Tlatelolco presents a completely different experience. For starters, it is located in the northern part of Mexico City surrounded by modern apartment buildings and urban traffic. We might have taken the Metro to get there, but we chose a taxi ride instead, which reminded us that before the arrival of the Spanish, the entire Valley of Mexico was a thriving network of city-states under the domination of the Mexica-Aztec Empire.
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| Plaza de las Tres Culturas: Aztec temple ruins in the foreground, Colonial Spanish Church Santiago Tlatelolco in the mid-ground, totally surrounded by apartment buildings of modern Mexico in the background. |
Next to Tenochtitlán (where Mexico City's Zócalo, National Palace and Cathedral now stand), Tlatelolco was probably the most important. Unlike many other sites, none of Tlatelolco's ruins are visible from the street. In fact, although we were within twenty-five feet of the ruins that lay on the other side of a fence, we saw absolutely nothing until we walked through the gate at the entrance.
The reason is simple: after the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they razed to the ground all temples and pyramids. What is visible today has been painstakingly excavated over decades. Serious archaeological work began in 1944 and continues to the present day.
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| Archaeological investigation at Tlatelolco: Worker cleaning an artifact—yes, he's using a Q-Tip! |
Moreover, Tlatelolco's rich history predates the arrival of the Spanish, who not only tore down the temples but reused the temple stones to construct the colonial church Santiago Tlatelolco and the Franciscan convent.
Note: In Spanish the word 'convent' describes the residences of both friars (frailes) and nuns (monjas); originally, only friars—notably Franciscans and Dominicans—were sent to Nueva España by the Spanish king, in response to Cortés's explicit request.As the Imperial College of the Holy Cross, the convent was a school run by the Franciscans to educate the sons of Aztec noblemen in the Spanish tradition and to train them for the priesthood. It is telling that when the Aztec students began surpassing their Spanish teachers, the Spanish king and Church hierarchy found ways to restrict the curriculum. Eventually, they closed the school entirely.
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| Interior garden court of the Franciscan convent, Imperial College of the Holy Cross. |
The convent also became a center for the study of Mesoamerican cultures. It was here that the priest Bernardo de Sahagún wrote History of the Things of New Spain, the seminal work on Aztec culture that remains a highly regarded source text. As an aside: the Church took seriously its mission to convert to Catholicism the original peoples of the Americas. In order to be able to explain Christian beliefs and practices effectively, priests and friars studied the indigenous cultures—in effect, becoming the first anthropologists in the Americas.
The plaza at Tlatelolco has been the setting of three tragic events in Mexican history:
In recent times Tlatelolco was renamed Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Plaza of Three Cultures). The site was given this name because the structures of Tlatelolco give living testimony to the cross-cultural process that created mestizaje in Mexico. Most Mexicans regard themselves as mestizo, as having both indigenous and Spanish ancestors.
- After their defeat at Tenochtitlán, the Aztecs fled to Tlatelolco where they again faced the Spanish, who had allied themselves with city-states determined to overthrow harsh Aztec rule; overrun, the Aztecs surrendered on August 13, 1521;
- In 1968, just before the opening of the Summer Olympics, the Mexican Army opened fire on a student gathering, killing hundreds of students;
- In September 1985, a major earthquake (7.8 Richter) shook Mexico City; Tlatelolco high-rise apartment buildings collapsed like accordions—the tragic consequence of builders who had lined their pockets by taking shortcuts with building materials and methods; the death toll was in the thousands.
In Tlatelolco, Aztec ruins are dwarfed by a modern tower that formerly housed the Ministry of Foreign Relations, but today is occupied by a campus of UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). Between these two cultural extremes sits the Church and Convent of Santiago Tlatelolco, the colonial hinge between the country's Mexica-Aztec heritage and today's Republic of Mexico.
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| The sign reads: "On August 15, 1521, heroically defended by Cuauhtémoc, Tlateloloco fell under the power of Hernán Cortés. Neither a triumph nor defeat; it was the painful birth of the mestizo people that is Mexico today." Source: Eduardo Aguilar-Moreno, Aztec Architecture; Photo: Fernando González y González. |
On the ground floor of the tower building, a museum devoted to objects unearthed during archaeological excavation at Tlatelolco opened early in 2012. This extraordinary museum is described in the section Still Curious? at the end of this post.
