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RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 1. The departure from Aztlan . Codex Azcatitlan . Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque
Nationale de France, Paris.

The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

FEDERICO NAVARRETE

The document known as the Codex Azcatitlan is

undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and complex
colonial Mexican codices we know. 1 Besides containing
Significant historical and cultural information, this
sixteenth-century document is characterized by its
complex combination of Mesoamerican pictographic
and visual narrative conventions and European pictorial
techniques. Furthermore, the various parts of the Codex
were painted in very different styles and with variable
degrees of detail and care. As a result, Donald Robertson
described this document as a highly acculturated codex
and attributed its visual heterogeneity to the haste with
which it was made or to the participation of several
different artists. He even proposed that it could actually
be a seventeenth-century copy of a sixteenth-century
lost original document (Robertson 1959:184).
In this article I will seek to demonstrate that the
Codex Azcatitlan is, in fact, a very coherent document,
which combines native Mesoamerican and Western
visual conventions and styles to strengthen the highly
complex historical arguments that its authors were trying
to convey to their different audiences.
The central visual and narrative frameworks
employed by the tlacuilome that painted this Codex
were the conventions and techniques of Mexica and
Mesoamerican pictographic books.2 It is widely
accepted that this narrative visual language combined
conventional pictographic signs (for personal names,
place names, dates, and several key concepts) with
more pictorial depictions of scenes involving historical
characters, landscapes, buildings, rituals, battles, etc. 3
These native Mesoamerican features are combined
throughout the Codex with pictorial conventions of
1. The name was given to this mysterious document by Robert
Barlow, the author of the only detailed study of the document (1995).
Michel Graulich has recently annotated and extended his study (1995).
2. T/acuilo (sing.) and t/acui/ome (pl.) mean "writer-painter" in
Nahuatl and are derived from the verb cui/oa, which means both "to
paint" and "to write." In Mesoamerica in general the practices of
drawing and writing were never divorced (see Coe 1997), and the
practices of seeing and hearing were combined in an audiovisual
discourse that used both pictographical books and oral tradition
(Mignolo 1994). I use the word Mexica to refer to the inhabitants of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Mexico-Tlatelolco, to distinguish them from
their Nahuatl-speaking neighbors, who are commonly known as Aztecs.
3. For a discussion of this pictographic style and its conventions,
see Robertson 1959, Smith 1973, Leon-Portilla 1996, Boone 2000,
among others.

European origin. For example, the tlacuilome used

drawing techniques, such as shading and foreshortening,
to create the illusion of volume, and strove to create the
illusion of space by using the juxtaposition of human
figures or landscape features as well as some form of
perspective. By doing so they broke with the
Mesoamerican tradition of depicting pictographic
elements in what Robertson has defined as a "space less
landscape" (1959:61).
This combination is not the simple result of a
mechanical process of acculturation, or even of the fact
that the tlacuilome had been trained in using European
pictorial techniques and had been influenced by
European images. The Codex Azcatitlan should be
understood and analyzed as the result of a complex
dialogue between Mesoamerican and European visual
conventions: the authors chose to employ one or the
other in order to better address the different Native and
European audiences they sought to reach with parallel
and distinct arguments.
To begin with, this Codex was made by and for
Mexicas from the city of Mexico-Tlatelolco, and
therefore it presented their local version of the history of
Mexica people. This document was also simultaneously
addressed to other Mexicas from the dominant twin city
of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and thus it overtly followed
their own official version of the history of the Mexicas,
while subtly subverting some of its main tenets. Finally,
the document was meant to be seen and accepted by a
European audience with authority and power over the
Mexicas, consisting mostly of bureaucrats and priests,
which its creators sought to please and convince
through the use of European conventions and
techniques.
To understand how this document could address such
diverse audiences and present different messages to
them we may refer to James Scott's analysis of the
coexistence of public and private transcripts in the
discourses and practices of subjects involved in vertical
power relations such as the ones created by colonialism
(Scott 1990).
Since the aim of the Codex Azcatitlan was to
persuade those in power, the Spaniards, of its historical
arguments, its creators strove to make the document
both understandable and pleasurable to the Spaniards
and thus employed their own visual language in a first
public discourse. At the same time, however, the Codex

