Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City

Blending cartography and art history, this groundbreaking study reexamines the indigenous roots of Mexico City: “Quite simply, it is a tour de force” (Ethnohistory).   In its time, the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world. In 1521, at the height of its power, Hernán Cortés conquered the city, boasting to King Charles V of Spain that Tenochtitlan was “destroyed and razed to the ground.” But was it?   Drawing on period representations of the city in sculptures, texts, and maps, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City builds a convincing case that this global capital remained an Amerindian city through the sixteenth century. Barbara E. Mundy foregrounds the role the city’s indigenous peoples, the Nahua, played in shaping Mexico City through the construction of permanent architecture and engagement in ceremonial actions. She demonstrates that the Aztec ruling elites, who retained power even after the conquest, were instrumental in building and then rebuilding the city.   Mundy shows how the Nahua entered into mutually advantageous alliances with the Franciscans to maintain the city's sacred nodes. She also focuses on the practical and symbolic role of the city’s extraordinary waterworks—the product of a massive ecological manipulation begun in the fifteenth century—to reveal how the Nahua struggled to maintain control of water resources in early Mexico City.

Blending cartography and art history, this groundbreaking study reexamines the indigenous roots of Mexico City: “Quite simply, it is a tour de force” (Ethnohistory).   In its time, the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world. In 1521, at the height of its power, Hernán Cortés conquered the city, boasting to King Charles V of Spain that Tenochtitlan was “destroyed and razed to the ground.” But was it?   Drawing on period representations of the city in sculptures, texts, and maps, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City builds a convincing case that this global capital remained an Amerindian city through the sixteenth century. Barbara E. Mundy foregrounds the role the city’s indigenous peoples, the Nahua, played in shaping Mexico City through the construction of permanent architecture and engagement in ceremonial actions. She demonstrates that the Aztec ruling elites, who retained power even after the conquest, were instrumental in building and then rebuilding the city.   Mundy shows how the Nahua entered into mutually advantageous alliances with the Franciscans to maintain the city's sacred nodes. She also focuses on the practical and symbolic role of the city’s extraordinary waterworks—the product of a massive ecological manipulation begun in the fifteenth century—to reveal how the Nahua struggled to maintain control of water resources in early Mexico City.