166 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy
in the Codex Osuna, the sweepers and the tortilla mak-
ers are not showing up for work, and on the following
pages, indigenous textile workers and orchard workers are
charged with not paying their taxes to support the native
government. But even this last point is given nuance by the
Codex Osuna: most of the scofflaw macehualtin (common-
ers) are compelled to be so because their greedy Spanish
employers refuse to free them and the textile workers are
literally imprisoned within the workshop. And the starving
of native governance is of detriment to all, a point made
by Zorita, who was in office as an audiencia judge during
the period spanned by these pages of the Codex Osuna
and an outspoken defender of the “natural” lords and the
logic of their rule. According to Zorita, “Under the old
system of government [where native lords received gener-
ous tributary income], then, the whole land was at peace.
Spaniards and Indians alike were content, and more trib-
ute was paid, and with less hardship, because government
was in the hands of the natural lords. This state of things
continued until some of their subjects began to persecute
the lords in the manner aforesaid,” that is, by complaints
and lawsuits. 71
In the general context of an appeal directed to Valde-
rrama, as a representative of the king, the narrative told
on the pages of the Codex Osuna seeks to reestablish the
proper balance of power within the city—where native
peoples are not required to render unpaid services to
the viceroy or to members of the audiencia, but instead
are required to give labor and tribute to their indigenous
rulers (ironically, Zorita is one of the figures identified as
receiving tribute goods without paying for them). 72 Such
an idealized image of the proper order of the native city
was pioneered, if not engineered, by Guzmán—its four
equivalent (and Christian) parcialidades organized around
a spacious and ordered civic center, the tecpan, and beneath
it its indigenous ruler, who wields an authority that has
both native sources (signaled by the tepotzoicpalli) and con-
firmation by a royal one (signaled by the staff he carries).
When the next ruler, don Cristóbal de Guzmán
Cecetzin (no relation to don Esteban de Guzmán), took
office in 1557, the conception of native rulership was shift-
ing. Although Cecetzin had a perfect Mexica pedigree, asfiguRe 7.16. Unknown creator, the properties of smallholders, detail,
Beinecke Map, ca. 1565. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University.