After the Spanish invasion, the Aztecs struggled to understand the fate that had befallen them. Many sought answers in religion, by recounting omens that preceded Cortés’s arrival. The following description comes from the Florentine Codex, a history of the Aztec conquest written by Indians under the training and observation of Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahgahún in the middle of the sixteenth century. As you read the excerpt, pay particular attention to the imagery employed in each omen. What kinds of events were linked to the arrival of the Spanish? What do the omens tell you about the place the Aztecs assigned to the arrival of the Spanish in their own history?

The first bad omen: Ten years before the Spaniards first came here, a bad omen appeared in the sky. It was like a flaming ear of corn, or a fiery signal, or a blaze of daybreak; it seemed to bleed fire, drop by drop, like a wound in the sky. It was wide at the base and narrow at the peak, and it shone in the very heart of the heavens.

This is how it appeared: it shown in the eastern sky in the middle of the night. It appeared at midnight and burned till the break of day, but it vanished at the rising of the sun. The time during which it appeared to us was a full year, beginning in the year 12-House.

When it first appeared, there was great outcry and confusion. The people clapped their hands against their mouths; they were amazed and frightened, and asked themselves what it could mean.

The second bad omen: The temple of Huitzilopochtli burst into flames. It is thought that no one set it afire, that it burned down of its own accord. The name of the divine site was Tlacateccan [House of Authority].

And now it is burning, the wooden columns are burning! The flames, the tongues of fire shoot out, the bursts of fire shoot up into the sky!

The flames swiftly destroyed all the woodwork of the temple. When the fire was first seen, the people shouted: “Mexicanos, come running! We can put it out! Bring your water jars . . . !” But when they threw water on the blaze it only flamed higher. They could not put it out, and the temple burned to the ground.

The third bad omen: A temple was damaged by a lightning bolt. This was the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli, which was built of straw, in the place known as Tzonmolco. It was raining that day, but it was only a light rain or drizzle, and no thunder was heard. Therefore the lightning-bolt was taken as an omen. The people said: “The temple was struck by a blow from the sun.”

The fourth bad omen: Fire streamed through the sky while the sun was still shining. It was divided into three parts. It flashed out from where the sun sets and raced straight to where the sun rises, giving off a shower of sparks like a red-hot coal. When the people saw its long train streaming through the heavens, there was a great outcry and confusion, as if they were shaking a thousand little bells.

The fifth bad omen: The wind lashed the water until it boiled. It was as if it were boiling with rage, as if it were shattering itself into a frenzy. It began from far off, rose high in the air and dashed against the walls of the houses. The flooded houses collapsed in the water. This was in the lake that is next to us.

The sixth bad omen: The people heard a weeping woman night after night. She passed by in the middle of the night, wailing and crying out in a loud voice: “My children, we must flee far from this city!” At other times she cried: “My children, where shall I take you?”

The seventh bad omen: A strange creature was captured in the nets. The men who fish the lakes caught a bird the color of ashes, a bird resembling a crane. They brought it to Motecuhzoma [the Aztec leader Montezuma] in the Black House.

The bird wore a strange mirror in the crown of its head. The mirror was pierced in the center like a spindle whorl, and the night sky could be seen in its face, the hour was noon, but the stars and the mamalhuaztli could be seen in the face of that mirror. Motecuhzoma took it as a great and bad omen when he saw the stars and the mamalhuaztli.

But when he looked at the mirror a second time, he saw a distant plain. People were moving across it, spread out in ranks and coming forward in great haste. They made war against each other and rode on the backs on animals resembling deer.

Motecuhzoma called for his magicians and wise men and asked them: “Can you explain what I have seen? Creatures like human beings, running and fighting . . . !” But when they looked into the mirror to answer him, all had vanished away, and they saw nothing.

Source: Miguel Leon-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992), pp. 4–6. Reproduced with permission of BEACON PRESS in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center.

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