A Short History of Tlatelolco
It bears recalling that Mexico City is built atop a series of shallow lakes that once filled the Valley of Mexico. Like many original settlements, Tlatelolco was built on a muddy island—some scholars assert that Tlatelolco derives from the word tlatelli, meaning 'built-up mound of earth'. In the middle of the 14th century CE, a group of Aztecs—unable to claim property on Tenochtitlán's island—split off from the main tribe of Tenochtecas who had founded Tenochtitlán some twelve years earlier.The settlers didn't go far. They established their new community, which they named Tlatelolco, just over two kilometers (about a mile) from Tenochtitlán. And, after all, they were still Méxica-Aztec. So it's not surprising that their founding myth parallels Tenochtitlán's:
...a whirlwind had led them to an island with a sandy mound upon which rested a round shield, an arrow, and an eagle—strongly reminiscent of Tenochtitlán's cactus, eagle, and snake.
Like the Tenochteca, they petitioned a local ruler—in their case, Tezozómoc in nearby Aztcapotzalco—for a king who would link them to the central Mexican dynasties. Tezozómoc gave them his son, Cuacuapitzáhuac, who was also kin to Tenochtitlán's dynastic clan.
Andrew Coe, Archaeological Mexico, p. 86.
Under their new ruler, Tlatelolco became part of the Valley of Mexico's intricate network of tribute relationships, which bestowed both:
- Responsibility: To honor Tezozómoc through gifts of both staples and luxury goods; and
- Opportunity: Linked to the Tenochtecas through the kin ties of their new ruler, the Tlatelolcans served alongside Tenochtecas fighting for Tezozómoc against his rivals; however, by the mid-15th century A.D., the Tenochtecas had established their own tribute network in secondary towns in the Valley of Mexico.
Tlatelolco Finds Its Niche: Trade and Tribute
At first, the pochtecas confined their trips to the Valley of Mexico, but eventually they ranged to the very edges of Mesoamerica:
- East to the Gulf of Mexico (Veracruz);
- West to the Pacific Ocean;
- South to Oaxaca and Chiapas—even as far as present-day Guatemala and Honduras; and
- North as far as the deserts inhabited by the Chichimeca tribes, roughly north of the Tropic of Cancer.
Eventually, Tlatelolco's pochtecas controlled long-distance trade in the luxury goods (quetzal feathers, turquoise) deemed essential for Aztec political and religious life. After the Mexica-Aztecs defeated their principle rival, the Tepanecs, the Aztec empire spread throughout central Mexico spearheaded by Tenochtitlán warriors and Tlatelolco merchants, who established trade routes from newly conquered peoples back to the Valley of Mexico.
The Mesoamerican scholar Michael D. Coe recounts the trenchant observation of Fernando Horcasitas:
"...the Aztec empire was not so much an empire in the Roman or British sense as an economic empire based on the provision of tribute, paid in full and on a regular basis".The sociologist in me sees similarities between the underlying economic assumptions of the Aztec empire and those of the Spanish king of a later time. But I don't want to get ahead of the story.....
Meanwhile, back in Tlatelolco, Cuacuapitzáhuac's son Tlacatéotl had moved the city market into spacious quarters near the main ceremonial center. At its new location, the market soon became the hub of an extensive trade network; quite probably, it was the largest market in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Spanish.
The level of activity in the market strains credulity. Every day, as many as 20,000 vendors and market-goers crowded into the market square. Every five days, it is estimated that closer to 50,000 or even 60,000 people passed through the market!
The stalls were similar to those seen on Mexican streets today—mats covered by fabric shades for protection against sun and rain. Vendors were of two types:
- Artesans bringing the labor of their own hands; and
- Merchants bringing wares from other regions.
Tlatelolco Loses Its Independence
By 1473 A.D., Tlatelolco had completely lost out to Tenochtitlán. Annexed by the mighty Aztec empire, Tlatelolco was administered by a military governor. The new arrangement didn't affect the Tlatelolcan merchants, who continued to travel and bring back wares from throughout Mesoamerica.But Tlatelolco did lose important rights as an independent city-state—most significantly, the right to collect tribute, which would have affected their standard of living; and the right to perform important religious rites. In war, Tlatelolco's proud warriors were demoted to porters.
