Document 1.4 Map of Cuauhtinchan (1550)

DOCUMENT 1.4 | Map of Cuauhtinchan (1550)

The Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca is a series of Nahuatl-language annals written in the mid-sixteenth century. Covering the history of the Cuauhtinchan region (in present-day Mexico) during the previous four hundred years, the text focuses mainly on the area’s social and political history. Most of the narrative deals with events that occurred before, or were unrelated to, Spanish activity in the region. Illustrations accompanied the text, including the map shown here. This map, covered with some seven hundred glyphs, depicts how the Toltec-Chichimeca peoples of the Puebla valley left their seven-chambered cave of Chicomoztoc, conquered their enemies, and established their new home at Cuauhtinchan in 1183 C.E. Like many native maps, it combines myth and history with geography and tells a story across time and space. Yet this territorial map was considered so reliable that it was used as evidence in Spanish colonial courts in the sixteenth century.

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Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin