Nezahualcoyotl

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This article is about the ruler of Texcoco. For the present-day city, see Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl.
Nezahualcoyotl as shown in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, folio 106R, painted roughly a century after Nezahualcoyotl's death.
Nezahualcoyotl as shown in the Codex Ixtlilxochitl, folio 106R, painted roughly a century after Nezahualcoyotl's death.

Nezahualcoyotl (pronounced [nesawaɬˈkojoːtɬ], (meaning "Coyote in fast" or "Coyote who Fasts" in Nahuatl)[1](April 28, 1402 – June 4, 1472) was ruler (tlatoani) of the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian Mexico. Unlike other high-profile Mexican figures from the century preceding the Spanish Conquest, Nezahualcoyotl was not a Mexica; his people were the Acolhua, another Nahuan people settled in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico, settling on the eastern side of Lake Texcoco.

According to his descendants and biographers, Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl and Juan Bautista de Pomar, who lived a century after Nezahualcoyotl, he was something of a monotheist, honoring his god in a 10-level pyramidal temple. The roof of this shrine was gem-encrusted and no human sacrifices were permitted, only the offering of flowers and incense. Some researchers, however, believe that Ixtlilxochitl and Pomar were attempting to cast Nezahualcoyotl in a light more favorable to the Spanish colonial authorities.

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[edit] Early life

Acolmiztli Nezahualcoyotl was the son of Ixtlilxochitl I and Matlalcihuatzin,[verification needed] the daughter of Huitzilihuitl. Though born heir to a throne, his youth was not marked by princely luxury. His father had set Texcoco against the powerful city of Azcapotzalco and its ruling tribe, the Tepanec. In 1418, when the young prince was fifteen, the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco, led by Tezozomoc, conquered Texcoco and Nezahualcoyotl had to flee into exile in Huexotzinco, returning to stay in Tenochtitlan in 1422. After Tezozomoc's son Maxtla became ruler of Azcapotzalco, Nezahualcoyotl returned to Texcoco, but had to go into exile a second time when he learned that Maxtla plotted against his life.

[edit] The reconquest of Texcoco

Meanwhile the tenochca Tlatoani Itzcoatl requested help from the Huexotzincans against the tepanecs, Nezahualcoyotl visioned the opportunity to join a single military force. In order to fight the mighty kingdom of Atzcapotzalco, Nezahualcoyotl answered the call and united to the coalition composed by the cities of Tenochtitlan, Tlacopan, Tlatelolco, Huexotzinco, Tlaxcala and Chalco. He was offered support from insurgents inside Acolhuacan, and rebel Tepanecs from the principality of Coyohuacan. From Calpulalpan, an army of more than 100,000 men under the command of Nezahualcoyotl and other important tlatoanis headed towards Azcapotzalco, a military offensive that in 1428 reconquered Acolhuacan, capital of the kingdom of Texcoco.

The gigantic army was then divided into three parts. One army attacked Acolman to the north, the second Coatlinchan in the south, while a contingent led by Nezahualcoyotl himself was intended to attack Acolhuacan, but first provide support to the first two armies. The coalition conquered Acolman and Otumba, but it just sacked them because of the sudden Tepanec siege of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. In an tactical move, the coalition army was united and then divided by two. One of them, Nezahualcoyotl's army, lead towards Texcoco sieging Acolhuacan while the other attacked and destroyed Azcapotzalco. At the time the armies met again, Nezahualcoyotl reclaimed Texcoco and attacked Acolhuacan from the North while the Tenochca and Tlacopan allies coming from Azcapotzalco, attacked from the south. The two armies simultaneously attacked the north and south of Acolhuacan until they gained the dominance of the main square. The armies then reunited began a series of attacks to isolated Tepanec posts throughout the territory of Texcoco. The defeat of the Tepanecs, and the cease of existence of the kingdom of Azcapotzalco gave rise to the Aztec Triple Alliance between Texcoco, Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan. Nezahualcoyotl was finally crowned Tlatoani of Texcoco in 1431.

