Red City on the Ocean

A Moment from the Past - Coatl's Revenge

There were two cities, one called Tenochtitlan, and the other Texcoco. These cities stood on opposite shores of a lake. At one time, the tlatoani of Texcoco was Nezahualcoyotl. The altepetl and ruling tlatoani Texcoco dynasty were extremely militant, but Nezahualcoyotl was strongly supported by his relatives, and this union was as solid as a block of basalt.

Tlatoani Nezahualcoyotl had many wives, including his main wife, Azkalsochitzin, and a macehualtin named Izali. Coatl, the current priest, judge, and tlatoani of the floating city of Tlaluacatli, was the son of Izali and nearly twenty-five years older than his youngest brother, Nezahualpilli, son of Azkalsochitzin. According to tradition, the youngest son became the ruler of Texcoco following the death of Nezahualcoyotl because it was believed the younger son would be able to rule the altepetl longer.

The two brothers did not get along with each other. They rarely met, although, following the precepts of their father, they were close friends with other members of their huge family. Despite the brothers' dislike for each other, they never reached internecine enmity, and this made their altepetl, the ruling dynasty of the city of Texcoco, and its subordinate lands, the strongest in the Triple Alliance of the cities of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan.

Their father, Nezahualcoyotl, had believed until his last breath that the strengthening of Texcoco would one day make this city the capital of the Triple Alliance, although during his lifetime Tenochtitlan was discreetly considered as such. However, there was renewed life to his hope. After all, Tenochtitlan had been losing its former influence in the Triple Alliance over the last score of years. This was primarily due to a series of natural disasters, but also, contrary to a request from Huitzilopochtli, as declared by the priests, Atotoztli, the mother of Axayacatl, the current ruler of Tenochtitlan, had given birth not to a boy who would strengthen their altepetl, but a girl. Over the years, the people of Tenochtitlan murmured. People were dissatisfied with this fate, especially since other residents of the cities of the Triple Alliance were accustomed to pinning their hopes first on the weyitlatoani of Tenochtitlan, then his council, and only then on themselves and their local tlatoani.

In his youth, when Coatl went to the calmecac, a boy named Cuauhtli studied with him. He came from the city of Teotihuacan, and they grew to notably dislike each other and eventually became true enemies. The calmecac's students were severely punished for fighting, but Coatl and Cuauhtli often fought anyway, always finding new reasons, from a careless word to merely a sidelong glance. After Coatl and Cuauhtli finished their studies at the calmecac, they no longer saw each other. Cuauhtli became one of the priests in his city of Teotihuacan and a judge in the teccalli, court, and Coatl held similar positions in Texcoco.

When Coatl was thirty-six years old, he was already beginning to get tired and believed that his life would soon come to an end, but then, an amazing event happened to him. Axayacatl, who had already long been the weyitlatoani of Tenochtitlan, invited prominent men of his state to his palace. The weyitlatoani's need for educated and experienced people was growing because his state was constantly expanding. He intended for them to help him subordinate the inhabitants of newly acquired lands to the Tenochtitlan way of life and force them to adopt the traditions of Aztlan.

This time Axayacatl decided to have some fun. He ordered his cihuacoatl to depict the names of new positions on pieces of amatl, roll them up, and, not knowing which position was on which amatl, he would distribute them to each of the invited guests. That was how it was explained to Coatl. On the night of a full moon, the guests gathered in the main hall of the palace and were placed in several rows. Ceremonial fires burned everywhere in clay bowls. Through the hum of voices filling the hall, Coatl heard the neighbor on his right hiss, "Ah, you are here, son of a macehualtin." Coatl looked at the neighbor to find Cuauhtli leering at him, "Just wait 'til you must wash my feet and drink the water," Cuauhtli continued.