axes in The ciTy • 183The TRadiTion of The miToTe
The mitote (ceremonial dance) that we witness here was a
tradition reaching back to the pre-Hispanic period; Diego
Durán describes four days of dances that accompanied
the investitures of rulers. 64 The word “mitote” comes
from the Nahuatl root itotia, and Europeans seem to have
adapted their word “mitote” from mitotia, meaning “it is
danced.” 65 Such dances had been particularly important
in the consecration of a ruler, where they had a sacralizing
function akin to bloodletting. They were also danced at
pre-Hispanic religious events. Mendieta would write that
“one of the most important things that there was in this
country were the songs and dances, used to make sacred
the feasts for their devils that they honored as gods.” 66
But these dances were not just past phenomena, and
most sixteenth-century observers discuss them as eyewit-
nesses in no small part because the Franciscans, eager to
capitalize on the rich pagan ceremonial life of their native
charges, quickly created sanitized versions of both songs
and their corresponding dances for Christian ritual use. 67
Mendieta offers an example. He praised the order and the
beauty of the dances, which could involve thousands of
people moving in time to the beat of two types of drums,
the huehuetl and the teponaztli, and noted how dancing
was a prized skill. One of the earliest Franciscan chroni-
clers, Motolinia, did the same: “Attired in white shirts and
mantles and bedecked in feathers and with a bouquet of
roses in their hands, the Indian lords and chiefs perform a
dance and sing in their language the songs that solemnize
the feast which they are celebrating. The friars have trans-
lated these songs for them and the Indian masters have put
them into the meter to which the Indians are accustomed.
The songs are graceful and harmonious. In many places
the dancing and singing begin at midnight and numerous
lights illumine the patios.” 68 Writing in the late sixteenth
century, Mendieta also discussed the costumes worn in
these dances, which he witnessed: “At times they brought
to the dance plaza cones of roses and of other flowers, or
bouquets to carry in their hands, and garlands that they
put on their heads, in addition to the costumes that they
used in the dance, rich cloaks and feathered costumes,
and others carried in their hands small beautiful feathers
instead of bouquets.” 69
As we can see from these two accounts, written about
sixty years apart, feathered costumes were a key element,
in addition to music, of the performance of mitotes in the
sixteenth century. 70 This connection had pre-Hispanic
roots. The Florentine Codex, for instance, tells us that one
of the key roles of the featherworkers was to create the
dance costume of Moteuczoma. And because of its role in
dance costumes, feathered clothing continued to be made
through the sixteenth century. The Florentine Codex,
again, describes how in the 1570s, some feathered articles
had fallen from fashion, but not so dance costumes: “Insig-
nia borne on the back are made, with which there may be
dancing; and all the dance array, gear, and ornaments: the
quetzal feathers, head ornaments, bracelets for the upper
arm with precious feathers, gold bands for the upper
arm; fans—fans of heron, of red spoonbill, of troupial, of
crested guan, of quetzal feathers; and hand banners, quet-
zal feathered hand banners with troupial feathers in alter-
nating bands, heron feather banners, gold banners tufted
with quetzal feathers at the tips.” 71 Feathered costumes
were prized by indigenous elites in the colonial period and
were among the heirloom items that were designated in
wills, objects passed down from generation to generation;
in her research on indigenous costume, Justyna Olko has
identified a number of feathered garments of different
types named in wills. 72 Here in the Tlatelolco Codex, their
importance is underscored by the red line that runs from
the first image of the colored eagle, connecting it with the
Tlatelolco ruler, don Diego de Mendoza, and the first two
dancers (figure 8.3). The rarity of the costumes, as well as
the skill of the dancers, made the mitotes special events,
danced at official events, and while they could be sponsored
by the mendicants, they were also performed under the
sponsorship of the indigenous lords, as we see them here.
The mitotes were one way that indigenous governors
fused ceremonial forms of the past into the new ones of
the present. Some observers remained deeply suspicions
of them. Cervantes de Salazar would write of indigenous
dancers, “In the dance in which they would sing praises to
the devil, they now sing praises to God, who is the only
being worthy of praise. But they are so inclined to follow
their ancient idolatry, and if there is no one around who
understands their language, among the sacred orations
they sing they mix in pagan songs, and to better cover up
their damaging acts, they begin and end with words of
God, interspersing pagan verses in low voices so as not to
be heard, and raising their voices at beginning and end,
when they say ‘God.’ ” 73 Despite their suspect nature, the
mitotes were at times embraced by Spanish royal officials,
who called for them to be performed at civic rituals, partic-
ularly those that marked a transition in monarchial power