Tlatelolco, however, continued to play an important role for the dominant Tenochtecas, rulers of the Mexica-Aztec empire. In fact, on Hernán Cortés's first visit to Tenochtitlán, the ruler Moctezuma took the Spaniards to visit the Tlatelolco market. Bernal Díaz, a soldier with Cortés, later wrote:
"...we were astounded at the great number of people and good quantities of merchandise, and at the orderliness and good arrangements that prevailed, for we had never seen such a thing before."Taken to the top of Tlatelolco's great pyramid, the Spaniards enjoyed an excellent view of the entire city and the surrounding lake. Díaz wrote:
"We saw [pyramids] and shrines in these cities that looked like gleaming white towers and castles: a marvelous sight."In spite of everything, Tlatelolco did not forget its relationship to Tenochtitlán. When in 1521 Hernán Cortés and his soldiers returned in the company of warriors from other city-states fed up with harsh Mexica-Aztec rule—including the provision of onerous tribute—Tlatelolco was clearly on the side of Tenochtitlán.
Tlatelolco: A Walk Through Space and Time
Like other Mesoamerican ceremonial centers, Tlatelolco was designed to reflect the Tlatelolcans' cosmovision. The diagram shows the layout of Tlatelolco. The yellow line is the walkway that visitors follow through the site.The site is oriented to the four cardinal directions:
visitors enter at the southwest corner; both the Great Temple and the altar of Santiago-Tlatelolco Church face East.
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| Site map of Tlatelolco ceremonial precinct (green) with Santiago (St. James) church and Franciscan convent (red). The modern tower rises on the south boundary (lower right). Discussed in this post: (1) Temple of Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl; (3) Tzompantli Altar - south; (4) Temple of the Calendar; (5) Priest's Palace; (7) Great Temple Pyramid; (8) Successive pyramid walls constructed over time; (10) West Platform; (11) The Great Base. The unnumbered blue rectangle in front of the convent is the Sacred Well, discussed below. |
Temple Of Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl (1)
This round temple was dedicated to Ehécatl, the wind deity, who was a manifestation of Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent. The temple consisted of a semicircular base that wound into a circular, cone-like roof, a staircase and a rectangular platform.
Its entrance is characterized by a snake’s mouth symbolizing Quetzalcóatl. Construction of this temple dates back to the early times of Tlatelolco. In later times, other structures were built over it.
Temples dedicated to Ehécatl, god of wind, are generally of a circular shape so they don't block the trajectory of the wind, which could make whirlpools around the structure. Since winds come before the rains, Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl and Tlaloc (god of water) often appeared together—as they did, for example, at the dual pyramid, Temple of the Feathered Serpent, at Teotihuacán. Here at Tlatelolco, deposed from his primal role at Tlaloc's side, Quezalcóatl was assigned his own, secondary temple space.
Tzompantli Altar - South (3)
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| Temple of Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl Ehécatl is the manifestation of Quetzalcóatl as the wind. |
Temples dedicated to Ehécatl, god of wind, are generally of a circular shape so they don't block the trajectory of the wind, which could make whirlpools around the structure. Since winds come before the rains, Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl and Tlaloc (god of water) often appeared together—as they did, for example, at the dual pyramid, Temple of the Feathered Serpent, at Teotihuacán. Here at Tlatelolco, deposed from his primal role at Tlaloc's side, Quezalcóatl was assigned his own, secondary temple space.
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| Spiral from the back wall of Great Temple. Spirals symbolize the whirling winds of Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl. |
Tzompantli Altar - South (3)
This altar is one of two; the other is on the north side.
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| Tzompantli, or wooden skullrack. The columns in the background are of the tower building. Some smaller temples were razed to build this tower. |
According to Mary Miller and Karl Taube (The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, p. 176):
"One of the more striking structures of Mesoamerican public architecture was the tzompantli, or skullrack. This was a wooden scaffold containing human skulls pierced horizontally by crossbeams....
"In the Quiché Maya popul vuh [story of the origins of the Maya, beginning with Creation], the severed head of the hun hunapu [father of the legendary twins] was placed in a gourd tree next to the ballcourt. This gourd tree is clearly a reference to the tzompantli filled with human skulls. In Nahuatl, the term for head is tzontecomatl, with tecomatl signifying gourd tree. It appears that like the Sumbanese skull trees of Indonesia, the tzompantli was considered as a tree laden with fruit".