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RES 45 SPRING 2004

was a vehicle for other discourses directed at Indian

audiences. In this case, we have a second overt or
public discourse, directed to the Mexica elite of
Tenochtitlan, and a third private or hidden one, aimed at
a Tlatelolca audience. Since the latter two messages,
and particularly the third one, had to be less explicit, in
order not to interfere with the public discourse directed
at the Spaniards, they were dissimulated behind obscure
allusions, visual analogies, and puns. Gordon
Brotherston recently demonstrated the existence of such
hidden discourses in the Codex Mexicanus (Brotherston
2000) and I will suggest that they are also present
throughout the Codex Azcatitlan and are fundamental
to understanding both its historical arguments and its
visual complexity.
To accommodate these different discourses and
arguments, the Codex Azcatitlan had to achieve a
remarkable level of indeterminacy. This concept, as
defined by the literary critic Wolfgang Iser (1993), refers
to a deficit of meaning in a text that is left for its readers
to create and elaborate, thereby making them active
participants in the construction of the signification of the
literary work. The existence of indeterminacy, according
to Iser, explains why a text can be read and understood
over and above temporal and cultural barriers. This
concept is particularly relevant to the visual narration in
the Codex Azcatitlan, since it was addressed to
audiences with different cultural backgrounds. The fact
that this Codex was defined as an enigmatic document
by Robertson can be explained as the result of its
indeterminacy (1959:184). Even as they have been
seduced by the beauty of the painting and its
assimilation of Western values and practices, it is
possible that Western eyes have not understood many of
the scenes in this Codex precisely because they were
meant not to.
In order to demonstrate these hypotheses, I shall
examine the interaction between the traditional
Mesoamerican pictographic conventions and the new
European pictorial techniques within the context of the
narrative of Mexica history presented by the Codex
Azcatitlan.
As we have seen, the Codex Azcatitlan is respectful of
the visual narrative conventions employed by Mexica
pictographic histories, and thus its general organization
is similar to that of most Mexica codices. The style of
this Codex, however, is strikingly different, since it is
enriched by the consistent use of European pictorial
techniques and conventions. These European elements
constitute "motifs," that is, specific visual and symbolic
elements that have well defined meanings and narrative

functions and that are systematically repeated

throughout the Codex. I have been able to identify four
of these European motifs:
1. Depictions of landscapes that use European
conventions, such as the horizon line, the
superposition of figures, as well as different forms of
perspective and shadowing, to create an illusion of
depth and space.
2. Three-dimensional depictions of important buildings,
mostly the main temples of Aztlan, Mexico-Tlatelolco
and Mexico-Tenochtitlan, using point of fugue
perspective and shadowing.
3. Depictions of groups of people in circles,
representing important councils and gatherings, that
use European techniques of foreshortening and
superposition.
4. Depictions of the corpses of victims of acts of sacrifice
or warfare using elaborate drawing techniques.
As we follow the narrative of the Codex, we shall see
how these motifs interacted with the Mesoamerican
conventions that structure its visual discourse to present
the complex and multilayered messages of the tlacuilome.

The migration period

A representation of Aztlan, the original home of the
Mexicas, figures prominently at the beginning of most
Mexica pictographic histories as it does in the Codex
Azcatitlan (see fig. 1). Although its depiction of Aztlan is
broadly similar to that in other codices, because of its
use of similar pictographic conventions, including the
bi-dimensional profile representation of buildings and
persons, the Codex also introduces three of the
European motifs defined above.
First, the main temple of Aztlan is drawn threedimensionally, using a kind of one-point perspective. 4
The use of this mode of representation is highly
significant, since the motif of the temple plays a central
role in the narration of the imperial stage of Mexica
history. Thus, the Codex Azcatitlan, like most other
Mexica histories, establishes an explicit analogy
between the original temple of the Mexicas in Aztlan
and their main temple in Mexico. 5

4. The temple, however, is superposed on a human figure in a

manner that breaks all the rules of Western representation. It is difficult
to know whether this breach was intentional or the result of a
misunderstanding of these conventions.
5. The evident similarity between Aztlan and Mexico has been a
subject of discussion between specialists since Edmund Seier argued

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

147

Figure 2. Colhuacan and the presentation of the other migrant groups. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy
of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

Second, the motif of the landscape is introduced

through the use of European conventions in the
depiction of the mountain to the left of the plate, which
has the requisite Mesoamerican three-lobbed glyph,
meaning tepetl, mountain, but also serves as a standing
ground for the god Huitzilopochtli and the houses and
cacti growing on it.
Finally, the motif of the council is used in the
depiction of a group of people, to the left of the plate,
who appear to be discussing the imminent departure of
the migrants. On the other side of the mountain the
superimposition of a group of people who bid farewell
to the departing Mexicas emphasizes their number.
The combination of these European motifs in the
depiction of Aztlan can be interpreted as a sign of the
importance of this episode to the narrative of the Codex.
The following plate (see fig. 2) depicts the other
migrant groups that the Mexicas met at ColhuacanChicom6ztoc immediately after they began their
journey. It contrasts sharply with the first one, since it
employs no European motifs, adhering strictly to the
traditional Mesoamerican pictographic style.
This absence cannot be attributed to haste, since the
figures and glyphs in this plate are carefully drawn and
colored. It can be surmised that the content of this plate
was considered of less interest to a European audience,
that it demonstrated the mythical nature of Aztlan (see Seier 1985 and
Navarrete 1999).