[edit] Achievements

Monument to Nezahualcoyotl in the city of the same name
Monument to Nezahualcoyotl in the city of the same name

Revered as a sage and poet-king, Nezahualcoyotl drew a group of followers called the tlamatini, generally translated as "wise men". These men were philosophers, artists, musicians and sculptors who pursued their art in the court of Texcoco.

Nezahualcoyotl is credited with cultivating what came to be known as Texcoco's Golden Age, which brought the rule of law, scholarship and artistry to the city and set high standards that influenced other cultures. Nezahualcoyotl designed a code of law based on the division of power, which created the councils of finance, war, justice and culture, the last actually called the council of music. Under his rule Texcoco flourished as the intellectual centre of the Triple Alliance and it possessed an extensive library that, tragically, did not survive the Spanish conquest. He also established an academy of music and welcomed worthy entrants from all regions of Mesoamerica.

Texcoco became known as "the Athens of the Western World" -- to quote the historian Lorenzo Boturini Bernaducci. Indeed, the remains of hilltop gardens, sculptures and a massive aqueduct system show the impressive engineering skills and aesthetic appreciation of his reign.

Many believe, however, that of all the creative intellects nurtured by this Texcocan "Athens," by far the greatest belonged to the king himself. He is considered one of the great designers and architects of the pre-Hispanic era. He is said to have personally designed the "albarrada de Nezahualcoyotl" ("dike of Nezahualcoyotl") to separate the fresh and brackish waters of Lake Texcoco, a system that was still in use over a century after his death.

[edit] Legacy

The date of Nezahualcoyotl's death is recorded as being June 4, 1472, survived by many concubines and an estimated 110 children. He was succeeded by his son Nezahualpilli as tlatoani of Texcoco. His great-grandson Juan Bautista de Pomar is credited with the compilations of a collection of Nahuatl poems. Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, and with a chronicle of the history of the Aztecs. A variant of the Xiphophorus fish is named after Nezahualcoyotl.

[edit] Poetry

Nezahualcoyotl has been remembered as a poet. This is because a number of poems in the Classical Nahuatl language written in the 16th and 17th centuries have been ascribed to him. In fact this attribution is somewhat doubtful since Nezahualcoyotl died almost 50 years before the conquest and the poems were written down another fifty years after that. One of the writers who put Aztec Poems in writing, Juan Bautista de Pomar was a grandson of Nezahualcoyotl, and he may have attributed the poems to his grandfather.

Poems attributed to Nezahualcoyotl's include:

  • In chololiztli (The Flight)
  • Ma zan moquetzacan (Stand Up!)
  • Nitlacoya (I Am Sad)
  • Xopan cuicatl (Song of Springtime)
  • Ye nonocuiltonohua (I Am Wealthy)
  • Zan yehuan (He Alone)
  • Xon Ahuiyacan (Be Joyful)

The poem that begins "All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it" is widely attributed to Nezahualcoyotl. However, the consensus opinion among historians is that he was almost certainly not the author as it contains ideas and language that were totally alien to his period.

One of his poems appears in tiny print on the face of the 100 peso note.

Amo el canto de zenzontle
Pájaro de cuatrocientas voces,
Amo el color del jade
Y el enervante perfume de las flores,
Pero más amo a mi hermano: el hombre.
I love the song of the mockingbird,
Bird of four hundred voices,
I love the color of the jadestone
And the enervating perfume of flowers,
But more than all I love my brother: man.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The name is often spelled with a tz or accented as in Spanish: Nezahualcóyotl or Netzahualcóyotl), Layman's pronunciation of the name Nezahualcoyotl: nets-a-wall-COY-oatl.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Ixtlilxochitl I		 Tlatoani of Texcoco
1431–1472		 Succeeded by
Nezahualpilli