108 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
The TecPan and The
image of The RuLeR
The featherwork offers us an image that Mexica elites were
projecting across the Atlantic and toward a European pub-
lic. But they were also turned inward, toward their city,
to the less glamorous (and less public) activity of ruler-
ship, activity most present to the urban historian through
monumental architecture. Huanitzin was no different, and
one of the most important actions of his reign was to build
a tecpan, or government palace, a building that embodied
indigenous authority for a local public, as well as an inter-
national one.
This tecpan was built on a plot facing the great Tianguis
of Mexico and seems to have been constructed around 1541,
the start of construction coinciding with, it seems, the very
end of Huanitzin’s reign. The date for the construction of
this palace is inferred from the Map of Santa Cruz and a
mention in the actas of the cabildo (see figures 2.8 and 4.8).
This map has typically been dated to ca. 1555, based on its
receipt in Europe; in the cartouche at the side, the Spanish
royal cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz presents it as
a gift to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Charles’s
abdication in 1556 has served as the map’s terminus ante
quem. However, Edward Calnek has argued for an initial
creation date of between 1537 and 1541, and close examina-
tion of the evidence from within the map shows two phases
of the map’s creation, one taking place before 1537 and the
other, whose additions are clearly visible, taking place after.
This reworking is typical of indigenous maps of Mexico
City. In the first phase, buildings were sketched on the pale
ground of the map, and paint was applied around them,
leaving the buildings unpainted. This first phase included
the central church that is named as an “iglesia mayor,” as the
Cathedral of Mexico was often called. In the second phase,
buildings that had been added were made directly (and
selectively) on the already-painted ground of the map and
thus appear brown. Among the second-phase additions
was the church of Santa Catalina, where construction, as
Calnek points out, began in 1537; not included on the map
is the Convent of the Concepcíon, which was begun in
- 37 Thus the first phase seems to antedate 1537, but it
is no earlier than 1533, because the tianguis is shown in its
post-1533 location. The second phase was carried out after
1537 and before the start of construction of the Convent of
the Concepcíon in 1541.
The tecpan does not appear on the Map of Santa
Cruz, suggesting that construction started in 1541 or after.
Instead, within the space of the tianguis is the hospital of
San Lázaro—the traditional name given to the hospitals
for lepers set on the outskirts of cities—across the street
from where the tecpan would be built. San Lázaro seems to
have been set on the opposite side of fortune’s wheel as the
tecpan; the Spanish town council records include no men-
tion of San Lázaro after an entry of December 17, 1540, and
some fifteen years later the cabildo registered complaints
that lepers were wandering in the streets. I suspect that
this hospital was torn down to make room for the new
indigenous tecpan; a year and a half after the disappear-
ance of San Lázaro from the Actas de cabildo, the tecpan is
mentioned in the actas of September 1542. 38 By the time
of this mention, Huanitzin had died, but the construction
of the building noted in 1542 may have started during the
dry season of 1541, at the end of his life. 39
The Franciscan writer Diego Valadés would describe the
architectural nexus of commerce, governance, and religion
as part of the Franciscan urban project, but in his descrip-
tion of newly built evangelized cities, it is the indigenous
tecpan that occupies pride of place. Valadés reports that,
after justly dividing lands among the populace and giving
a greater share to the indigenous nobles, the Franciscans
carried out the following:Among these divisions, an intermediate area was reserved
for commerce and the marketplace and public buildings
were erected, such as the palace, which was called “house
of the city,” within which were a great number of patios and
halls, which housed the public treasury, and where visitors
were received. In the front of the building, towards the
church and the public forum, there were portals on both
the first and second stories. In the upper, higher, story were
the senate and the cabildo, and justice was carried out. In
the lower stories of more modest aspect, many dwellings
and cells were to be found. Such buildings are built in the
cities, of masonry and plaster, using enormous quantities
of stone, and they were constructed following the models
and styles of Spain. The church occupies the median zone,
and is constructed with admirable art and elegance. 40What Valadés describes as the urban ideal could easily be
San Juan Moyotlan, where the tianguis abutted the tecpan,
a building that Valadés would have witnessed firsthand
while living a block away in San Francisco from 1543 to- What is remarkable is that he lists buildings for the
indigenous governors before the Catholic church, one