginning,
an apogee and a decline. Clavijero's greatest accomplishment was his awareness of being

General conclusions 297

at the crossroads, and his clear desire, not only to be fair, but to moderate between
positions.
In a time that tended towards polarization, he succeeded in the difficult task of mediating
between a modern rational conscience and a conservative traditional one which still relied
on religion. It is important to note that Clavijero's writings were equally prized by
conservatives and by liberals during Mexico's struggle for independence.
Clavijero's modern and traditional views intended to bridge the chasm between the "us"
and the others, the New and the Old Worlds and between creoles, natives, and
mestizos. Despite its historical shortcomings, his position is still relevant today.

Ritual /Technological

Before the modern instrumental control of nature, sacrifice was the way to propitiate
good crops. On the sacrificial momoxtli, life was offered in order to have it back as corn
and beans. Modern technology overrides the reciprocal character of sacrifice. Human
action towards Nature becomes unilateral because the modern world is no longer
considered a living entity, but a thing, and, moreover, a thing to be overcome: what really
counts is a reality beyond the world, which the image of the world has to be transformed.
Modern isotropic space has neutralized the magnetic centers and blurred the limits of the
cosmos represented by the momoxtli and the walls in the ritual compounds, fueling the
idea of a limitless world. The limits of human action as the limits of absolute space have
become infinite.
Mexico City, the ancient Tenochtitlan, has since extended beyond all proportions; its
mountainous boundaries are now blurred by residual substances and advertisements, and
the lake, the paradigmatic limit of the Mexica universe, has been covered by asphalt. The
profound relation of the inhabitants of the valley with their surroundings has been
systematically debased.
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, like most altepetl, did not have a surrounding wall to define its
territory. At first sight we may visualize the possibility of a continuous undefined growth
by the addition of chinampas. I think, nonetheless, that the organization of the city in
calpolli controlled the growth of the city. Its structure had to match their understanding of

General conclusions 298

a limited cosmos reflected in the calendar. A constant undefined growth would have
debased the plot of districts.

Scientific Indianism / Revolutionary Nationalism

The Indigenista project of Gamio and the archaeological surveys and reconstruction of
Marquina represented a massive enterprise undertaken with enthusiasm during periods of
political and social uncertainty; it was, however, a top down intervention which lacked
participation from the studied cultures. The "Indians, were not invited to participate in
the re-creation of their own past. The archaeologists had the ruins ready for official
inaugurations and the cameras of the tourists, not for the promotion of a sense of pride
among the real heirs of those cultures. While their ancestors were revered, the living
indigenous were alienated. The reconstruction of the archaeological sites has not brought
pride to the native communities, nor has it helped to understand the contemporary reality
of Mexico.
The modern architectural institutions that accompanied the modernization of the country
after the revolution, (the rural school, the rural clinic, the prototype house, etc.) were not
a variation or reinvention of their own institutions of teaching, healing and dwelling but
rather the imposition of alien practices which overthrew traditional ones. Oral tradition
was marginalized, schooling was exclusively in Spanish, and ancient knowledge of plants
and remedies was obliterated by allopathic medicine.
Aside from the Scientific Indianism there was another kind of Indianism which was
meant to amend historic injustice and attend a kind of historical rectification. This was
the indianism of Diego Rivera. Rivera's historical "rectification" does not, however,
convey reconciliation within Mexican contemporary reality. It invokes hatred towards a
foreign/fatherly figure and blind veneration towards an indigenous/motherly one.
This retribution to the Indians easily falls into the glorification of the Aztecs promoted
by the state party as part of its National Revolutionary ideology. As I have suggested,
behind the glorification of the Aztecs, (the victims) there subsists a sense of illegitimacy
and guilt by criollos and mestizos who have usurped Mexica identity. This glorification
promotes (not openly but in symbolic terms) the implantation of an authoritative
Westernized model legitimatized by its supposedly Aztec background.

General conclusions 299

While the Indigenismo Cientifico of Gamio represented a continuation of the positivist
thinking of the nineteenth century, indianism understood by Rivera represented a
reaction to it. One implied the cultural inferiority of the indigenous, the other their
idealization. One sought technical "solutions, the other historical "justice. For Gamio,
the indigenous people were a "national problem, while for Rivera they were a reason to
fight for. Both were reductive, myopic and neither of them promoted reconciliation but
intolerance and hatred.

The scientific eye / the serpent's way

Marquina's recapitulation of all the sources around the Great Temple revealed layers of
living history, his interpretation of the facts was, however, limited by his scientistic
views, not letting intuition or even common sense to be a part of the reconstruction.
Although Marquina never tried to glorify the Mexica, representing them as objectively
as possible, his interpretation was highly distorted.
By conceptualizing the Mexica as an Empire, he failed to understand the cellular
disposition which formed the ritual complex that implied a net of social interaction and
participation. He didn't find relevant the relationship between the ritual calendar and its
incarnation in the fabric of the city, that is, between the crucial role of architecture as
mediator between man and cosmos.
If we compare his representations with those of Diego Rivera, it can be said that Rivera
re-created a pre-Hispanic and exuberant idealized world. Although his re-creations were
totally fabricated, they provided an imaginary world to which Mexicans could relate.
Rivera's social realism was a particular view point. It recreated an exotic portrait, a
limbo far away from experience. He succeed, however, in the best of his representations
to recreate an art based on history, and at the same time, completely new.
These representations were always in precarious equilibrium between apparently
irreconcilable forces. He speculated between symbolic and mimetic models, between
ancient and modern ways of expression, between the cyclical and the future-oriented
notions of time and history. He also negotiated styles and ideologies in a process similar
to the "mestizo strategy" of selective appropriation. The ambivalent nature of his
paintings permitted to visualize the aporia: historic change and permanence; linear

General conclusions 300

development and yet the same recurring myth, being and becoming, modernity and
tradition.

Epilogue: Back from solitude

As Paz stated in The Labyrinth of Solitude,493 self-discovery is above all, the realization
that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall -that of our
consciousness - between the world and ourselves. What we share with others is our
condition of being in solitude. In that sense, solitude is the precondition of any action.
To transcend solitude, to fuse with the cosmos, to make the present eternal, to face the
other as oneself, the ancient Nahua performed sacrificial rites. It is commonly thought
that the eradication of human sacrifice has been an unequivocal moral victory of western
civilization. We may have abandoned with it a sense of responsibility towards the living
world. Had the notion of isotropic space, separated from the world of experience, not
been so pervasively present in the minds of architects and politicians, the world we have
constructed might still be our home and not a transitory purgatory from which we must
escape or radically transform.
Whereas Nahua people tried to maintain a balanced cosmos and avoided, or at least,
postponed as much as possible, the end of the Fifth Sun, the Christian missionaries meant
to hasten the end of times by constructing an ideal model on earth as a preparation for the
end of time. With modernity, the Christian vision to impose the construction of an ideal
order has been magnified, disrupting the existing balance between the planet and its
living creatures.
It is not my intention to restate the human responsibility to the world, but more modestly,
to promote our personal and professional reconciliation with the space between altar and
wall, where the twin brothers face each other the way we daily observe in mirrors our
mortal destiny. Rather than stressing our irreconcilable otherness, we have to
acknowledge the common mystery of being alive, in common solitude, and rather than
understanding our lives as exiled on earth, we have to start recognizing Earth, as a our
real home: our gift from the gods.

Octavio Paz, The Laberint of Solitude, 9.

493

General conclusions 301

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