since it involved a complex mythical and political

argument about the relation between the Mexicas and
their neighbors, and that therefore the tlacuilome
decided there was no point in deploying any European
motifs.6
The third plate (see fig. 3) presents a beautiful desert
landscape. In a further development of the motif
introduced in the first plate, the glyphs used to denote
the word tepetl, mountain, become actual mountains in
a panorama that includes two palm trees that could be
allusions to the landscape of the Exodus in the BibleJ
This plate uses another key European landscape
convention, the horizon line, upon which all the figures
are depicted standing firmly. Similarly, the route of the
Mexicas, traditionally represented in Mesoamerican
pictographic histories as a row of footprints, is
represented here as a path in the European manner.8

6. About the symbolic meaning of Colhuacan-Chicomoztoc and

the groups of related and neighboring peoples that emerge from this
mythical place, see Limon Olvera 1990: 117-119 and Lopez Austin

1999:53-54.
7. Pablo Escalante has demonstrated that these palms are very
similar to species found in sixteenth-century engravings depicting the
Exodus of the Israelites, (1996:252-253).
8. On this line see my article, Navarrete Linares 2000, and
Nicholson's demonstration that the use of footprints as a metonym of
traveling is one of the oldest Mesoamerican narrative conventions,
dating back to the Olmec, (1976:163-164).

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RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 3. The path through the desert. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale
de France, Paris.

The illusion of depth in the landscape is enhanced by

the superposition of two of the mountains that also hide
the path of the migrants that passes between them. This
"realist" detail is also a direct allusion to the name of
the place, Tepemaxalco, "Where the mountains crash."
This location has strong religious overtones, since it is
similar to one of the places traversed by dead souls in
their journey toward their final abode in the underworld
Mictlan (L6pez Austin 1960: 144).
Thus we can conclude that this plate presents both a
finely executed European landscape, including
important Biblical allusions that establish a valuable
analogy between the Exodus and the Mexica migration,
and an image fully participant of the Mesoamerican
tradition, through the use of its conventions and the
direct representation of an episode full of native
religious overtones. This is a clear example of how the
combination of Mesoamerican and European elements
allowed the authors of the Codex Azcatitlan to convey
different messages aimed at their distinct audiences,
who were expected to decipher the visual cues that
were familiar to them.
The following page, which appears to be mutilated,
contains one of the most mysterious scenes in the whole
Codex (see fig. 4) .9 The mountain, with a lioness face

and six protuberances, or teats, has been identified with

the mythical Chicom6ztoc, Place of the Seven Caves.
On the right there is a complex scene involving the god
Huitzilopochtli and the sacrifice of several characters.
From the point of view of our analysis, the most
remarkable feature of this scene is the depiction of two
drowned men floating face downwards on the river. This
three-dimensional representation of sacrificial victims
introduces the fourth European motif in the visual
discourse of the Codex.
The next page, or the right side of this plate, depicts a
beautiful mountain landscape that further develops the
European techn iques introduced earlier (see fig. 5). To
create a convincing sensation of space, the mountains
and other features of the landscapes are superposed;
also, while the frontmost elements of this landscape are
carefully rendered, the more distant mountains are
depicted with much less detail and in lighter hues,
creating a kind of aerial perspective; finally, while the
human figures in the front are shown in a traditional
Mesoamerican profile depiction, those in the distance
are smaller and shown with their backs to the viewer,
thus enhancing the perception of distance.
As we have seen, the fact that this scene uses so
many European conventions can be taken as an

9. This enigmatic scene was described at length by both Barlow

(1995 :57-58) and Graulich (1995 :58-60), and they disagree whether it

is incomplete, lacking the right page, or combined with the mountain

landscape that appears afterward, which we shall discuss below.

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

149

Figure 4. Chicomoztoc. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

indicator of its importance for the narrative. However,

once again, these conventions were used to depict an
event that was filled with native symbolic and religious
overtones, since the crossing of the wild lands at
Chicomoztoc was a ritual action that provoked the
transformation of the ethnic identity of the migrants and
entailed a radical break with their past history at the
beginning of a new historical era.lO Here too, the
tlacuilome seem to be addressing two distinct audiences
with parallel messages: while the native viewers would
immediately recognize the symbolic meaning of the
scene, the European ones would see an attractive
landscape in the manner of a European illustration.
The four highly significant and carefully painted
scenes at the beginning of the Mexica migration, which
we have analyzed so far, stand in dramatic contrast with
the following seven plates, which narrate the journey of
10. On this symboliC birth of the migrating peoples, see Navarrete
Linares 2000a, as well as Hers 1996:97.

the Mexicas until the foundation of their new homeland

in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. These are drawn in a much
simpler, more traditional style, almost lacking in color
and adhering closely to Mesoamerican pictographic
conventions.
Robertson attributed the striking simplification of the
drawing in these middle plates to the haste of the
painters (1959:69). However, in my opinion, the use of a
simpler style has a narrative intention . In all known
Mexica histories, pictographic or written in alphabetic
script, this part of the migration is rather monotonous
and not very significant from a narrative point of view,
consisting only in the enumeration of the places visited
by the Mexicas and of the length of their stay in each
one, without much further elaboration. Therefore it can
be assumed that the tlacuilome of the Azcatitlan
adopted a simpler pictorial style that reflected the
reduced importance of this part of the migration history,
and also established a meaningful contrast with the
previous and subsequent parts.

