huaniTzin RecenTeRs The ciTy • 111likely the palace of the third post-Conquest gobernador,
don Pablo Xochiquentzin. 48 Another potential political
force was don Pedro Moctezoma Tlacahuepantli, the son
and heir of the pre-Conquest huei tlatoani, who was from
San Sebastián Atzacoalco and died in his palace there,
which was adjacent to the church. 49 Thus, by moving the
center of the city to San Juan Moyotlan, and marking that
spot with a tecpan that was and would continue to be an
official building, not elite property, Huanitzin made clear
the city had a new center. 50
What was the ideological valence of the new tecpan?
We can determine something of what it meant, at least
in elite circles, by looking at the context of the rare image
of the tecpan in the Codex Osuna and comparing it to a
similar building that is represented in the third part of
the Codex Mendoza (figures 5.5 and 5.7). In the Codex
Osuna, the building is intimately connected to the idea
of just indigenous rulership as it had evolved by midcen-
tury; below it appear two figures, neatly balanced in the
composition. On the left side is don Esteban de Guzmán,
an indigenous noble from outside of Mexico City who
was appointed as juez-gobernador ( judge-governor) of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan by the viceroy, allowing him to act
in both a judicial and an executive capacity. He held office
from 1555 to 1557. Facing him is the viceroy, don Luis de
Velasco. Guzmán, who was not from the Mexica elite, is
represented with the authority to rule by the large staff he
carries in his hand, granted to him by the viceroy. Below is
the foundation of indigenous labor, the sweepers and the
tortilla makers, responsible for maintaining life in the tec-
pan, and their presence will be discussed at greater length
in chapter 7 in the context of the 1550s. The architecture
of this new colonial tecpan, seat of the gobernadores, bears
a strong resemblance to the way palace architecture is
represented in the Codex Mendoza. We have seen pages
from the first two sections of this book, which tell the
history of the city via the history of conquests of the huei
tlatoque, and the tribute due from conquered regions (see
figures 1.3, 1.4, and 3.1). The codex dates to the early 1540s,
and given the highly trained Mexica scribes (tlacuiloque)
who worked on it, its most likely place of creation was
either in the Franciscan center of San José de los Naturales
or in and around the tecpan, as these would have been
the two most prominent places of scribal production in
the indigenous city in the early 1540s (see figure 4.2).
While the first two sections of the book have a number
of manuscript cognates, the third section (folios 56v–71r)
is entirely unprecedented. Across sixteen folios, it offers
an account of the different social stations within Mexica
society, as well as the different stages of life for the Mexica
individual; little mention of “idolatrous” religion or sac-
rificial practice is made, and instead, the reader emerges
with a picture of a harmonious, well-organized, and hier-
archical society, at whose head is the just ruler. The Codex
Mendoza’s ideal of this ruler is expressed most forcefully
on folio 69r; it is one of only two pages in the manuscript
dominated by a single large image, the other being the
foundation of Tenochtitlan in 1325 on folio 2r, discussed
previously (see figure 1.3). On folio 69r, we see the pre-
Hispanic palace of Moteuczoma II, with the powerful huei
tlatoani seated near the center of the page, high up in his
second-story throne room. Flanking him are rooms for
various leaders from nearby cities in the Valley of Mexico
(the ruler of Tetzcoco would sit at the right). A stairway
leads from the throne room to the chambers on the first
level, and in these are the bureaucrats who run the state,
judges and generals. As if to underscore a pacific moment
of the state, the chamber where the council of war would
meet is vacant, whereas the chamber for Moteuczoma’s
council (its members are like royal judges, its text tells us)
houses four men discussing the problems of the common-
ers gathered at the bottom to make appeals. 51
At the moment that the Codex Mendoza artists were
working on creating this image of Moteuczoma’s palace in
the early 1540s, the building in the city that most closely
resembled their rendering would have been steps from
their atelier, to be found in the newly constructed tecpan.
Both were axial structures, with a central stairway link-
ing two stories, unusual among the low buildings of the
city. Both had large interior patios surrounded by a wall
and marked by entablature decorations of rings. And both
representations were connected to images of indigenous
political order.
In the Codex Mendoza, the pivot of this ordered world
is the brilliant turquoise-garbed figure of Moteuczoma,
who had been dead for almost two decades when the pic-
ture was painted but whose figure was emerging in the
rhetoric of indigenous documents as the organizing figure
of the just república de indios (Indian republic) that existed
before the Conquest. Here, the order of his rule is con-
veyed by the building that he inhabits. But of course, this
was painted around the time that Moteuczoma had been
replaced by his son-and-law and nephew, Huanitzin, who,
according to images in native manuscripts, also wore the