The Last Acolhua: Alva Ixtlilxochitl and Elite Native Historiography in Early New Spain

The article offers a thematic analysis of the lords' discourse as a means of contextualizing and historicizing the works of don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. Students of the famous chronicler of Tetzcoco will recognize the parallels between his historical vision and how the natural lords of an earlier era explained and represented themselves to Spanish authorities. In the Annals of Cuauhtitlan a different version exists: the people burned their leader exactly as they had been ordered, and his ashes rose to the heavens in the shapes of gorgeous birds. Four days passed, and then his spirit became a stars. Alva Ixtlilxochitl left room for his prophecy to be read differently: this was the key to any compelling prophecy, after all, as his years of literary experience had taught him. One apparent meaning was that Quetzalcoatl's descendant, Nezahualcoyotl, would carry on his thoughtful works, and then his people would suffer calamity at the hands of others, presumably the Spaniards.