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RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 5. The mountain landscape at Chicomoztoc. Codex Azcatitlan . Mexico, sixteenth century.
Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

The only utilization of the European landscape motif

in this section is a fairly idiosyncratic one: in the sixth
plate the path followed by the Mexicas is gradually
transformed from the realist depiction used up to that
point into a single continuous line. In the following
plates, this line comes to play the role of a horizon line
on which the human figures walk and temples and
other buildings stand (see fig. 6). This horizon line
creates a "transversal" landscape, depicted not from the
front but in a kind of cross-section, similar to the
traditional Mesoamerican profile. This peculiar use of
the horizon line appears to be a bicultural visual pun
that conflates a Mesoamerican convention with a
European one in a unique way that could only be
understood by someone familiar with both traditions,
that is by the tlacuilome and their native audiences. This
detail proves that this part of the Codex, however
austere, is not visually unrelated to the more complex
previous one.
Another European motif used in this section is that of
the gathering of people in circles, employed to represent

the battle in which the Mexicas were defeated at

Chapultepec and their ensuing captivity among the
victorious Colhuas, two highly significant episodes.
During their forced stay in Colhuacan, the Mexicas
were compelled to make war with and vanquish the
Xochimilcas. This victory had great symbolic meaning
for them, since it demonstrated their prowess even in
such dire straits. It seems no coincidence therefore that
the Codex presents a careful drawing of the body of a
Xochimilca war prisoner as he is being sacrificed.
This is the second instance of a motif that will
acquire great significance in the following parts of
the Codex.
The last plate of this section represents the final stage
of the Mexica migration culminating in the foundation
of the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (see fig. 7). As the
culmination of the migration, and the beginning of a
new stage in Mexica history, this foundation figures
prominently in most Mexica codices, such as the
Mendoza, the Aubin and the Vaticano-Rfos, where it is
placed in the center of a plate, thus emphasizing the

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

151

'.

Figure 6. The horizon line and the path followed by the Mexica. Codex Azcatitlan . Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

emergence of the newly founded city as a cosmic and

political center.
However, it appears that the tlacuilome of the Codex
Azcatitlan chose to undermine the significance of this
foundation, since they depicted it on the right edge of a
plate that contains many other episodes. Furthermore,
the only European motif employed in this depiction is
the body of a sacrificial victim, which lies atop a
temple, and upon whose breast grows the emblematic
cactus tree that gave its name to the new city. This
motif is used to establish a negative association between
the Tenochcas and cruel death. Finally, the simple
bi-dimensional representation of the first temple of the
Mexicas in Tenochtitlan contrasts sharply with the threedimensional representations of the temple at Tlatelolco.
If the tlacuilome of the Codex Azcatitlan sought to
make light of the foundation ofTenochtitlan, their
narrative strategy is made clearer in the next plate,
which depicts the parallel coronations of the rulers of
Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, and which is more carefully
painted and full of European motifs (see fig. 8).
In this scene, the motif of the council of people
reaches its fullest expression and its final manifestation,
since both of the new rulers, the Tenochca Acamapichtli,
to the left, and the Tlatelolca Cuacuauhpitzahuac, to the
right, are represented in the center of carefully drawn
circles of characters whose presence emphasizes the
solemnity and transcendence of the occasion and

establishes an elaborate game of comparisons between

both ceremonies.
The Tenochca coronation involves twelve characters,
most of which have name glyphs and are drawn with
greater detail. In contrast, the coronation of the ruler of
Tlatelolco involves just five attendants, who are drawn
with fewer details and deserve no name glyphs. At first
glance this would seem to imply that the latter
ceremony is less important than the former, which
would confirm the historic dominance of the Tenochca
over the Tlatelolcas.
However, three details underline the comparative
importance of the Tlatelolca coronation. First, it is
presided personally by Tezoz6moc, the ruler of the then
dominant altepetl of Azcapotzalco and the father of
Cuacuauhpitzahuac. The tlacuilome show that this
powerful ruler also presided at the coronation at
Tenochtitlan, since his mouth is united by a dotted line
to the Tenochca ruler on the opposite side of the plate, a
feature used later on in the Codex to establish a causal
relationship between two elements, which in this case
most likely meant that he ordered, or allowed, his
coronation. However, the fact is that he was not
physically present, as he was in the coronation of his
Tlatelolca counterpart. Second, the Tlatelolca ruler,
Cuacuauhpitzahuac, deserves a name glyph, in contrast
to the Tenochca king who has none and is depicted with
his back toward the viewer. Finally Cuacuauhpitzahuac

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RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 7. The foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Codex Azcatitlan . Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque
Nationale de France, Paris.

