Huexotzinco

Huexotzinco stood on the central Mexican plateau west of Tlaxcala, beneath the slopes of the great volcanoes. Its Nahua rulers resisted the expansion of neighbouring powers and eventually allied with the Spaniards. The town’s artists left a remarkable record of the demands placed upon their community after the conquest.

In 1531 the people of Huexotzinco joined Hernán Cortés in a complaint against officials of the First Audiencia, whom they accused of demanding excessive tribute. Indigenous painters recorded the goods supplied on sheets of amate paper, alongside written testimony. The surviving Huexotzinco Codex includes quantities of cloth and other objects, and even a featherwork image of the Virgin and Child. The case reveals how a community used both pictorial and written evidence to defend its interests under Spanish rule.