Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

by Camilla Townsend

The men of Tenochtitlan left their island with some frequency and set forth as a united group, armed and dangerous. They danced before they left and they danced when they returned, wearing gorgeous head-dresses that transformed them into frightening beasts—eagles, jaguars, serpents and coyotes. Their shields, decorated with iridescent feathers, also bore the images of such creatures, but they could introduce an element of ironic distance from their animal alter-egos as well, showing not a coyote, for instance, but rather a man dancing as an upright coyote.13 These eager warriors readily allied with others to bring down those who tried to lord it over them or who had resources they desperately needed. Xochimilco and even the once-dominant Culhuacan were reduced to subsidiary status. Huitzilihuitl began, in short, to put the new town of Tenochtitlan on the map, and from there it grew into a small city. Huitzilihuitl’s list of conquests was long in the telling around the evening fires.