Huitzilatzin

Huitzilatzin (or Huitzillatzin) (died in the year Seven Reed/1499[1]) was the first tlatoani (ruler) of the pre-Columbian altepetl (ethnic state) of Huitzilopochco (now Churubusco) in the Valley of Mexico.[2]

Huitzilatzin
Tlatoani of Huitzilopochco
The glyph for Huitzilopochco
Successor	Macuilxochitzin
Born	Mexico Tenochtitlan
Died	Seven Reed/1499
Father	Huehue Zaca

Huitzilatzin was the second son of Huehue Zaca, who held the title of tlacateccatl (general) and who was a son of Huitzilihuitl, the second Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan. According to the Crónica mexicáyotl, Huitzilatzin was "quite sickly" (Nahuatl "çan cocoxcatzintli").[2]

He was installed as ruler of Huitzilopochco by the Aztec ruler Axayacatl.[2] Like other towns in the region, it is not recorded exactly when Huitzilopochco came under Aztec control. It is likely that Tenochtitlan inherited them from the defeated Tepanec empire of Azcapotzalco.[3] The inhabitants of Huitzilopochco are said to have been cannibals prior to the imposition of Aztec government.[2][4]

Huitzilatzin had two children in Huitzilopochco: a son, Macuilxochitzin,[5] who succeeded him as tlatoani; and a daughter, whose name is not known but who married Quauhpopocatzin, the ruler of Coyoacán.[5]

Huitzilatzin was killed in the year Seven Reed (1499), as he was held responsible for flooding that had occurred in Tenochtitlan[1] due to an aqueduct which tapped springs near Huitzilopochco.

Notes

1. Chimalpahin (1997): pp. 214–215
2. Chimalpahin (1997): pp. 146–147.
3. Berdnan and Anawalt (1997): p. 35.
4. Isaac (2005): pp. 5–6.
5. Chimalpahin (1997): pp. 148–149.

References

• Berdan, Frances F.; Patricia Rieff Anawalt (1997). The Essential Codex Mendoza. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20454-9.
• Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón (1997). Codex Chimalpahin: society and politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and other Nahua altepetl in central Mexico: the Nahuatl and Spanish annals and accounts collected and recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. edited and translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2921-2.
• Isaac, Barry L. (2005). "Aztec Cannibalism: Nahua versus Spanish and mestizo accounts in the Valley of Mexico". Ancient Mesoamerica. 16: 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0956536105050030.