Codex Mendoza and Mexican History

Since the European colonial conquest and Christian evangelization of pre-Hispanic cultures, Mexico has evolved into a mixed-race society. Persistent class differences between people of Indigenous and Spanish lineages remain. However, there are many aspects of pre-Hispanic culture that prevail in modern Mexican society. The Codex Mendoza helps contemporary people understand these elements.

Aztec scribes created the Codex Mendoza around 1541 CE. Commissioned by Spanish officials, scribes wrote the Codex Mendoza on paper in Nahuatl pictograms and in Spanish. They included context intended for a foreign audience, such as everyday details of Aztec life, along with explanatory text in Spanish. Scribes created the Codex right after the Aztec empire fell, so the text gives today’s readers a glimpse of Aztec society right before Catholic evangelization.

The Creation of the Codex Mendoza

The Aztec Empire was among the most powerful pre-Hispanic societies. The Culhua-Mexica people, as they called themselves, founded the city of Tenochtitlán, which became the Aztec Capital, in 1324, after migrating south from a place called Aztlán. At its peak around 1440, the empire extended over 199,000 square kilometers.¹

In 1519, Spanish conquistadors came to Tenochtitlán, present-day Mexico City. By 1521, they had forced the population to submit to the Spanish crown.² Around 1541, the viceroy of New Spain commissioned Mexican Indigenous artists and Spanish interpreters to create a manuscript that would explain the new colony’s history to Spanish King Carlos V.³

The Codex Mendoza describes the founding of Tenochtitlán and the extension of Aztec territory. Artists also listed the tributes paid to the empire by conquered states and described the daily life of Aztec citizens.

Carlos V never received the Codex Mendoza. Pirates stole it on the journey to Spain, and it was not until 1831 that scholars rediscovered it.⁴ Today, the Codex Mendoza is part of the Bodleian Libraries' collection in Oxford, England. Mexico’s National Institute of History and Anthropology has collaboratively digitized the Codex in an attempt at “virtual repatriation” of this invaluable piece of Mexican history.⁵

Reading Codices

Indigenous codices from what is now Mexico are governed by a different logic than Western writing systems. They mostly use images and icons rather than letters indicating phonetic sounds. The narratives in the codices can be organized as a series of historical events, maps, or tribute lists.

Aztec people did not read these codices alone, as one might read a modern, English-language history book. Rather, argues scholar Gordon Brotherston, the images and pictograms in codices served as a kind of script that aided an oral retelling of events. Codices, writes Brotherston, “are composed of images and icons that work in tandem with the memory, voice, and knowledge of individuals able to read them.”⁶

The first pre-Hispanic codices were made of animal skin or amate bark paper.⁷ They unfolded horizontally, accordion-style.⁸ Because the Codex Mendoza was intended to inform the Spanish king, however, it was written on paper and bound as a European-style book.⁹

The resulting codex is in Nahuatl using Aztec pictograms and is furnished with a comprehensive Spanish interpretive text.

The Codex Mendoza is divided in three parts: territorial expansion, tribute, and daily life.

The History of the Aztec Empire

In the first part of the codex, scribes use text and illustrations to present a detailed narrative of the Aztec Empire. The Codex details the foundation of the great city of Tenochtitlán, the conquest of neighboring city-states that enlarged the empire, and the wins and losses of the conquerors and the conquered.

The Culhua-Mexica Settle Tenochtitlán

The beginning of the Codex narrates how, in 1324 CE, after several years of pilgrimage, the Culhua-Mexica arrived at a place they later called Mexico.

The place was inundated with marsh water and thickets of huge grasses. A path of clean water in the form of a cross ran through the vegetation. In the middle of the crossway, the Culhua-Mexica people found a great rocky hill, on top of which a large prickly pear cactus flourished. The place was the feeding ground of a golden eagle.¹⁰ The cactus and eagle’s joint presence was interpreted as a sign the god Huitzilopochtli gave to the Mexica people marking the place where they should settle and flourish.

The marshy landscape offered natural protection from enemies, as well as fertile land for agriculture. The people named the place Tenochtitlán, which means “cactus growing on stone.”¹¹

The Culhua-Mexica chose a leader named Tenuch as their governor, and nine other military leaders became captains. The people also named their new town México.¹²

Warfare and the Power of the Empire

By the time the Spanish arrived, the Culhua Mexica and nearby groups had formed a sacred political unit called the Triple Alliance, including the city-states of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. “Aztec” is a modern term used to describe the people that belonged to the Triple Alliance, and derives from the word aztecatl that means “people from Aztlan.”

