The Techialoyan Codex of Cuajimalpa was created around 1685–1703, in order to document the history of indigenous communities to make legal claims to land in the area of
Cuajimalpa, today one of the 16
boroughs
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
of
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
.
The codex, written in
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...
, describes a solemn meeting of authorities to confirm the extension and political organization of the area. It remained a valid legal document until 1865, when then
Emperor Maximilian I had it translated into
Spanish.
Today the original document is part of the
Mexican Federal Archives. In 1997, the document was named as part of the
“Memory of the World” by UNESCO.
It is one of fifty examples of
''Techialoyan'' codexes that exist. "Many of these documents are written with ink of European origin, in the Náhuatl language, using the Latin alphabet in capital letters and rough script, and often on
amate (bark) paper."
These codexes established indigenous land claims by documenting the founding and history of a town.
References
Mesoamerican codices
History of Mexico City
Nahuatl literature
Cuajimalpa
17th century in Mexico
Aboriginal title
Land law
{{Mexico-hist-stub