Chapter Eighteen: THE TALE OF TACLAELEL

The Jade Steps
Chapter Eighteen: The Tale of Taclaelel

They arose the next morning at dawn. Cortez ordered a small altar be put up in the plaza, where the padres performed a Mass for the Spaniards. He returned to his quarters to find King Xicotencatl and a very dignified elderly man, at least as old as the king.

“Malinche,” the king said through Malinali, “this is Chief Maxixcatzin (max-eeks-cot-zin, Ring of Cotton), lord of our region of Ocotelolco, and the military leader of all Tlaxcala who has protected us from the Mesheeka for many years.”

Malinali’s eyes widened at the introduction, and took it upon herself to expand Cortez’s brief greeting of welcome.

“El Malinche says he is honored to meet the famous protector of Tlaxcala,” she told them, “and wishes to applaud his wisdom for having his commander Chichimecatecle not support the foolishness of Young Xicotencatl when he attacked us on the plain of Tzompachtepetl.”

Old Maxixcatzin regarded Malinali with a look of intense interest, then spoke directly to her. “Yes, the king’s son can be foolish. So when my flank was not attacked, we did not participate. But how did you know to fight the Tlaxcalan army only on one side and not the other?”

“El Malinche knew the banner of the white bird was yours,” was her reply.

“And how did he know that, and that my forces were the ones to avoid?” Maxixcatzin wanted to know.

She gave a slight shrug of innocence. “El Malinche knows many things.” She turned to Cortez. “They say they have much to discuss with you.”

Cortez had stood watching the conversation between the Chief and Malinali, and now regarded her and her words with bemusement.

“Doña Marina, it is evident you have much to discuss with them. But I have learned by now that when you are up to something, it is best for me to continue letting you do it.”

Smiles quivered around both of their lips which were quickly suppressed. Malinali turned back to the two Tlaxcalan leaders and looked at them expectantly. Having been lost in thought, they blinked, then ordered their attendants to bring cacao to drink. They all sat on mats laid out on the floor with their refreshment, while the king addressed Cortez:

“Malinche, for many years the gods have spoken to our priests, telling them that one day men would come from beyond the rising sun to rescue us from the Mesheeka. Our friends the Totonacs claimed you were these men but we did not believe them. It was my mistake to allow my son to attack you. Yet the battles you fought with him allowed us to see how strong, how brave, how invincible are the Spaniards. Now we know you are the men our gods promised to send to us.”

Cortez bowed his head in acknowledgement, then nodded to Malinali to begin translating:

“It is true that we come from far away towards the setting sun. It is also true that these battles have allowed us to see how strong and brave are the Tlaxcalans. Now we understand why the Mesheeka have never conquered you, and how together, the Spaniards and the Tlaxcalans can defeat the Mesheeka. But it is not your gods who have sent us to you. It is the One True God who has sent us as Christians to free you from the worship of false gods who drink human blood.”

The king sighed. “Malinche,” came his reply, “let us not discuss which god sent you. It is enough for us that you are here. We wish for the Spaniards and the Tlaxcalans to come together” – he splayed his hands, then interlaced the fingers of each – “creating children combining our strengths. I have a very beautiful daughter whom I wish to be your wife. Chief Maxixcatzin and I have spoken to our nobles, and they all desire to have their daughters be wives to your men. The nobles have together several hundred daughters, enough for all of your men, every one of whom can then be our brothers.”

Cortez raised his cup of cacao in salutation, and bade Malinali tell him how grateful he was for such a deep expression of friendship. “A daughter is the most precious gift a man can bestow upon another man. Please tell your nobles that we are all honored by this gift, and honored to be your brothers.”

Huge smiles broke over the faces of the old king and chief. They stood up. “We have so much more to talk to you about, Malinche,” said Chief Maxixcatzin. “Perhaps we could show you our city at the same time?” Cortez pleasantly agreed. As they were leaving and the king was being helped into his litter, for he was too infirm to walk far, Cortez took Malinali aside.

“Doña Marina, I don’t care how you do it, but somehow you must arrange it so that I do not have to marry this man’s daughter and yet not have him be upset about it. Even though she may be more attractive than the daughter of the Fat Cacique in Cempoala – which would not be difficult – I do not want to endure another Doña Catalina.” He looked into her eyes. “I want my nights to be spent only with you.”

Malinali felt her knees buckle. She had to look away from Cortez to recover. There were many people around them and no one must notice her loss of composure. She forced herself to breathe normally. Only Cortez noticed the impact of his words upon her. Without looking up at him, she whispered, “I will find a way, my Captain.”

* * * * *

Everywhere the entourage went through the city, they were greeted by beaming Tlaxcalans. Young children would stare in wonder at the Spaniards, while men and women would come up to them with the gift of a flower. As Cortez walked alongside the king being carried in his litter, he asked how it was that Tlaxcala had never been conquered by the Mesheeka.

