The sea
turned in and away from the land of Old Aztlán as if it had its doubts—and
please forgive my crude way of saying things—, as if it didn’t know what to do,
like a man that hesitates between going or staying. It was impressive to see
how deformed those coasts were, so gnawed at by the sea, and it is truly a shame
that it is now time to explain why we called that land Old Aztlán, and, above
all, what it was about it that made us think what we thought it was.
I will
have to tell you the history of our Náhuatl race and it shames me to have to do
so, since these are the kinds of things that all of you should know from memory
and, nonetheless, you have forgotten them all. Now, that we have been left
without calmecac and without telpochcali and that there is nobody who can speak
of our Pilgrimage from the Seven Caves. Opoton knows well that such labors
benefit few these days. But, in spite of all that, he knows that there is a
need to do these things so says: Hear ye, Aztecs, called also Mechichin or
Mexicas or Tenochas. From the Seven Caves, all this shall come forth, and I am
seeing it so it would be better to go on with story, which was going fine, and
which will be explained through one of the warriors called Uitzilatl, who took
one of the Sususas and then, when they found her hiding
[. . .]
From
the Seven Caves came forth the Seven Tribes of Náhua which, with respect to
their natural order, were: the Xochimilcas, the Tecpatecas, the Chalcotecas,
the Acólhuas, the Tlahuicas, the Tlaxcaltecas and us, the Aztecs called Aztecs.
The Seven Tribes set off from the western part of the world I will call South
and the journey lasted Sheaves upon Sheaves. We had to find the land designated
for us by Huichilopotztli and our Lords and Priests only knew that it was
downward, always to the right of that western part of the world which I am
calling South. It is well known that along the way we fought much and that, in
the end, each of the Tribes went their own way. But the best Aztec blood
belonged to us, the Aztecs, and we have proven that many times.
It has
been two epochs since we settled in the Palm Grove and Reed of the Valley that
is today called Anáhuac, only because there is a damned custom of speaking without
thinking. With the blessings of Huichilopotztli the land was ruled by his
brother Quetzalcóatl, the Sun which came from the Eastern part of the world. And in
no way, Tiachcauhan, in no way come to me saying today that history isn’t worth
it, you in your repose, who knows not a word of these stories anyway, so who
understands nothing. Here there was all manner of bad faith shown and likeways
it seemed that he was responsible for our minginesses, and the only ones who
remained faithful to his faith were we, the Aztecs called Tenochcas. What you
do know well is that at last there was a day when the great God got sick of it
and walked off with the sky before him. He said he would return and he has
never returned and every time it seems less likely that he will do so. But it
is not for men to judge the designs of the Gods.
He had
said that he would return to rule our land and that he would never leave again,
and he went up to the Snowy Peak, called ever since the Peak of the Star, and
he turned himself into a star and left and we know for sure that he has never
returned and that other Gods have come who are the same Him, but with a
different name, as will be related later on. With words and customs so
different that no longer seems it is Him the same and we would say that Old
Aztlán is the oldest of Aztlans; that is, from whence He had come. And that
Original Place was what we were looking for so don’t say that I haven’t spelled
it out clearly. What happens is that the Rising Sun is always further off and
the true East is one of those things that can never be reached. When we arrived
at Old Aztlán we had had to be like the Chichimecas in Tenayuca: recounting and
counting and by this very token Old Aztlán should have been called Nepaualco,
which would have been much better. What’s certain though is that we didn’t do
that and for all history the name of Old Aztlán has been fixed instead of
Nepaualco, which would have been much better. Today we can no longer change it.
Now
that I have explained all of this I feel more at peace and I can go on with the
story of our journey, in poor form called the Conquest, what with all my
hardships in that land of Galicia, which were many and tremendous, I thought
that I would end up being called Opotontzin, but I did not attain it despite my
efforts, let’s say I didn’t have the fortune of it.
The ins
and outs of the sea shape the immense kinds of bays and those which are not so
large, where the water is flat and smooth, and the land is peopled and the
houses are of good stone, for they build well in spite of their being natural
Galician folk. Nothing has the size of our things, the truth always set first, but
everything tends to be stunted because they haggle their space with handspans
and sticks here and there. The truth is that you can’t expect much from a
people living as backward as we were some twenty Sheaves ago. . .
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