26 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
of Cholula, outside the valley, was Tlachihualtepetl, which
means “created hill,” and the main pyramid at Tenochtitlan
was Coatepec, or “serpent hill.” Thus, from a distance, a key
organizing principle of the city is visible: the mirroring of
the man-made environment, its lived space, to that of the
natural and therefore sacred one. 1
The creation of the great island metropolis that domi-
nates the painting—made of the twin cities of Tenochtit-
lan to the south and Tlatelolco to the north—was a hard-
won victory over the surrounding lake for its residents,
who distinguished themselves and their altepetl from other
Nahuatl-speaking groups who were resident in the valley.
Their persistence in the face of adversity was enshrined
in their tales of origin, records written in iconic script
that told of their departure from the mythic city of Azt-
lan, another water-ringed place, in the year 1 Flint, cor-
relating to 1063, carrying with them the sacred bundle of
their special deity, Huitzilopochtli, worshipped by them
alone and the divine representative of their altepetl who
directed them in their travels. 2 This history was well
known to pre-Hispanic residents of the city, and we find
it represented in the early sixteenth century in the Tira
de la Peregrinación (sometimes called the Codex Bot-
urini), a manuscript of great graphic simplicity and clar-
ity (figure 2.2). This screenfold manuscript was painted
on a strip of native amate paper, measuring eighteen feet
long, and then folded to create twenty-one pages, each of
them representing some part of the great peregrination
that took the Mexica out of their island of origin. On the
first page, the island of Aztlan appears at left, delineated
by a simple ovoid shape, containing a stepped temple in
profile within. Around the temple are six small houses in
profile, symbolizing the early settlement. Below, a couple
sitting within the island watches a man, his skin painted
black, in a canoe rowing across the surrounding lake; thefiguRe 2.2. Unknown creator, departure from Aztlan, Tira de
la Peregrinación, ca. 1530. Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e
Historia, Mexico. Reproduction authorized by the Instituto Nacional
de Antropología e Historia.