The new viceroy, don Antonio de Mendoza, decided to select a member of the Tenochca ruling family to act as gobernador, or head of an indigenous cabildo, a collective that would be charged with maintaining order and assembling needed labor drafts. His goal was to establish such a body in every altepetl, and thus it was especially important that a proper model be established in Tenochtitlan, or the City of Mexico, as it was now called. The Indians, he thought, would govern themselves more effectively than any outsider could; offering self-rule was also a gesture of good will, for this was what
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