History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico

by Amber Brian (Translator), Bradley Benton (Translator), Peter B. Villella (Translator)

A descendant of both Spanish settlers and Nahua (Aztec) rulers, Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (ca. 1578–1650) was an avid collector of indigenous pictorial and alphabetic texts and a prodigious chronicler of the history of pre-conquest and conquest-era Mexico. His magnum opus, here for the first time in English translation, is one of the liveliest, most accessible, and most influential accounts of the rise and fall of Aztec Mexico derived from indigenous sources and memories and written from a native perspective.

Composed in the first half of the seventeenth century, a hundred years after the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in Mexico, the History of the Chichimeca Nation is based on native accounts but written in the medieval chronicle style. It is a gripping tale of adventure, romance, seduction, betrayal, war, heroism, misfortune, and tragedy. Written at a time when colonization and depopulation were devastating indigenous communities, its vivid descriptions of the cultural sophistication, courtly politics, and imperial grandeur of the Nahua world explicitly challenged European portrayals of native Mexico as a place of savagery and ignorance. Unpublished for centuries, it nonetheless became an important source for many of our most beloved and iconic memories of the Nahuas, widely consulted by scholars of Spanish American history, politics, literature, anthropology, and art.

The manuscript of the History, lost in the 1820s, was only rediscovered in the 1980s. This volume is not only the first-ever English translation, but also the first edition in any language derived entirely from the original manuscript. Expertly rendered, with introduction and notes outlining the author’s historiographical legacy, this translation at long last affords readers the opportunity to absorb the history of one of the Americas’ greatest indigenous civilizations as told by one of its descendants.
 

Genres: History

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2019

Reviews

[Shane Ver Meer]

This book is an utterly indispensable resource for insight into the cultures of Mesoamerica, particularly of Texcoco. The Aztec/Mexica culture has penetrated popular culture perhaps more than any other nation of this period, but I now find myself in awe of the spectacular achievements of this one (Texcoco), particularly the life and exploits of the great philosopher king, Nezahualcoyotzin. He made Texcoco the "Athens of the New World." Being a historical chronicle in the European tradition, the work is captivating, and the language is clear and concise. I can't recommend this work enough if you even have a passing interest in learning more about the rise of the greatest cultures of Mesoamerica.

[Gregory Mele]

Fascinating and engaging history of the "Aztec" Tripple Alliance, written like a European medieval chronicle by a mixed-race nobleman about a century after the Conquest. The transition is clear, crisp and lively, making for easy reading.