Warfare was central to Aztec society. The Codex Mendoza describes how the early Aztec empire expanded by conquering neighboring towns and collecting tribute. The scribes created a series of pictorial representations detailing the conquered towns and the weapons used in the battles against them, annotated with Spanish texts. The codex details the honors, such as elaborate and colorful costumes and weapons, bestowed upon warriors who captured enemies in battle in order to reflect their bravery and achievements.¹³

Aztec rulers were expected to conquer several towns in order to keep the people’s trust and respect.¹⁴ The codex also names the governors assigned to each town and the frequency and content of their tributes. The tributaries gave foodstuffs (cacao beans, maize, chia seeds, amaranth, chile, melons, and jicamas); warrior costumes and shields; and feathers and fabrics once a year. They gave other textiles twice a year.¹⁵

The Aztecs believed that a person’s eternal destination depended on the circumstances of their death. The pathways humans had to avoid punishment and ensure salvation revolved around war. Men could be killed on the battlefield. Women could die in childbirth—which was itself framed as a brave battle.¹⁶ Or people of both genders could be sacrificed to the gods, often in the ritualistic enactment of war.¹⁷ This belief sustained the militaristic political system that supported the empire.

Life Cycle Rituals

The last part of the codex illustrates rituals of birth, naming ceremonies, and education practices including food rationing, punishments, and chores for children. We also find descriptions of the crimes that were penalized with death. Finally, the book illustrates the respect given to the elders.

Birth

The Codex Mendoza details rituals surrounding childbirth. On the day of birth, the midwife cut a lock of the baby’s hair right above their forehead and saved it to use on the day of their death. Four days after the birth, the midwife carried the naked newborn to the yard of the house and placed the newborn on a mat made of rushes. The mat laid over a tub of water was called a tule. Three boys sat around the tule and ate corn and beans while the midwife bathed the baby. After the bath, the boys would loudly call out the name that the midwife selected for the newborn.¹⁸ The midwife next buried the umbilical cord—for boys, under the place were the family had fought their enemies; and for girls, under the metate, the stone used for grinding corn.¹⁹

For female newborns, in addition, the midwife carried a distaff with a spindle, a basket, and a broom while bringing the baby to the tule bath.²⁰ Those tools are symbols of the baby's future profession as mothers and home carers. The midwife used different symbols for male infants depending on the family's traditional trade. These symbols could include war shields, arrows, punchers, knives, brushes, and other tools.

20 days after birth, the baby’s parents decided on the child’s profession. Male infants, and sometimes female infants, from elite families could be offered to the school, or Calmécac, where they would eventually be trained to be priests. Male infants of lower social classes were offered to the Telpochcalli, schools of military service. According to the Codex, children generally stayed with their families until they were fifteen, at which time they would join the religious or military school they had been promised to.²¹ Some girls joined a temple for priest training, too, while others married.²²

Education

The Codex Mendoza shows pictograms of parents instructing boys and girls of various ages. We can see details of the tools and accessories required to perform their duties.

According to the Codex, for the first 14 years of a child’s life, all children received intense education in the home. The Aztecs believed that education shaped the individual’s personality. According to a Nahuatl saying, it “gave them face and heart,” and made them productive members of their society, capable of pleasing the gods.²³

According to the Codex Mendoza, children of four years old participated in basic household chores. Girls were introduced to spinning skills, while boys were sent to look for supplies like water or wood. The complexity of the tasks increased as the children grew older. At the age of five, girls started using the spinning wheel and the boys brought home heavier loads of wood, grass, and animal bones. By the age of fourteen, boys were in charge of fishing and transporting heavy loads in their canoes. Girls created complex weaving patterns and were able to grind corn and make tortillas.²⁴

As part of the education process, adults rationed children’s food according to their age. This started with half of a corn tortilla at the age of three and ended with two tortillas at the age of fourteen. Other foods such as hot peppers, maguey, pulque, rabbit, turkey, beans, and cocoa beans are also mentioned among the pages of the Codex Mendoza.

Death

The Aztecs practiced various private and public rituals surrounding death and dying. They believed in an afterlife. The Mictlán, the Tlayocan, and the Omelocan are the afterlife destinations within the Aztec religion. The circumstances of one’s death determined the place in which people’s souls would spend the afterlife.

