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Determining the Authorship of the Crónica Mexicayotl: Two Hypotheses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Sylvie Peperstraete  and
Gabriel Kenrick Kruell
Sylvie Peperstraete
Affiliation:
Université Libre de BruxellesBrussels, BelgiumÉcole Pratique des Hautes EtudesParis, France
Gabriel Kenrick Kruell
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de MexicoMexico Cit, Mexico
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Extract

Since the seventeenth century, the Crónica Mexicayotl, an invaluable account documenting the Mexica Tenochca history, has been attributed either to Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtle-huanitzin, to Hernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, or sometimes to both. To examine these attributions, we focus here on the way the document as we know it today was written, pointing out the fact that it was made by assembling material from several heterogeneous sources, among which we find the famous and now lost Crónica X. Important passages allow us to emphasize the role played by Tezozomoc in the composition of the original Crónica Mexicayotl, and to propose with reference to the later version that has reached us, that a considerable number of insertions can be attributed to Chimalpahin. In that regard we present two different hypotheses regarding the relationship of the Crónica Mexicayotl to other works, as well as to the authors Tezozomoc and Chimalpahin.

Type
Research Note
Information
The Americas , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , October 2014 , pp. 315 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014

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References

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2. On his trip to Cambridge in December 2013 to consult the MS 374, Gabriel Kenrick Kruell found out that the three volumes had been transfered to London by the Bible Society in order to be sold at auction. The selling took place on May 21st 2014 at the Christie’s Auction House and up to now it is not known who has bought the manuscripts. For further information, see the article of the mexican newspaper El Universal: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/2014/tres-siglo-xvii-escritos-ejemplares-fernando-de-alva-chimalpahin-cuauhtlehuanitzin-subasta-londres-cambrige-nueva-espania-nahuatl-christies-1009035.html.

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28. Aubin, Mémoires, pp. 8-9. “Gama, whose copy I have, attributes this history, in very elegant Mexican, to Tezozomoc. These are fragments of Tezozomoc and Alonso Franco, annotated by Chimalpahin, who names himself in quoting them.”

29. Adrián León, introduction to Tezozómoc, Fernando Alvarado, Crónica mexicáyotl, León, Adrián, ed. and trans. (Mexico: Imprenta Universitaria, 1949), pp. xviii–xix Google Scholar; Galván, Romero, La Crónica Mexicana, p. 167 Google Scholar; Sallie C. Brennan, Cosmogonic Use of Time and Space in Historical Narrative: the Case of the Crònica

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32. Galván, Romero, La Crónica Mexicana, p. 167.Google Scholar

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34. Schroeder, , introduction to Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Codex Chimalpahin, vol. 1, p. 10.Google Scholar

35. Chimalpahin drew a cross at the top off. 18r to point out the beginning of Tezozomoc’s introduction.

36. At the top edge of f. 20r, Chimalpahin drew a cross to indicate the start of the account in the Crónica Mexicayotl, and under the cross he wrote a very indicative Nahuatl word: Tlatolpeuhcayotl (beginning of the account). The Spanish title and the term used to begin the account in Nahuatl confirm that the Crónica Mexicayotl begins here: “Aqui comiença La chronica, y Antigüedad De los Mexicanos.ettsa. / Yzcatqui Nican ompehua yn chronica Mexicayotl.”

37. The account is interrupted abruptly at f. 40v, in the middle of a speech addressed by the Mexica to the new ruler of Tenochtitlan, Acamapichtli. Then, f. 41r begins with a genealogical list of the sons of Tlatolzacatzin and grandsons of Acamapichtli. We believe that between f. 40r and f. 41v there is not only a narrative break that interrupts the account, but also a textual gap that indicates that some folios of MS 374, vol. III were most likely lost. An important proof of this textual gap is the fact that the reference word that is found at the lower edge of f. 40v, and which should anticipate the first word of the following folio, does not match the first word off. 41r.

