THE MEXICAS VI.

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King Itzcóatl, persuaded by Tlacaelel, had sent messengers to Cuitláhuac, demanding from them, at the risk of being invaded, two things: to send their maiden daughters and sisters to come to Tenochtitlan to sing and dance in their pleasure houses, as well as the delivery of various flowers, with experienced gardeners to plant them and cultivate them in the Aztec capital. In a nutshell, the aztecs demanded the flowers of Cuitláhuac and the songs of their maidens. (Perhaps the what mexicas symbolically referred to was to find blood alliances with subjected people and appropriating the Toltec knowledge, inheritance and the Toltecáyotl, and not necessarily their flowers, gardeners and women for pleasure. Author's note.)

Then, recalling the Nahuatl language idiomatic expression -in Xochitl, in cuícatl-, which literally means "flowers and songs", but that in its metaphorical sense connotes the idea "poetry, art and symbolism", could outline the aztec claim and the purpose of obtaining for themselves, even if by war, the flowers and songs, or the cultural message of the other peoples in the Valley of Mexico.

Once defeated the people of Cuitláhuac, Xochimilco, Chalco, before engaging in new conquests, Tlacaelel decided to consolidate the aztec power through an ideological reform. First of all he considered it necessary to forge what today we would call a "historical consciousness", of which the aztecs could be proud. For this, Tlacaelel assembled the mexica lords. By common agreement it was determined to burn the defeated ancient codices and books of paintings of peoples and even the own mexicas. Implicitly they were conceiving history as a domination instrument:

"Their History was kept.
But, by then it was burnt:
when Itzcóatl reigned, in Mexico.

A resolution was taken,
The Mexica lords said:
it is not convenient that people
know the paintings. [the codices]
Those who are subject, [the people]
they shall spoil
and earth shall be crooked
because many lies are kept there
and many in them have been taken as gods."
(Sahagún informers)


"With the old books burnt, the aztecs begin a new historical and religious vision." (Miguel Leon Portilla. 1961)