The Art of Accommodation to Two Worlds: The Life of don Pedro de Moctezuma Tlacahuepantli According to the Documentation of the General Archive of Nation (Mexico City, Mexico) and the General Archive of Indies (Seville, Spain)

Abstract

This paper analyses archival documentation about the life of don Pedro de Moctezuma Tlacahuepantli, the youngest son of the Mexica huey tlahtoani Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin and the Tollan Xicocotitlan «princess» Miahuaxochitl. His biography embraces various aspects of the social drama that the indigenous nobility suffered after the arrival of Hernando Cortés, and at the same time reflects the main adaptive strategies which the descendants of the Prehispanic rulers had to learn to accommodate themselves to the new reality. The article pursues two objectives: 1) to present a new version of don Pedro de Moctezuma’s biography, based on the synthesis of the documentation from the Archivo General de la Nación and the Archivo General de Indias; 2) to examine in the light of this evidence the relationship between Nahua and Castilian concepts of inheritance and transmission of social rank and rights to certain properties by the ties of blood.