is shown seated on the glyph of Tlatelolco, and wearing

and holding the attributes of power, a crown, a cloak,
and a staff, while the Tenochca ruler is depicted seated
on a chair and just receiving those attributes, although
they are much more carefully painted.
What could be the meaning of this elaborate
counterpoint? First of all, this plate confirms a wellknown historical truth: Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco had
different rulers when they were founded. However, the
mere fact that the tlacuilome chose to represent both
coronations as simultaneous and equivalent proves that
they were Tlatelolcas, since the Tenochca histories never
paid much attention to Tlatelolco and its dynasty.tt Thus,
while the authors of the Codex Azcatitlan overtly
recognize the supremacy of Tenochtitlan, drawing the
coronation of the Tenochca ruler first and with much
more detail, they covertly stress the importance, or even
the preeminence, of the Tlatelolca coronation.
A complex, carefully painted depiction of the lake
around the city and the activities of the fishermen and
hunters in its waters separates these parallel and rival
coronations. This scene was considered by Robertson to
be an arbitrary insertion:
A large "coronation" scene is divided in the middle by a
clearly interpolated genre scene of fishing and bird netting
on the lake. In this view of the lake the lower of the two
11. In fact the only other Mexica source that describes the
coronation of the first ruler of Tlatelolco is the Annals of Tlatelolco
(Berlin, 1948).

sets of nets are reduced to precisely defined linear and

rectangular forms of almost geometric regularity, a
peculiarity of this manuscript. The genre details here are
additions to a scene of historical importance that must be
shown as continuing from one side of the lake to the other.
(1959:184)

In my opinion this scene is neither an interpolation

nor is it irrelevant to the narrative messages of the
tlacuilome. One of its functions appears to be to
emphasize the distinction between the two parallel
coronations and thus to "decentralize" Tenochca history,
as in the previous plate. Furthermore, the depiction of
the Mexicas engaged in lowly hunting-gathering
activities after the foundation of their new altepetl is an
important theme in many Mexica histories, where it is
used to stress their humble origins and to exalt their
future glories. t2 Therefore, it seems that even if a
European audience could interpret it as a genre scene,
an unnecessary but attractive addition to the main
discourse, this image was also transmitting important
content for its native audiences.
It must also be stressed that this is the last instance of
the landscape motif in the Codex, and as such it echoes
the beautiful, elaborate landscapes at the beginning of
the migration, and provides a fitting visual narrative
culmination to the whole history of the migration.
12. For example, the Codex Telleriano-Remensis portrays the
foundation of Tenochtitlan among fishermen and hunters, and many
written sources also describe these activities.

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

153

I d
Figure 8. T~e coronations. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nat'
France, Pans.
lona e e

The imperial period

The following nine plates of the Codex Azcatitlan
deal with the settled life of the Mexicas and the rise of
their empire. This section of the document presents a
sharp narrative, visual, and stylistic contrast to the
previous one. These transformations are parallel to the
ones that take place in all the other Mexica codices that
also ?eal with the imperial period, which adopt a
special chronotope for narrating the settled stage of
Mexica history.13 The history of the Mexicas in this
period was no longer that of a group looking for a place
to found their city, but of a group firmly established in
its new capital and reaching out to conquer the world
around it. Therefore, time was no longer measured by
~he rhythm of the stopovers of the migrants in their
Jo~rney towards their definite homeland, but by the
reigns of the successive Tenochca rulers and by their
conquests. Similarly, space was firmly anchored on the
main temple of Mexico, whose expansions and
renovations were carefully registered since it was both
the cosmic center and the embodiment of the power of
the Mexicas. 14
Since the second section of the Codex carefully
respects all these conventions, it appears to be more
13. These are the codices Telleriano-Remensis, Vaticano-Rfos,
Mendoza, and Aubin.
1.4. F.o r a definition and explanation of the imperial chronotope,
and Its differences with the migration chronotope, see Navarrete
Linares 2000.

Mesoamerican in emphasis than the previous one. All

plates begin at the left with the portrait of a recently
crowned ruler of Tenochtitlan, and end at the right with
the representation of his dead body wrapped in a funeral
bundle; these images establish both a conceptual and a
temporal frame of reference for the whole plate.
Between ~hem, the tlacuilome depicted a row of glyphs
enumerating the places conquered by the ruler, and
also, in some cases, scenes of ritual, productive, or
~arlike. activities. These depictions are generally bi?Imenslo~al and they lack a horizon line, being placed
In t~e typical Mesoamerican "spaceless landscape."
While some of the plates of this section are almost
completely monochromatic, others are carefully
colored, a difference that, as we shall see, does not
appear to be accidental.
The only two European motifs employed in this
section of the Codex are the three-dimensional
depiction of the main temple of Mexico and the careful
representat~on of victims of sacrifice or war. By placing
such great Importance on the depiction of the main
temple of Mexico, the authors of the Codex Azcatitlan
overtly adhered to the conventions used by other
Tenochca histories, but once again gave them an
interesting and highly significant twist, since the first
temple they depicted was that of Tlatelolco.
The first representation of the temple ofTlatelolco
shows its construction, under the reign of
Cuacuauhpitzahuac, in a plate overtly devoted to the
rule of the first Tenochca king, Acamapichtli (see fig. 9).

