TEPANECAS: HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS, ORGANIZATION, TRADITIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY

The Tepanecs were an indigenous civilization that dominated the central Mesoamerican area between the years 1300 and 1428, an area identified today as the Basin of Mexico. They were a fierce population, whose leaders did not hesitate to dominate other peoples, including the Aztecs, to expand their dominion through the lake area of the Valley of Mexico.

Details of the origin of the Tepanecas, as well as their history, are still debated by experts who over the years have elaborated various hypotheses based on glyphs (written or painted signs) found in the regions inhabited by this ethnic group.

Tepanecan life. Codex García Granados. Source: teoloyucanmexico.com

Origin and history

The Tepanecs in the indigenous codices

One of the ways in which the modern world has been able to know the events that pre-Hispanic populations settled in Mesoamerica lived, is through the codices.

These are pictographic manuscripts in which civilizations such as the Mayan, the Aztec, and in this case the Tepaneca, left evidence of their origins, cultural traditions, reigns, deities, rites or ceremonies, among other aspects.

Some codices were made by the indigenous people themselves and others emerged after the Spanish conquest, with the aim of establishing a historical record of the original peoples of America.

The best known codices that relate Tepanec life are the Boturini, the Azcatitlán, the Telleriano Remensis, the Tovar and the Chimalpopoca, just to mention a few.

Origin of the name Tepaneca

Experts dedicated to discovering the reality of the Tepanecs have offered various meanings of their name throughout their investigations. Among these are mentioned: "The people of the stone passage bridge" or "people of the stone bridge."

This is because the Tepanec name is always represented with a stone in the glyphs found.

Codex Azcatiltán with the origin of the Tepanec name

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Source Wikimedia Commons

Origin of the Tepanecas

After the fall of the Toltec civilization in the 12th century, a period of political instability and migratory movements began in the central Mesoamerican area.

The Boturin codex i reveals that the Tepanecas were one of the eight tribes of Chichimeca origin that left Aztlan, in the company of Matlazincas, Tlahuicas, Malinalcas, Acolhuas, Xochimilcas, Chalcas and Huexotzincas.

They came from a place that they called Chicomóztoc, “place of the seven caves” in the Nahuatl language, and finally settled on the shores of Lake Texcoco, in the Basin of Mexico, an area made up of four valleys located in the central Mexican area.

Experts assure that these tribes did not migrate together or in the same year, as might be supposed when seeing the images of the codices, but that it was a process carried out slowly and progressively.

According to the Azcatitlán codex, this exodus was led by the Tepanec leader Matlaccouatl, approximately in the year 1152 AD. C. so it would be correct to point out that the existence of this indigenous population in its best-known settlement is historically located at the beginning of the first millennium of our era.

The Azcatitlán codex also shows the eight tribes of the pilgrimage.

Source: teoloyucanmexico.com

Strategic Alliances

They say that everything began to change in favor of this population when the Matlaccouat leader established relations with the local lord, the Chichimeca leader of the town of Cuitlachtepc, Tzíhuac Tlatonac, and married his daughter, Azcueitl.

Tlatonac granted as a dowry the ancient city of Azcapotzalco, which would become the headquarters of this indigenous empire, while the descendants of this union would be recognized by all as the heirs of the Tepaneca lordship.

In about 1283, one of these descendants, the Acolhnahuacatzin leader, continued to form alliances by marrying Cuetlaxochitzin, the daughter of the Chichimeca leader of Teyanuca, Xólotl, who offered more land to the Tepanecs to be populated.

It is from there that Azcapotzalco is officially established as the head of the entire Tepanec empire.

Political and social organization

Like any civilization of influence, the Tepanecs were a tribe with a very clear structure.

They had a supreme ruler or huey tlatoani (Great King), who had at his service a council of ministers called Achcacahutin or Achcauhtin, formed by priests of the Otontcutli-Xocoti cult.

They were in charge of such important matters as laws, administration, trials, and wars.

Each Tepanec population had its own political organization, with a nucleus around which a series of neighborhoods were arranged in an orderly manner that were established according to the resource they had to exploit, be it fishing in the lake or hunting in the mountains.

Tepanec domination

It is estimated that the Tepanecs reached their maximum power in 1375 during the government period of Huey Tlatoani, Tezozomoc, due to their political and negotiation skills.

