IIIF for Educators

Mexica Heroes

💡 Concept

In the Prologue to Book 12, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún explained that the Nahuatl-language narrative was based on interviews with Nahua elders who had experienced the war. He attested to the value of the indigenous account since “those who were conquered knew and gave an account of many things that transpired among them during the war of which those who conquered them were unaware.” He acknowledged the ways that Nahuas kept memories of their experiences of the war alive through oral histories. One fascinating aspect of Nahua social memory is their knowledge of certain war heroes.

🖥️ Activity

We will conduct searches within the Digital Florentine Codex on some of the earliest representations of Mexica heroes in the Florentine Codex to better understand how information in Book 12 can shed light on other colonial texts and images of the conquest. Our shared images and comments will generate further discussion.

👓 Example

Visual memory in imagery
Tlappanecatl Ehcatzin captures the Spanish banner (f. 67r) (click to open and close)

The image below reveals memories of a hero named Tlappanecatl Ehcatzin who captured the Spanish banner. This is represented as a pivotal and highly symbolic moment that grants the Mexica a victory, even if they don't win the war. It is doubtful that Sahagún or other Spaniards would have remembered this warrior's name decades after the conquest; thus, the detail reveals a distinct indigenous memory that, in Sahagún's words,

“those who were conquered knew and gave an account of many things that transpired among them during the war of which those who conquered them were unaware.”

Note that the tlacuilo used a Mesoamerican pictorial writing convention of using size to indicate status and importance. Here Tlappanecatl Ehcatzin towers over the Spaniards as he wrests the banner from them.

🧱 Materials

🪜 Steps

1. Open the Example section, and read and view about Tlappanecatl Ehcatzin 
2. View all images in the DFC Book 12 using the search terms "warrior" and "war leader." (click the link to DFC search returns for "Warrior" with a box for Book 12 checked in the filter. Use the same arrangement with "war leader," and also try other related terms to make sure your set is complete. 
3. Locate one image that you would like to share and discuss in the Mixtape collection above, using the Cropping Tool
4. Crop and share one image that you find interesting with a reflective comment.

✉️ Share

Paste your cropped detail in a discussion post, and in a brief (40-60 words) comment, explain what you understand to be the significance of the image and how it represents Mexica warriors. 

🤝 Collaborate

After you have posted, review submissions by your peers, and leave a response to at least one: how does their selection compare with yours, and what additional perspective did you gain from seeing the two in comparison?