The Oztoticpac Lands Map

Dated at approximately 1540, this map, a Mexican pictorial document with writing in Spanish and Nahuatl, relates to a lawsuit concerning the estate of Don Carlos Ometochtli Chichimecatecotl, an Aztec lord and one of the many sons of Nezahualpilli, ruler of Texcoco. Don Carlos was charged with heresy and publicly executed by the Spanish authorities on November 30, 1539. Litigation began on December 31, 1540, when a man identified as Pedro de Vergara petitioned the Inquisition to return to him certain fruit trees taken from the property of Don Carlos that Vergara claimed were his under a contract that had been concluded with Don Carlos several years earlier. Other individuals contended that the lands occupied by Don Carlos did not belong to him personally but to the family—the lords of Texcoco—as a whole. This map most likely was commissioned by Antonio Pimentel Tlahuilotzin, governor of Texcoco, to buttress these claims. Further complicating the case were claims by another set of petitioners that the Texcocan lands had been partitioned by the Spanish authorities and that lands held by Don Carlos during his lifetime were now the property of commoners. The outcome of the litigation is

Date

1540

Place

Mexico

Archive

Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons)

Type

map

Original size

2,623 × 2,388 pixels

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