The Tepanecs controlled the area, subduing other peoples and joining forces with powerful local tribes such as the Coatlichantlacas and Culhuacanos, whose Triple Alliance made them the lords of the lake region of the central Mesoamerican area.

The peoples under the Tepanohuayan (Tepanec lordship) paid tributes, among them the Cuauhnahuac, the Matlatzinco or the Aztecs. The latter even had to request permission from King Tezozomoc to build the city of Tenochtitlán, located where today Mexico City is established.

Tepanec extension of power. Akapochtli

Source: Wikimedia Commons

One of the customs that the Tepanecs had so that their dominion would last over the defeated tribes, was to send a delegation to the settlements to settle there permanently, guarantee the submission of the fallen and possibly their division and disintegration.

Being a subject of the Tepanecs gave the subject protection and the possibility of building their own kingdoms or tlatocaotl (a political unit governed by a Tlatoani) in addition to forming their own alliances tailored to an inferior local lord.

By refusing to be dominated, they ran the risk of being defeated by the Tepanec military superiority.

General characteristics

Appearance, dress and language

Historians claim that the Tepanecs were tall and stout. They called them tlacahuehueyaque, which in the Nahuatl language means "long men."

The men wore long tunics made of tanned hides up to the ankles, open at the front and tied with cords, their sleeves reached the wrists and their footwear was made of tiger or lion leather.

For their part, the women wore huipiles, a kind of traditional long blouse and long skirts.

Both men and women wore their hair long, with the difference that women collected it. They also used face paint, as well as earrings adorned with precious stones.

Historians affirm that the Tepanecs spoke Nahuatl, Otomí and Matlazinca, although it is affirmed that the number of languages could be more, depending on the population in which they were found.

Traditions and customs

Experts claim that the Tepanecs were excellent hunters and farmers. It is thought that they planted maguey, chile, corn, chia, and beans and fished routinely in Lake Texcoco.

They also made works in gold and silver that they traded with other populations, even if they were far from their main settlements.

The Tepanecs also performed ceremonial rites and erected temples to pray to their gods.

Tepanec gods

As was usual among Native American populations, the Tepanecs had faith in multiple gods, who had enormous influence over daily affairs.

At the time of their migration they brought with them an idol to whom they worshiped called Cocópitl, but he was not the only one.

Other Tepanec deities are mentioned below:

- Otontecuhli-Xocotl: he was considered its main god, patron of fire and smelters.

- Tetacoada or Tota: called the old father and also linked to fire and the sun.

- Tonan: she was a goddess with many representations. With this name she was the deity of the earth and the moon, but she was also known as Xochiquetzal, goddess of weaving and sexual freedom; Tlazolteótl, goddess of lust; or Nohpyttecha, goddess of garbage.

- Tlálocantecutli: god of the waters.

- Yauhqueme: deity of the hills.

- Xóco: it was another deity linked to fire, known as the lord of the tea.

Fall of the Tepanecan empire

Historians establish the year 1428 as the end of the Tepanec empire. In 1426, King Tezozomoc died and the usual established transfer of power from generation to generation was interrupted due to heavy fighting between his descendants.

After Tezozomoc's death, his place was to be taken by his eldest son, Tayatzin. However, another of his sons, Maxtla, who was the tlatoani of Coyoacán, came to power by force.

Maxtla murdered his brother and nephew Chimalpopoca, which caused rejection among the Tepanecas themselves.

The new huey tlatoani increased the tribute to the Mexica, provoking the ire of the Tlatoani of Tenochtitlán, Izcóatl, who summoned other peoples to rebel against the Tepanecs.

The Mexica then established another Triple Alliance formed on that occasion by Tenochtitlán, Tezcuco and Tlacopan, which in 1428 looted and burned Azcapotzalco, thus culminating with more than three hundred years of Tepanecan power.

A town without a past

With the destruction of its main headquarters, the records that would have allowed us to learn more about the Tepanec empire and reconstruct its history in a more truthful way also disappeared.

The triumph of the new Triple Alliance gave way to the powerful Aztec civilization, which founded a new empire on the structures of the defeated State and took care to erase or rewrite, in their opinion, the history of the ancient Tepanec civilization.

Statue of Tezozomoc

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