Spaniards in the Nahua City of Xochimilco: Colonial Society and Cultural Change in Central Mexico, 1650–1725

Abstract

In 1650, a Nahua noble named don Martín Cerón y Alvarado set down his last wishes in a codicil. Eminent but now elderly and frail, don Martin had served many times as governor of the central Mexicanaltepetl(ethnic state) of Xochimilco. Located by the lakes to the south of Mexico City, Xochimilco was a prominent and populous polity, renowned for its bountiful wetland agriculture. Such was its size and economic vitality that Spanish authorities, under King Philip II, decided to award it superior municipal status as a city—one of just four such designations in the basin of Mexico. In keeping with his position as the dynastic ruler of a prestigious alteped, don Martin was a lord of the highest social rank. He could trace his exalted lineage back to Acamapichtli, the Mexica forebear of the Aztec emperor Moteuhcçoma Xocoyotzin. By 1650, though, don Martin was the last of his kind. No person in Xochimilco would again hold his honorific title,tlatoani(dynastic ruler). His codicil and an earlier will and testament, both written in Nahuatl, marked the passing of an era.