154

RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 9. The rule of Acamapichtli and the building of the temple ofTlatelolco. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo:
Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

While this image is strictly bi-dimensional, its

importance is stressed by the presence of three porters
carrying stones towards the building. It also serves to
reintroduce the motif of the temple in the visual narrative
of the Codex, echoing both the three-dimensional temple
of Aztlan and the strictly bi-dimensional temple of the
foundation of Tenochtitlan.
Four plates, and four Tenochca rulers later, under the
reign of Moteuhczorna IIhuicamina ofTenochtitlan, the
temple ofTlatelolco is depicted again, this time threedimensionally in all its splendor (see fig. 10).
In the following plate (see fig. 11), devoted to the rule
ofAxayacati in Tenochtitlan, the temple of Tlatelolco is
represented in the same fashion, but this time it is also
the site of the defeat of the Tlatelolcas by the Tenochcas.
Tenochca warriors are shown attacking to the left of the
temple, one of them climbing its stairs. On the right, the
brutally mutilated body of Moqufhuix, the last ruler of
Tlatelolco, is shown falling down the stairs of the temple.
His individual death serves as a striking metonym of the
conquest and defeat of all the Tlatelolcas by the
Tenochcas in 1473 (Garduno 1997:121-153).
This dramatic scene combines the motif of the temple
with that of the careful depiction of sacrificial victims. In
this instance, the combination serves to denounce the
atrocities committed by the Tenochcas against the
Tlatelolcas, and their brutal defiling of the sacred center
of Mexico at Tlatelolco.
The following three plates, corresponding to the reign
of the last three Tenochca rulers, Tfzoc, Ahuftzotl, and

Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzin, include three-dimensional

depictions of the temple of Tenochtitlan, which now has
become the main sacred center of Mexico. However, in
two of the plates these are accompanied by detailed and
gory representations of sacrificial victims, thus creating
an association between this building and the
performance of bloody acts. This association will
acquire its full narrative meaning later in the Codex, in
the last representation of the temple ofTenochtitian as
the site of the massacre of the Tenochcas by their
Spanish conquerors.
In this way, the Codex Azcatitlan overtly followed the
conventions used by all other Mexica cod ices dealing
with the imperial period while presenting at the same
time a highly subversive message that sought to
delegitimize the Tenochcas in the eyes of its Mexica
audiences, by showing that their temple and sacred
center was merely a substitute for the original Tlatelolca
one, and also in the eyes of a European public by
associating the temple of Tenochtitlan with acts of
cruelty and sacrifice.
Aside from this highly significant argument, the
tlacuilome of the Codex sought to underline the
importance ofTlatelolco in Mexica history in other
ways. For instance, some of the initial plates, while
overtly devoted to the reigns of the Tenochca rulers,
actually contain more information about the actions of
the rulers ofTlatelolco and, consequently, are carefully
drawn and colored. In contrast, the plates that contain
no information regarding Tlatelolco are generally drawn

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

155

Figure 10. The reign of Moteuhczoma IIhuicamina and the temple ofTlatelolco. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo:
Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

in a much simpler style, with almost no color and very

few figures, other than the glyphs representing the
places conquered by the Mexica ruler.

The conquest
The next section of the Codex Azcatitlan, dealing
with the Spanish conquest of the Mexicas, between
1519 and 1521, is much shorter and unfortunately
appears to be incomplete. Nevertheless, this section, as
well as the following one, which deals with colonial
history, present a clear stylistic and narrative contrast to
the previous two parts of the Codex. This can be
explained by the fact that in drawing the two sections,
the tlacuilome of the Azcatitlan had no established visual
narrative conventions to follow, and so they were free to
experiment.
It comes as no surprise that the tlacuilome adopted a
more Europeanized style to depict the conquest, to the
extent that some of their drawings resemble the
illustrations of a Western book. The first page of this
section (see fig. 12), for instance, presents a carefully
rendered portrait of the arriving Spanish army, headed
by Hernan Cortes and, significantly, by his Indian
interpreter, Malinche. Most of the figures are shown
standing firmly on an undulating horizon line and some
are juxtaposed to create an illusion of space and depth.
The use of these European conventions, however,
appears to fail in the case of the Indian porters that walk
behind the Spaniards and are shown hovering above the

horizon line. Nevertheless, throughout the page there is

a skillful use of color and shading in clothes, flesh, and
weapons, and the flag of the Spaniards, with a peculiar
rendition of the dove of the Holy Ghost, is convincingly
shown fluttering in the wind.
Unfortunately, the right-hand page of this plate
appears to be missing, but it can be assumed that it
contained a similar portrait of the Mexicas who came to
receive the Spaniards, headed by Moteuhczoma
Xocoyotzin. If this is true we can surmise that this plate
presented a synchronic representation of a single key
moment in the conquest, the meeting of Spaniards and
Mexicas at the gates of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
The next plate, logically, is also mutilated, and we
only know its right half, containing a detailed rendition
of a combat at the main temple of Tenochtitlan (see fig.
13). This scene is one of the most complex in the Codex
and it still defies interpretation. 15 This dramatic conquest

