Coixtlahuacan

Coixtlahuacan was a powerful centre in the Mixteca Alta of northern Oaxaca. Its valley brought together Mixtec and Chocho communities, and its great market connected merchants from the Valley of Mexico, Cholula, the Oaxaca valley and the Pacific coast. Pictorial manuscripts preserve the histories and claims of the noble houses that ruled the surrounding communities.

In the fifteenth century Coixtlahuacan faced the expanding power of the Mexica Triple Alliance. Its ruler Atonal sought allies against the invaders, but the city fell after prolonged fighting and tribute was imposed on the conquered communities of the valley. The conquest entered both Mexica accounts and the pictorial records of Coixtlahuacan, preserving different perspectives on a struggle that changed the balance of power in the Mixteca.