“We are always warned,” the king explained. “The men of Montezuma’s army are like the leaves of a forest they are so many. They have attacked us many times, killed so many of our warriors, captured so many more for sacrifice. What saves us is that so many of Montezuma’s soldiers are not Mesheeka, but men from kingdoms he has conquered and forced to fight for him. These men do not fight hard for their heart is not in the battle. Many of these men hate the Mesheeka as we do, and always warn us of a coming attack. So we are never attacked by surprise and are prepared.”

Chief Maxixcatzin further explained, “Yet we must always be on guard for an attack by night from Cholua. This is a very large city a day’s march towards Tenochtitlan. The Choluans are the most treacherous people we know. Montezuma launches many of his raids upon us from there. He keeps a large garrison of soldiers in every province he rules. These soldiers constantly force the people living there to pay tribute of gold and silver, feathers, jaguar skins, chalchihuite stones, cotton cloth, and always more and more men, women, and children for sacrifice. They take all of this by force, so all of the wealth in his empire is in his hands.”

One word of the chief’s caught Cortez. “Children? Did he say children for sacrifice?” he asked Malinali. She nodded her head gravely and gave a one-word response: “Tlaloc.”

She bade the chief explain. “Tlaloc,” he said, “is the Mesheeka Rain God. Without his blessing, the crops would wither and die in drought and everyone would starve. The Mesheeka believe only the sacrifice of children can gain his blessing. His face is blue, he wears a crown of heron feathers and a net of clouds. The Teocalli, the Great Temple at Tenochtitlan, has two towers – one for sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli and the other to Tlaloc.”

Cortez listened to Malinali’s translation in stunned silence. She added, “My father told me about Tlaloc. Only small children satisfy him. The more they cry while being sacrificed the better, for the more of their tears, the more Tlaloc will make it rain. So the Mesheeka priests rip off their fingernails before killing them, then throw their bloody nails into Lake Texcoco to feed Ahuitzotl, the lake monster.”

Cortez and all the Spaniards with him crossed themselves. He stopped walking and stood still, staring at Malinali. Then he looked off in the distance and muttered, “Madre de Dios,” Mother of God.

He looked back at Malinali. “We must talk of something else,” he told her. “Ask them where they came from, how they came here, something like that.”

Both the king and the chief responded to the inquiry with enthusiasm. “We come from a magic place way to the north called Aztlan, the Place of the Herons. It was a paradise until these savage Mesheeka came and ruined it, so we left.”

Malinali interjected, “Ah, this Aztlan is the home of both the Tlaxcalans and Mesheeka. That would explain why they both speak Nahuatl.” She motioned for the chief to continue.

“When we got to this beautiful valley, we knew this should be our home. But there were bad people here, a race of giants called Chichimecas. We had to chase them away. Then the Mesheeka followed us and tried to steal our land. They failed, and we have been enemies ever since.”

Malinali gave Cortez a look that told him she was making a great effort to stifle a laugh. “Chichi means ‘dogs,’ and mecatl means ‘born of’ or ‘sons of’ – so Chichimecas means…”

“Sons of bitches…” As Cortez supplied the correct response, all the Spaniards in his entourage broke out in loud guffaws. Even Padre de la Merced could hardly contain himself. There was no way either Cortez or Malinali, who by now had become quite familiar with Spanish vulgarities, could contain themselves either.

When Malinali explained the joke to Chief Maxixcatzin, all the Tlaxcalans laughed just as hard as the Spaniards. It was a sustained moment of shared merriment. After it, the chief commented, “Laughter between people is a sign of true friendship.” Cortez nodded in agreement.

“How did the Mesheeka come to be where they are now?” Cortez then asked.

The king explained. “They name themselves after the chief who led them out of Aztlan where they had been living in seven caves. He was called Mesheektli, which means ‘the navel of the moon,’ after metzli, moon, and sheektli, navel. They wandered for many years, and when they came here we chased them away like we did the Chichimecas.

“They came to Lake Texcoco but could not find anyplace to live because there were many strong kingdoms along its shores. But their leader, Tenoch, said this had to be their home. So they settled on a small muddy island in the middle of the lake called Zoquitlan, mud-land[1]. The only thing they knew how to do was fight. When they saw there was always war going on between the kingdoms around the lake, they offered their warriors to fight for whoever would pay them. This made them rich, so they could buy slaves to make chinampas, squares of canes and logs filled with mud from the lake bottom, to make their island bigger. They built it into an island city named after Tenoch, Tenochtitlan, for titlan means ‘the place of.’

“This took 100 winters, and during that time they were so busy fighting for these kingdoms that they left us alone. In my grandfather’s time, Acamapitchtli[2] (ah-kama-pitched’-lee, Handful of Reeds) became their first Huey Tlatoani, Great Speaker, followed by his son Huitzilihuitli[3] (weet-zil-ee-weet’-lee, Hummingbird Feather).

