Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

by Camilla Townsend

When Chimalpahin was a child, probably around the time he moved to the city, the remaining indigenous students at the school in Tlatelolco put on a play. There were few of them left, for public opinion had turned against the school since its early founding, and it was starved for funds.81 The students wrote the play’s dialogue themselves. One character commented, “According to the opinion of many, we the Indians of New Spain are shams, like magpies and parrots, birds that with great effort learn to talk, and soon forget what they have been taught.”82 The youthful playwright was angry, and he did not “keep it inside.” Few others, however, gave voice to any rage they felt. It was safer not to. The closest Chimalpahin ever came, even in his private writing, was to say about certain mestizos: “They just try to be Spaniards, belittling us and mocking us, as some Spaniards do.”83 But then he concluded by reminding himself that whatever these arrogant people might think or do, Adam was father and Eve mother to all living people.