Tecuichpo Ixcaxochitzin, Moctezuma Xocotzin's eldest daughter, Huey Tlatoani From Tenochtitlán upon the arrival of Hernán Cortés, it is one of the most relevant figures of a period that has been marked by the struggle against the military and spiritual conquest that, today, continues to mark a good part of our culture and social context. Who was this character and why represents a resistance symbol?
In November 1519 there was an encounter that would change the history of two cultures: Hernán Cortés arrived in the capital of the Mexican Empire to meet its ruler, Moctezuma Xocotzin Who, at that time, represented a strong and military government that had conquered a good part of the surrounding kingdoms. That made him a head of a winning state that others feared and, at a certain point, repudiated for the conditions of payment of taxes that should be done to the powerful Huey Tlatoani.
This meeting occurred near what we currently recognize as a historic center of Mexico City and, although for a long time it has been addressed as a moment of government delivery by Moctezuma to Cortés for religious and astrological issues that made him think that this was the same Quetzalcoatl, we must consider aspects that go beyond this thought as the type of government that existed in that time in that time in the interior of the empire, where Military victories and political, economic and social alliances were of great value to become a power figureas was Moctezuma at that time.
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin portrayed in the Durán CodexCodex Durán, National Library of Spain
The fall of an empire
On August 13, 1521, according to the chronicles, the three children of Moctezuma of whom you have a record, Isabel, Leonor and Pedrowere outside the capital of the Empire, protected by Cortés on commission of the own Huey Tlatoani To ensure your survival. These three characters had been baptized and converted to Christianity to, also in that way, ensure other type of survival: The spiritual.
With the death of Moctezuma, Isabel and Leonor were completely in charge of the conqueror Who, in order to ensure their real status and not fall into greater provocations of rebellions or social conflicts, decided to join them in marriage with other military friends and collaborators of his and thus, maintain the pre -Hispanic lineage.