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Mexica Textual Analysis

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The Spanish conquest of the Mexica caused changes in both Spanish’s and Mexica’s lifestyles. The Spanish had to change the culture of the conquered Mexica while the Mexica had to try to resist the cultural and political changes of the powerful Spanish. The Codex Boturini visually demonstrates the migration stories of the Mexica people after leaving Azlan to find Tenochtitlan. The Codex Boturini illustrates the several steps and stages the Mexica had to go through to find their dedicated space, the struggles they endured, and the events they celebrated such as fire ceremonies and sacrifices to the gods. On the other hand, the Codex Chimalpahin offers another point of view of the migration story of the Mexica since the author, Chimalpahin, wrote …show more content…

The several repetitions of the arrivals and departures of the Azteca/Mexica group in different cities and settlements reveals the strong importance of movement in the narrative and how Chimalpahin transmitted that. Time plays a crucial place in this Codex as well since the author recorded the precise years the group moved from place to place and what the reasons of their movement were. The type of historical narrative used here is called chronicles or Annals and their simplistic approach to depicting history leads to the inevitable narrativization and moralization of certain aspects of the original story. The focal point of the story emphasizes the movement of people around, but also the involvement of religion throughout their journey. By combining the two, it creates a natural rhythm that balances the story and adds unity. When certain sentences differ from the analytical accounts, they focus on certain actions and events in the lives of the Mexica, but also relate to the Christian cult of the Europeans. The incorporation of European religion into the original narrative changes drastically the migration account of the …show more content…

Due to the fact that this migration account relied on oral stories recorded after the conquest of the Spanish, Christianity plays a changing role in the overall narrative. Chimalpahin added to the account several side notes explaining the religious events happening in Europe during the supposed years of the migration account. An example of this change is present on page 21: “Four Flint, 1080, in which the Benedictine priesthood began at Mount Ancon”. These radical additions change massively the reading of the work since it confronts two different religions in the creation story of the Mexica cult. It must be speculated that the change of dates seen previously aimed at having matching dates in order to incorporate these Christian events in the Codex. Another point worth mentioning relates to the strangeness of this change since Chimalpahin wrote this codex in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica. It leads to thinking that the audience aimed primarly the Mexica people, which means that Chimalpahin or the patrons that requested this codex aimed at slowly teaching the Mexica Christianity and its history. By using their native language and having slight changes in their creation story, Chimalpahin produced a work that started the Christianization of the

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