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Cuauhtlequetzqui

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Cuauhtlequetzqui or Cuauhtliquetzqui is an Aztec name meaning rising eagle and used by several historical people.

The most important of the people with this name was born between 1250 and 1260, his father also was called Cuauhtlequetzqui, a fact that has caused some confusion. In addition, this personage is projected further into the past, making him the first cuauhtlahto (Mexica leader) "to set out" from Aztlan,[1] Chimalpain places him as ruler from 1116-1153, and even says that he is the same person mentioned from 1280 AD onward.

His historical participation is extensively mythologised, his first action is in the war against the Texcaltepeca-Malinalcas in 1281, when, as war-leader, he distinguished himself by capturing Copil, the enemy leader, and taking his enemy's wife, Xicomoyahualtzin, for himself. From this union Cohuatzontli was born. In the legend, Copil is said to be the son of Malinalxoch, the sister of Huitzilopochtli. This woman was humiliated when she was dishonourably abandoned in Malinalco and swore to avenge herself, with her son Copil being the means of doing so. But with the failure at Chapoltepec in 1281, the myth came to symbolise the foundation of the site, with the legend becoming the justification for Tenochca domination over other peoples, as well as aligning them theologically with the Matalazincas.

With the victory in Chapoltepec, Cuauhtlequetzqui was named lord there. He only ruled for five years, being killed in the final battle when the warriors of Teotenanco tried, unsuccessfully, to recapture the area of the forest.

Notes

  1. ^ Chimalpain, p.159.

References

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