Temple of the Calendar (4)
One of the first structures that greets the visitor is the Temple of the Calendar. The temple was a significant religious structure because one of the primary duties of the priests was establishing and maintaining the temporal structure.The Temple of the Calendar is a unique edifice whose décor is unusual in that it is ornamented with elements of the Tonalpohualli (divinatory) calendar. The Mexica-Aztecs, as did all the peoples of Mesoamerica, used two calendars:
- The Xiuhpohualli was the Solar Calendar, which consisted of 360 days divided into eighteen, twenty-day "months"—each month presided over by a god, whose festival was celebrated that month. The Solar Calendar was also used to organize commerce and date the all-important tribute collections.
- The Tonalpohualli was the Divinatory Calendar, which consisted of 260 days—possibly based on the human gestation period—created by combining twenty day-names with thirteen numbers in rotation. This calendar was used to foretell the fate of individuals based on their date of birth. Priests also consulted the Divinatory Calendar in advance of actions to be taken—to wage war, for example, or to celebrate a royal wedding—in order to determine the day's balance of favorable and unfavorable energy. When a date was characterized by unfavorable energy, the energy balance could be ritually addressed to assure a more favorable destiny.
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| Temple of the Calendar with staircases ascending the front wall. |
The Temple of the Calendar is a rectangular structure with representations of day-names on three walls painted in blues, reds and whites. Following are some of the Temple's number and day-name combinations. The number is indicated by circles at the margin.
The temple base also has multi-colored (blues, reds, whites) paintings with drawn figures that correspond to early Tlatelolco. The paintings are intact on the front side of the temple. This temple is the only calendrical structure that has been found.
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| One-Itzcuintli (One-Dog) |
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| Two-Tochtli (Two-Rabbit)—Check the ears! |
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| Four-Ollín (Four-Motion, or Life-Force). At the center of the symbol for Ollín is a circle that represents the axis mundi, world axis, which links the heavenly plane (above) with the earthly plane (horizontal 'bar') and the underworld (below). Curious readers might enjoy comparing this symbol to Jenny's post Aztec Stone of the Five Suns: the barely visible visage on the center circle (axis mundi) is most likely the 'Fifth Sun', the devouring god—additional evidence of Tlatelolco's cultural indebtedness to Tenochtitlán, where the Aztec Stone was carved. |
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Cuauhtli (Eagle)
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The temple base also has multi-colored (blues, reds, whites) paintings with drawn figures that correspond to early Tlatelolco. The paintings are intact on the front side of the temple. This temple is the only calendrical structure that has been found.
Priests' Residential Complex (5)
Each deity in the ceremonial precinct had its own priests, who were housed within the ceremonial precinct. Priests were responsible for maintenance of the temples and shrines associated with the cult of the deity to which they belonged.
The residential structure for the priests consisted of an altar and two sections adjoined by a central corridor with a chimney like area for burning wood.
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| Priests' Residential Complex |
Although not given a number on the site diagram, the blue rectangle represents the sacred well identified by Aguilar-Moreno as located just behind the priests' residence:
"[It] resembles a ... swimming pool [with a staircase] that leads to the sacred well...approximately 3 meters [almost 10 feet] wide. Scholars believe it may have been used for ablution practices or as a sacred spring".
Because of Mesoamericans' dependence on agriculture, water has been a primary concern from earliest times. Oceans, mountains and springs have often been worshiped as magical sources of water.
Tlatelolco: Great Temple (7), (8)
Tlatelolco's ceremonial complex was dominated by a typical Aztec double pyramid similar to the Great Temple at Tenochtitlán (Templo Mayor):
Since 1978, the prominent Mexican archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma has been in charge of excavation of Tenochtitlán's Templo Mayor. Writing in 1988, Matos observed that the pairing of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli represents the essential duality fundamental to the Mesoamerican cosmovision in general and to the Mexica-Aztec cosmovision in particular. As a pair, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli represent key dualities: water and war; life and death; food and tribute. Put differently,
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| Visitors walk along a paved walkway along the 'layers' of additions (8) that were added by successive rulers to Tlatelolco's Great Temple. All that remains of the Great Temple (7) is the large rectangular platform at the back which once was the temple's base. |
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| Double Staircase of Great Temple. This photo was taken from the ground-level walkway south of the Great Temple, looking north. The near staircase (which itself is split) ascends to the temple of Huitzilopochtli (sun god and god of war); on the other side of the large divider is the split staircase ascending to the temple of Tlaloc (water god). Both temples were destroyed by the Spanish in 1521. |
Since 1978, the prominent Mexican archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma has been in charge of excavation of Tenochtitlán's Templo Mayor. Writing in 1988, Matos observed that the pairing of Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli represents the essential duality fundamental to the Mesoamerican cosmovision in general and to the Mexica-Aztec cosmovision in particular. As a pair, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli represent key dualities: water and war; life and death; food and tribute. Put differently,
- Tlaloc (Water God) = Water yields Life yields Food (maíz, corn).
