Xayacamach of Tizatlan was an

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

poet from the

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

state of

Tlaxcallan Tlaxcala ( , 'place of maize tortillas') was a pre-Columbian city and state in central Mexico. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Tlaxcaltecs allied with the Spanish Empire against their hated enemies, the Aztecs, supplying a ...

, born between 1450 and 1455. He was the son of the "Señor de Aztahua de Tizatlan" (Lord of Aztahua of

Tizatlan Tizatlan, in pre-Columbian Mexico, was one of the four independent altepemeh (polities, sing. altepetl) that constituted the confederation of Tlaxcallan. Today Tizatlan is a part of the modern city of Tlaxcala, and the Pre-Columbian city is vi ...

). He took his father's place as governor, and assisted at the meeting called by Tecayehuatzin of Huextonzinco to converse on the meaning of "flower and song", which is where we get both of his recorded poems. Tecahueyatzin said of him:

A beautiful song is heard
Xayacamach Tlapeltuetzin raises it
these are his flowers

It is known that he died before the year 1500, because by this time his brother, Xicohtencatl, was the governor of the

altepetl The ( , plural ''altepeme'' or ''altepemeh'') was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state", of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societiesSmith 1997 p. 37 in the Americas. The ''altepetl'' was ...

. He sided with the

Huastecs The Huastec or Téenek (contraction of ''Te' Inik'', "people from here"; also known as Huaxtec, Wastek or Huastecos) are an Indigenous people of Mexico, living in the La Huasteca region including the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí ...

in their war with

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: ; singular ) are a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island ...

and was killed (Leon-Portilla and Shorris 670).

Sources

* *Leon-Portilla, Miguel and Shorris, Earl. ''In the Language of Kings: An Anthology of Mesoamerican Literature--Pre-Columbian to the Present''. W. W. Norton & Company (July 2001) 1450s births 15th-century deaths Tlaxcaltec nobility Nahuatl-language poets Aztec philosophy {{mexico-poet-stub