38. Schroeder, Susan, “The Truth About the Crônica Mexicayotl,” Colonial Latin American Review 20:2 (2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Between the Historia o crónica mexicana and Tezozomoc’s statement there is an entire folio left blank (f. 17).

40. Schroeder, , in Codex Chimalpahin, Anderson, and Schroeder, , eds. and trans., vol. 1, p. 55 Google Scholar: “Emperor Moteucçoma having ruled for nineteen years in great prosperity, causing himself to be served and respected to excess through the use of enormous cruelties as sacrifices, it was the will of our Lord God that he be punished, that his high and proud designs be humbled, and that the empire of the devil that was so extensive in this New World be demolished, his divine Majesty permitting that beforehand there be visions, strange portents, and fearsome events, which the Mexicans saw before the fall of their empire.”

41. Quauhtlehuanitzin, Chimalpáhin, Las ocho relaciones, vol. 1, pp. 64—71, 308–311.Google Scholar

42. Chimalpahin did not limit himself to copying López de Gomara; he also inserted information. Curiously, a passage interpolated by Chimalpahin into La Conquista de Mexico is almost identical to a passage in the Historia o crónica mexicana. See Quauhtlehuanitzin, Chimalpahin, Codex Chimalpahin, vol. 1, p. 58 Google Scholar; and Quauhtlehuanitzin, Chimalpahin, Chimalpáin y la conquista de México. La crónica de Francisco López de Gomara comentada por el historiador nahua, Schroeder, Susan, Bermúdez, David E. Tavárez, and Cristian Roa-de-la-Carrera, , eds., prologue by Galván, José Rubén Romero (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012), pp. 405–406.Google Scholar

43. The English translation of the Crónica Mexicayotl is taken from the Anderson and Schroeder edition (Codex Chimalpahin). Bold characters are used to highlight the references cited.

44. See for comparison Peperstraete, La “Chronique X.”

45. Durán, Diego, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de Tierra Firme, Arredondo, Rosa de Lourdes Camelo and Galván, José Rubén Romero, eds. (Mexico: CONACULTA, 1995)Google Scholar; Tezozómoc, Hernando de Alvarado, Crónica Mexicana, Migoyo, Gonzalo Díaz and Chamorro, Germán Vázquez, eds. (Madrid: Historia 16, 2001 [1997]).Google Scholar

46. Barlow, Robert H., “La Crónica X: versiones coloniales de la historia de los mexica tenochca,” Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos 7 (1945), pp. 70–76 Google Scholar. On the Historia Mexicana, see for example Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, pp. 258, 431, and 444.Google Scholar

47. Ignacio Bernal, “Durán’s Historia and the Crónica X,” in Durán, Diego, The History of the Indies of New Spain, Heyden, Doris, ed. and trans. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), p. 572 Google Scholar; Davies, Nigel, The Aztec Empire: The Toltec Resurgence (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), p. 54 Google Scholar; Peperstraete, , La “Chronique X”, pp. 43–46.Google Scholar

48. Peperstraete, La “Chronique X.”Barlow, in “La Crónica X,” pp. 76-77, suggests that Crónica X be regarded as the source for all that appears in both the work of Duran and the Crónica Mexicana of Tezozomoc. If this is accepted, it becomes possible to extend the list of common passages to include additional shared data. For example, Duran introduces many sentences with the phrase “cuenta la historia”; that is the way he usually refers to his principal source. Even if Duran uses episodes condensed or omitted by Tezozomoc, these can thus be integrated into the reconstruction. The same applies when Duran says to shorten or remove an enumeration, but the enumeration appears in Tezozomoc. And finally, since the Crónica Xwas written in Nahuatl, Tezozomoc could remain closer to his main source than could Duran. When the former uses Nahuatl words, one may give them preference over the generalities or approximations of these terms that Duran proposes in Spanish. For more details, see Peperstraete, La “Chronique X,”pp. 58-59.

49. Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, pp. 71–99 Google Scholar; Tezozomoc, , Crónica Mexicana, pp. 54–63.Google Scholar

50. Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, p. 94 Google Scholar; Tezozomoc, , Crónica Mexicana, p. 63.Google Scholar

51. Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. l, pp. 87–88 Google Scholar. English translation from Heyden, Doris, The History of the Indies of New Spain, p. 39 Google Scholar: “because of a certain lewd happening that I shall refrain from telling in order not to offense the ears of the readers.”

52. Tezozomoc, , Crónica Mexicana, p. 56.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., p. 59.

54. Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, p. 81 Google Scholar; Tezozomoc, , Crónica Mexicana, p. 61.Google Scholar

55. Caso, Alfonso, “Fragmento de genealogía de los príncipes mexicanos (Cat. Boban 72),” Journal de la Société des Américanistes 47 (1958), p. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56. See Duran, , Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, p. 83.Google Scholar

57. Besides, this summary is inserted between two key passages. The first is the passage in which the Mexica bring up the possibility of asking for building materials for the Azcapotzalca (f. 35v, § 95), and the second is the passage in which they decide to exchange the materials for fishing products (f. 37r, § 101), indicating clearly that it is a later addition.

58. Schroeder, “The Truth about the Crónica Mexicayotl,” p. 234. Here, Schroeder affirms that there is no change in vocabulary, style, or prose from the beginning of the Crónica Mexicayotl to its end, and that this uniformity means it can be attributed only to Chimalpahin. Kruell disagrees, as noted in his hypothesis.

59. Kirchhoff, , “El autor de la segunda parte de la Crónica Mexicáyotl” pp. 226–227 Google Scholar. Kirchhoff sees the end of the first part at f. 38r, § 106. We disagree with the German anthropologist on this point. We consider that the Crónica Mexicayotl is interrupted at f. 40v.

60. Reggi, Gabriel Kenrick Kruell, La Crònica X: nuevas perspectivas a partir del problema historiográfico de la Crónica mexicayotl y su cotejo con la Crónica mexicana (Master’s thesis: UNAM, 2011).Google Scholar

61. Kruell, Gabriel Kenrick, “La Crónica mexicayotl: versiones coloniales de una tradición histórica mexica tenochca,” Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 45 (2013), pp. 197–232.Google Scholar

62. Compare the events of the year 1064 as recounted in the Crónica Mexicayotl, fs. 20v-21r, § 14-15; the Memorial de Colhuacan ( Quauhtlehuanitzin, Chimalpáhin, Las ocho relaciones, vol. 1, pp. 84–97)Google Scholar; and the Tercera Relación (ibid., vol. 1, pp. 178-185).

63. There are only two Nahuatl dates with parallels in both the Crónica Mexicayotl and the Crónica Mexicana: the year 9-Reed and the year (or day) 1-Flint. See also the Crónica Mexicayotl, f. 25v, § 39, and the Crónica Mexicana ( Tezozomoc, , Crónica Mexicana, pp. 57, 60)Google Scholar. Some Nahua-Christian years are found in the Crónica Mexicayotl, the Historia o crónica mexicana, in Relaciones 3, 4, 5 and 7, and also in the Memorial de Colbuacan. In these books we can read the same events; many times these are related by Chimalpahin with the same words. The years are 1—Flint (1064), 5—Flint (1068), 1—Flint (1168), 11—Reed (1075), 1—House (1285), 2—Rabbit (1286), 11—Reed (1295), 2—Reed (1299), 10—Reed (1307), 13—Reed (1323), 2—House (1325), 1—House (1337), 1—Reed (1363), and 5—Reed (1367). Therefore, Kruell believes that all of these dates represent Chimalpahin’s interpolations into the Crónica Mexicayotl.

64. In f. 27r, § 51 of the Crónica Mexicayotl, for example, there are two obvious insertions in brackets.

65. Quauhtlehuanitzin, Chimalpahin, Codex Chimalpahin, vol. 1, p. 113..Google Scholar