- Huitzilopochtli (Sun God, God of War) = War yields Death yields Tribute.
"My aged father always says, 'Water is Life'."It snapped the second time when I read that 'Tribute' is the final outcome of the causal chain driven by Huitzilopochtli:
one couldn't ask for stronger substantiation of Horcasitas's statement quoted earlier that the Mexica-Aztec empire was an economic empire.Here is a tectonic shift of the Mesoamerican cosmovision. Before the late-arriving Mexica-Aztecs ascended to power, the Mesoamerican deities were forces of nature—Tlaloc, god of water; Quetzalcóatl-Ehécatl, god of wind, etc.
But the Mexica-Azteca god Huitzilopochtli is a political god, a god of war—hence, a god of power based on military conquest and, as noted earlier, a god of tribute grounded in economic power.
Once again, the parallels between the basic assumptions of the Mexica-Azteca empire and how the Spanish king would come to view Nueva España are striking.
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| Double Staircase of Great Temple (photo was taken from north, looking south). Note the short 'runs' and steep 'rises' of the stairs. The design was intentional to remind climbers that they were ascending to where they would encounter the gods. The modern tower in the background formerly housed Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; today it houses a campus of Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM). |
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| Back and side walls of Great Temple pyramid. |
Clambering down a metal staircase (think fire escape), visitors arrive at another walkway about twelve to fifteen feet below ground level.
Still Curious?
The sections on history and trade have drawn on Andrew Coe's Archaeological Mexico: A Traveler's Guide to Ancient Cities and Sacred Sites (2nd edition, 2001). Son of Michael D. Coe, respected authority on Mesoamerican culture and history, Andrew's guide is first-rate on history and culture, but perhaps a trifle out-of-date on current travel conditions. For example, he writes that Bonampak (Chiapas) is accessible only by a dirt road followed by a hike, but when we visited last year (2011), we traveled a paved road directly to the site.The section Tlatelolco: A Walk Through Space and Time draws on Eduardo Aguilar-Moreno's highly readable paper titled Aztec Architecture, which appears to be a wholly original analysis of the architecture of Mexica-Azteca ceremonial sites in the Valley of Mexico. Written originally in English (one suspects a doctoral dissertation), it has been translated into Spanish. Links are provided to both English and Spanish versions:
- Aztec Architecture (English) - Part 1 - Tenochtitlán.
- Aztec Architecture (English) - Part 2 - other Valley of Mexico sites.
- Arquitectura Azteca (español) - Part 1 - Tenochtitlán:
- Arquitectura Azteca (español) - Part 2 - otros lugares en el valle de México.
For other reference works, see Jenny's Best Reads: Mexico Traditions and Customs PLUS
Five-Star: Lynda Martínez del Campo, self-described 'linguist, teacher, social scientist, journalist, history buff, tour guide'. We don't know Lynda Martínez personally, but greatly appreciate her introduction and review of the newly-opened University Cultural Center at Tlatelolco. She's a great photographer, and her photos of objects found at the site are first-rate. Lynda's verdict? "This is a new “must” on my list of basic sites for tourists and residents alike! Visit or re-visit Tlatelolco – you won’t be disappointed!"
Web site of University Cultural Center at Tlatelolco (Museum).
As I was finishing up this post, I came upon this history of Tlatelolco, which features a Diego Rivera mural and illustrations from 16th century codices developed by Spanish friars working with Mexica-Azteca informants. Even if it's more text than you can deal with, the images are definitely worth a click!
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Finally, I just can't resist including the following map, which shows settlements and city-states in the Valley of Mexico, reproduced from Dr. Aguilar-Moreno's paper cited above:
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