“By my father’s time, the Mesheeka had grown very strong and the kingdoms had become weak as they had let the Mesheeka do their fighting. The Tepanec kingdom was one, with their city of Azcapotzalco. Huitzilihuitli had married the daughter of the Tepanec king Tezozomoc, and their son Chimalpopoca (Smoking Shield) became Huey Tlatoani when he died.

“It was when Tezozomoc died[4] that great evil came to Lake Texcoco. The name of this evil was Tlacaelel[5] (tlah-ka-el-el, Manly Heart), Chimalpopoca’s half-brother, for Huitzilihuitli had many wives. He conspired with Huitzilihuitli’s brother Itzcoatl (its-ko-wattle, Obsidian Snake) to murder Chimalpopoca so Itzcoatl could become Mesheeka king, and blame the murder on the new Tepanec king, Tezozomoc’s son Maxtla.

“This would give an excuse to conquer the Tepanecs, which the Mesheeka did, destroying their city of Azcapotzalco and killing Maxtla[6]. It was the first of many, many kingdoms, all conquered under the direction of Tlacaelel. He enslaved the Tepanecs and others, and had them build the causeways connecting Tenochtitlan to land.

“For seventy winters he was the true ruler of the Mesheeka as the Cihuacoatl (see-wa-ko-wattle, Snake Woman) and Tlacochcalcatl (tla-coach-kal-cottle, Spear House Chief), counselor to the kings. When Itzcoatl died in the year I was born[7], Tlacaelel made his brother, the First Montezuma[8], king, then Montezuma’s son Axayacatl[9] (axe-ya-cottle, Water Mask), then Axayacatl’s brother Tizoc[10]. Before he died, Tlacaelel had Tizoc killed as he thought him too weak, and put another son of Montezuma’s, Ahutizotl[11] (ah-weet-zottle, Water Dog) on the Mesheeka throne.

“It was Tlacaelel who invented the Xochiyaoyotl (zo-chi-yow-yottle), the Flower Wars. This was an excuse to never stop conquering other peoples. Before Tlacaelel, Huitzilopochtli was the Mesheeka god of the hunt. Animals were sacrificed to him and only sometimes people.

“Tlacaelel said Huitzilopochtli controlled the rising of the sun and kept the heavens in one piece, and needed food to sustain his labors. It was the holy duty of the Mesheeka to provide him with this food, the only food that would satisfy him – the ‘flower’ of blood from human hearts. Tlacaelel decreed that Mesheeka warriors must never stop waging Holy Wars – Flower Wars – to capture prisoners for sacrifice.

“He decreed that other gods were always hungry. Tlaloc needed the flower of babies’ blood so that it would rain. Xipe (she-pay) needed human skins so plants would grow. Tlacaelel had the Teocalli, the Great Temple, built in the center of Tenochtitlan. When it was completed just before he died[12], he ordered a dedication ceremony. Twenty thousand prisoners were sacrificed. It took two weeks to kill them all.”

* * * * *

There was silence when the king finished, a long silence. Noting it, the king said, “Forgive me, Malinche, but it is our habit to give long speeches.”

“And we thank you for it, King Xicotencatl, for we have learned much by it,” came Cortez’s response. “The Mesheeka once more remind me of the Moors, who we fought in Spain for so long. They too, live for Holy War to conquer others and force them to believe in their false god, Allah. But they were not as evil as the Mesheeka, for they do not believe Allah drinks human blood.”

Cortez hesitated and looked at Malinali. She saw he was making a decision on whether to say something. “Doña Marina, now is the time I must make a request of the king. Tell him I have seen here in Tlaxcala the wooden buildings with gratings full of Indian men and women imprisoned in them, being fed until they are fat enough to be sacrificed and eaten. Tell him if he wants my help against the Mesheeka, he must allow me to break open these prisons and set the prisoners free. What does it matter if Montezuma sacrifices many more people to his gods than he does to his? We will not be brothers, none of my men will marry any of his women, until all prisoners for sacrifice in every city in all Tlaxcala are freed and no more hearts are fed to his gods.”

The King was silent for some time upon hearing this, then reached up and ran his fingers over Cortez’s face. “I am so old that I can only see who you are with my fingers, not my eyes, Malinche,” he said. He breathed deeply. “Yes, what our gods said about you is true. You are the one who will kill the gods and bring new gods in their place. We want you to teach us about your Christian gods, the ones you call the True God, and his son Jesus, and his mother, Mary.”

Malinali looked up at Cortez for his reply. “This is not the time to explain the Holy Trinity, nor his misunderstanding of it,” he told her. “Just tell him it will be my honor to instruct him. Then ask if we may free the prisoners.”

Upon hearing Malinali’s translation, King Xicotencatl reached out to explore Cortez’s face with his fingers once again. Then he said one word. “Yes.”

[1] About 1325.
[2] Ruled 1375-1396.
[3] Ruled 1396-1417.
[4] 1426.
[5] 1397-1487.
[6] 1428.
[7] 1440.
[8] 1398-1469.
[9] Ruled 1469-1481.
[10] Ruled 1481-1486.
[11] Ruled 1486-1502.
[12] 1487.