Barbara_E._Mundy]_The_Death_of_Aztec_Tenochtitlan

204 • The deaTh of azTec TenochTiTLan, The Life of mexico ciTy

map (see figure 7.1). This map is dominated at the bottom
by the long arcade, completed in 1620, that finally brought
water from the faraway springs in Santa Fe, delivering it to
the fountain on the edge of the Alameda and from there
into the extant network of underground pipes that had
been granted to only a few of the city’s favored citizens. 64
A text on the map emphasizes the achievement: “Agua de
Santa Fe. 900 arcos.” But at the right of the map, one can
make out a second aqueduct, an open-air canal, running
along the causeway that linked Chapultepec to San Juan
Moyotlan, edged by a thin line, perhaps to show the raised
masonry (figure 9.5). At the edge of the city, it disappears,
pulled underground by another network of pipes. The first
reappearance of the water is quite close to the place of its
underground canalization; in the great nearby plaza of
the Tianguis of Mexico, a round fountain dominates the
space; it may have replaced an earlier construction, which
was a simpler fountain, seen marked by the circle at the

center of figure 4.9. The tecpan is not singled out on the

Trasmonte map—it was more concerned with the city’s

buildings and waterworks than the activities of its resi-

dents—but it would have faced off against the fountain,

whose waters began to flow in December of 1582. 65 The

inaugural event was memorable to the chronicler Chimal-

pahin, who wrote of the waters breaking through: “12 Rab-

bit year 1582. In this year, on the 22nd of the month of July,

on the feast day of Santa María Magdalena, was when the

aqueduct reached San Juan. And on the 31st of the month

of December water ran in the fountain in the marketplace;

at that time the fountain that is in the marketplace was

figuRe 9.5. Juan Gómez de Trasmonte, the Chapultepec aqueduct,

at right, with the Tianguis of Mexico in the upper left, detail, “Forma

y Levantado de la Ciudad de México” (view of Mexico City), 1907

(based on 1628 map). Lithograph; published by Francisco del Paso y

Troncoso, Florence.