15. Barlow proposed that it was the representation of the famous

massacre carried out by the Spaniards during the feast ofT6xcati. This
interpretation is based in the presence of the musicians, who were
playing at that party and whose brutal slaying is a common theme in
all Indian descriptions of the massacre (1995:138). Graulich instead
proposes that the presence of the dead body of Moteuhczoma proves
that this is a depiction of a battle that took place afterwards (1995:
138). It seems to me that both interpretations could be correct, and
that the scene could concentrate several meaningful episodes of the
conquest related to the temple.

156

RES 45 SPRING 2004

Figure 11 . The reign ofAxayacati and the conquest of Tlatelolco by Tenochtitlan. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century.
Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

scene can be considered the culmination of the visual

narrative argument presented by the tlacuilome through
the second section of the Codex, since it unites its two
key narrative motifs: the depiction of the temples of the
Mexicas and the victims of acts of conquest and
sacrifice.
The beautiful three-dimensional rendition of the
temple of Tenochtitlan can be considered the
culmination of its previous representations in the Codex.
As happened with the landscape and council motifs in
the migration section, which culm inated in the plate of
the parallel coronations, this final representation is the
most careful and detailed one, providing a sense of
narrative closure.
On the shaded steps of the temple lies the carefully
drawn, upside-down corpse of a ruler, who can be
identified as Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzin by his
magnificent regalia. This scene clearly echoes the
representation of the conquest of Tlatelolco under the
reign ofAxayacati in figure 11, and the corpse of
Moteuhczoma falling down the stairs of the temple of
Tenochtitlan can be considered a direct counterpart to
the corpse of Moqufhuix fall ing down the stairs of the
temple ofTlatelolco. The contrast and similarity between
these two scenes appear to be enhanced by the fact that
their composition is inverted.
In this way, the Codex Azcatitlan appears to be
presenting once more a subversive anti-Tenochca
message while apparently following the official

Tenochca narrative. Indeed, Mexica histories placed

great emphasis on the massacre perpetrated by the
Spaniards at the temple ofTenochtitlan, in order to
highlight the brutality of the conquerors and the bloody
defilement of this sacred center. While overtly doing the
same thing, the tlacuilome of the Azcatitlan seem to
argue, in the first place, that the temple that was defiled
was only a late illegitimate substitute for the original
sacred center at the temple of Tlatelolco, and also, that
the Tenochcas were victimized by the Spaniards in the
same way they had victimized the Tlatelolcas.16 Such an
argument would have pleased the Spanish audience of
the Codex, while confirming the Tlatelolca audience in
its rejection of Tenochca hegemony.
The following two pages present what we could
consider vignettes of the war of conquest. These scenes
display a skilful use of European pictorial techniques,
such as perspective and shading, and appear to be
inspired by European illustrations. However, the
tlacuilome did not employ a horizon line or landscape
scenery, so that the elements appear lost in a vacuum.
There is also a total absence of temporal markers and of
any indication of a causal relationship between the
different elements. The possible relationship between
16. Similar anti-Tenochca arguments are presented in the Annals
ofT/ateloleo, and in a less explicit way in the narrative collected by
Bernardino de Sahagun for his famous Book 12 of the Historia General
de las Cosas de la Nueva Espana. For the most thorough comparative
analysis of these histories of the conquest see lockhart 1993.

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

157

Figure 12. The arrival of the Spaniards and Malinche to Tenochtitlan. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth
century. Photo: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

these vignettes cannot be understood without an oral

explanation.

The colonial period

The two final plates of the Codex Azcatitlan deal with
the colonial period and are full of detail. However, as in
the section dealing with the conquest, we have no clear
temporal and spatial markers to aid us in their
interpretation. The tlacuilome introduced a dotted line
that seems to establish a causal link between the
different episodes, but it is not very helpful. They also
combined the careful depiction of European objects and
buildings, using perspective, with a general composition
that remained loyal to Mesoamerican conventions, using
an abstract space and profile depictions.
The fact that the plates dealing with the Spanish
conquest and the colonial period are almost impossible
to interpret can be attributed to several concurrent

reasons. To begin with, the lack of a coherent,

established chronotope deprives the narrative discourse
of a temporal and spatial frame that could be used both
by the tlacuilome and by the audiences as a key to
guide their reading. This absence was perhaps
unavoidable, since we can assume that the migration
and imperial chronotopes used by the Mexica codices
were the result of a gradual and complex ideological
elaboration. Such a process could not have taken place
so fast after the conquest in order to narrate its events,
and perhaps was even useless, since the Mexicas no
longer had the means, or the need, for such ideological
enterprises.
Besides, it can be surmised that the Codex Azcatitlan,
like many other Mesoamerican colonial histories, sought
to present both a general panorama of Mexica and
Tlatelolca history, and a particular argument and claim,
directly concerning the individuals and groups that
composed the document in order to obtain a specific