The Codex Mendoza illustrates the value of the elderly at the end of the life cycle. On one page, we see elders surrounded by younger people and spreading their wisdom and knowledge. According to the Codex, the elders were the only people allowed to drink pulque and get drunk without punishment. They were expected to die of natural causes.²⁵ Their spirits journeyed to Mictlán with the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli.

At the top of the codex page above, we can see pictographs about a group of commoners that are being killed as a punishment for their misconduct. The death penalty, by hanging, stoning, and other methods, was permissible for drunks, thieves, and adulterers.^26 27

Despite the different circumstances of these characters, their spirits likely shared a common destination: the Mictlán, a place of total darkness, the same as those who died of natural causes. The dead journeyed through eight different levels of challenges over four years before reaching Mictlán. Upon arriving in Mictlán, they would vanish from existence.

From the Aztec Empire to Modern Mexico

Nowadays in Mexico, numerous Indigenous groups have managed to preserve the traditions that date to their pre-Hispanic ancestors. Records like the Codex Mendoza and other codices have helped scholars understand the past and make connections with the present. In particular, the Codex helps us better consider both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous influences that continue to shape the present culture.

Indigenous Struggle

The Aztecs fought their final war against the Spanish colonizers. That war ended with the death of the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, in 1521. In 1810, the Mexican War of Independence led to the republic we know now as México. In 1917, the Mexican Revolution ended a dictatorship and generated the country’s first political constitution.

Many Mexican Indigenous people of today invoke their warrior ancestors as symbols of identity and resistance. For example, in 1983, Indigenous groups formed the armed movement Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in order to counter neoliberalism and corporate control. They became public in 1994 with an armed seizure of several towns in Chiapas, Mexico on the same day that the Mexican government signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They demanded the end of the repression and neglect of Mexican Indigenous people. The movement opened dialogue between Indigenous groups and the government.^28 29 Sadly, the signed agreements were insufficient to meet the demands of the EZLN.

The EZLN is still working against the violence and discrimination of the current political system. In summer 2021, the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán, a group of EZLN representatives toured Europe to speak at different forums and denounce oppression and injustice.³⁰ They rallied around the slogan “No nos conquistaron. Nunca nos fuimos.” (“They didn’t conquer us. We never left.”) celebrating the living legacy of Indigenous struggle.³¹

Food and Agriculture

Agricultural systems from the Aztec empire continue to shape Mexico City and surrounding neighborhoods. Some of the bodies of water that supported the food economy of the Aztec empire still exist in the heart of Mexico City, and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Xochimilco, now part of Mexico City, was an independent town conquered by the Aztecs that became the food provider of Tenochtitlán. The people of Xochimilco constructed artificial islands in the nearby Lake Texcoco to produce food. This farming technique is called chinampas.³²

Presently, over 10,000 people still work in the floating garden chinampas for urban agriculture in Xochimilco County.³³ UNESCO considers this area a World Heritage Site.³⁴ Many of the farmers there grow produce that the Aztec would have eaten, especially corn. Mexican people continue to eat many Aztec staples like tortillas and pulque.

Goddess Worship

Elements of Aztec religion persist in Mexican Catholicism, as well. Spanish evangelists used the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe to convert Indigenous people. The stories surrounding this Christian figure were closely linked to Indigenous beliefs.³⁵ This created a powerful tool to further the colonial goals. Catholic evangelization supplemented the military drive to achieve the surrender of native peoples to the Spanish crown.

According to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared five times to an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego on a hill near Mexico City in 1531. She had brown skin, dark hair, and Aztec facial features. She talked to him in Náhuatl and performed the miracle of imprinting her image on his cloak.

The Virgin of Guadalupe instructed Juan Diego to build a temple in her honor. The Basilica of Guadalpe was built on the same hill where Indigenous communities made a pilgrimage to adore Tonantzin, the Aztec mother goddess.³⁶ Indigenous people called the Virgin Tonantzin. Every December 12th, the day of the last appearance of the Virgin to Juan Diego, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous pilgrims come to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, making it the world’s most-visited Catholic shrine.³⁷

The importance of rituals, religion, and respect for state authorities are reflected throughout the pages of the Codex Mendoza. Understanding Aztec society helps us make sense of Mexico’s present. It is of the utmost importance to ensure public access to the Codex Mendoza and other cultural treasures. It empowers the present and future generations with historical knowledge and allows them to appreciate, respect, and perpetuate valued cultural traditions. Most importantly, the Codex helps defend the rights of modern-day Mexican Indigenous groups to safeguard their traditions.