164 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
feathers embedded in it) would have been quite visible. The
relationship of the figures on the Osuna page in figure 5.5
is also significant because Guzmán appears consecrated
by viceregal authority (holding the staff ) at the same time
that he is shown as an equal partner in the parley. A similar
image on the Beinecke Map shows the pair in a position
of even greater equivalence (see figure 5.2). Here, Guzmán,
wearing the striped cloak, is standing with his staff, and
opposite is the viceroy, also on foot. Both are speaking,
and their pointing hands underscore their exchange. But a
subtle visual difference is introduced: Guzmán stands at a
slightly higher register than the viceroy, and his words are
addressed not to the figure opposite him, but to the crown,
that symbol of royal power worn only by the monarch, that
floats above the viceroy’s head.
The reading of the Osuna image can be further nuanced
by the historical record, which makes it clear that despite
his favor with the viceroy, Guzmán was no puppet. Instead,
from the moment of being seated, he was active in defend-
ing certain prerogatives of the indigenous community.
Soon after coming to office in 1554, he was joined by don
Pedro Moctezoma Tlacahuepantli (d. 1570), the son of the
pre-Hispanic emperor, in writing to the king directly to
resist an attempt to put the city’s indigenous cabildo under
the exclusive control of a Spanish “protector.” 62 The letter
argues that indigenous officials were both competent and
loyal. Around the time of the writing of this letter, a new
conflict erupted over the collection of tithes between city
natives and the archbishop (and Dominican) Alonso de
Montúfar, who, like Guzmán, assumed his post in 1554. 63
In another letter written to the king, in 1556, mentioned
above as the fruit of Tehuetzquititzin’s alliance building,
Guzmán joined other native elites to ask the king for the
special protector of indigenous interests. 64
If the first image of Guzmán in the Codex Osuna
shows him to be an actor within the political framework
established by the king—albeit a resolutely indigenous
one—a second rendering of Guzmán, on folio 38r of the
manuscript, fills out what this indigenous world looked
like (see figure 5.5). The top of the image is dominated
by the indigenous tecpan, built at the end of Huanitzin’s
reign, and the similarity of its rendering to the earlier
image of Moteuczoma’s palace in the Codex Mendoza was
discussed in chapter 5 (see figure 5.7). But let us consider
it anew in the context of Guzmán’s reign of 1554–1557 as
juez-gobernador. He and Velasco are for the second time infiguRe 7.15. Unknown creator, Viceroy Luis de Velasco deputizing
the alguaciles, or indigenous constables, detail, Codex Osuna, fol. 9v,
ca. 1565. © Biblioteca Nacional de España.