158

RES 45 SPRING 2004

---~

---

,--'--

Figure 13 . The battle at Templo Mayor. Codex Azcatitlan. Mexico, sixteenth century. Photo: Courtesy of the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.

concession from the Spanish authoritiesY That is why

Mesoamerican histories were usually shaped like a
"funnel," moving from the general to the particular. This
organization can be recognized in the general structure
of the Codex Azcatitlan: first, during the migration
period, it deals with the Mexicas as a whole; then, after
the foundation of Mexico, it clearly distinguishes
between Tlatelolcas and Tenochcas, extolling the former
and denigrating the latter; this general historic panorama
reaches its climax in the massacre at the temple of
Tenochtitlan and after it the Codex appears to concentrate
on a series of anecdotes that could perhaps be directly
related to the individuals or group that drew and wrote

, 7. Such is the case of two very important Mesoamerican histories:

the Histaria Talteca-Chichimeca, from the Valley of Puebla, which was
produced as a legal document in a boundary dispute between two
Indian towns in a Spanish tribunal, and the Papal Vuh, from
Guatemala, which was presented as part of a claim made by Quiche
Maya to the Spanish crown for the recognition of their aristocratic titles.

it. If this part is much more obscure to us it is precisely

because it was only this particular group, most probably
from Tlatelolco, who had the keys to explain their own
particular history and to present it to their audiences.
Conclusion

Despite its visual heterogeneity, the Codex Azcatitlan

is a highly coherent document, since its tlacuilome
followed a carefully defined narrative program, which
determined the different techniques, styles, and European
motifs that they employed in each particular scene.
The narrative arguments behind this program were
highly complex since they combined distinct messages
addressed to different audiences. It can be assumed that
the use of European pictorial conventions and themes
was intended to please, and persuade, a European
audience, presenting them with an apparently familiar
and acculturated document. Simultaneously, the
tlacuilome sought to please their native audience by

Navarrete: The hidden codes of the Codex Azcatitlan

being faithful to Mesoamerican narrative conventions

and the established chronotopes of Mexica history and
by alluding to important symbolic and religious themes.
These two aims, interestingly, were not mutually
exclusive. As we have seen, some of the most
"Europeanized" scenes in the Codex are also the ones
that contained a more important native message. In fact,
to return to Scott's ideas, these scenes were perhaps
depicted in a "public" European style precisely to allow
them to transmit more effectively their "hidden" native
messages. Similarly, the messages aimed at a Tlatelolca
audience were effectively hidden behind an overtly
Tenochca organization, and they managed to subvert
this public message by never openly challenging it,
while subtly undermining its main tenets.
In order to achieve its complex aims, and to please its
different audiences, the Codex Azcatitlan had to
maintain a very high level of ambiguity and
indeterminacy. This meant that not all of its messages
were meant to be understood by all audiences, and the
tlacuilome relied on the fact that their different
audiences would have different capacities to decode
their hidden, or non-explicit, messages. Indeterminacy
was also an integral part of the working of a visual
narrative discourse that was meant to be accompanied
by a concurrent oral recitation, since many of the
elements in the page needed an explanation by the
narrators. We can assume that this oral explanation
varied greatly according to which audience it was being
presented to, and that therefore the visual narrative had
to leave sufficient room for different, even contradictory,
readings.
One final reflection concerns the matter of the
acculturation or Europeanization of Mexican colonial
pictographic documents. Traditionally, following
Robertson's seminal study, it has been assumed that the
gradually increasing incorporation of European pictorial
conventions and techniques into these documents was a
sure indicator of the assimilation of European cultural
and religious values, and of the progressive dissolution
of Mesoamerican culture during the colonial period.
However, I hope that this analysis of the Codex
Azcatitlan has shown that the use of European elements
in Indian contexts is much more complex, since they
could be employed to actually preserve and strengthen a
Mesoamerican tradition or message. Therefore, the
cultural meaning of these elements should not be taken
as a given, but should always be analyzed and
understood in the specific context where they are
utilized, which may give them different and even
contradictory meanings. This means that the object of

159

analysis should not be individual traits or images and

their possible European origin, but rather the discursive
wholes constituted by Mexican pictographic histories
and the role that these elements play in them.
From this point of view the Codex Azcatitlan can be
best understood as the product of a highly sophisticated
cultural dialogue in which the Mexicas were fluent both
in their own visual and historical traditions and in the
newly arrived European ones, and were willing to
employ and combine them in order to enrich their
message in a highly creative and innovative way. The
inexhaustible complexity and striking beauty of the
Codex they produced is testimony to the vitality of their
culture even under colonial rule.

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