Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin (1579,

Amecameca Amecameca is a municipality located in the eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is located on federal highway 115 which leads to Cuautla, w ...

, Chalco—1660,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

), usually referred to simply as Chimalpahin or Chimalpain, was a

Nahua The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...

annalist Annalists (from Latin ''annus'', year; hence ''annales'', sc. ''libri'', annual records), were a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla. They wrote th ...

from Chalco. His

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

names () mean "Runs Swiftly with a Shield" and "Rising Eagle", respectively, and he claimed descent from the lords of Tenango-

- Chalco. He was the grandson of the late Don Domingo Hernández Ayopochtzin, a seventh-generation descendant of the founding king of the polity. Don Domingo was learned and esteemed, especially for his education and his record-keeping skills in the ancient tradition. He wrote on the

history of Mexico The written history of Mexico spans more than three millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, central and southern Mexico (termed Mesoamerica) saw the rise and fall of complex indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous civilizations ...

and other neighboring nations in the

and

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

s. The most important of his surviving works is the ''Relaciones'' or ''Anales''. This Nahuatl work was compiled in the early seventeenth century, and is based on testimony from

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. It covers the years 1589 through 1615, but also deals with events before the

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

and supplies lists of indigenous kings and lords and Spanish viceroys, archbishops of Mexico and inquisitors. Chimalpahin recorded the 1610 and 1614 visits of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese delegations to Mexico, led by

Tanaka Shōsuke Tanaka Shōsuke (田中勝助, also 田中勝介) was an important Japanese technician and trader in metals from Kyoto during the beginning of the 17th century. According to Japanese archives (駿府記) he was a representative of the great Osa ...

and

Hasekura Tsunenaga was a kirishitan Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyō of Sendai. He was of Japanese imperial descent with ancestral ties to Emperor Kanmu. Other names include Philip Francis Faxicura, Felipe Francisco Faxicura, and Phi ...

, respectively. He recorded of a fight where a Japanese

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

stabbed a Spanish soldier in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

in the year 1614. He also wrote ''Diferentes historias originales'' (also known as ''Relaciones originales''), a compilation of claims and proofs of nobility asserted by indigenous leaders of Chalco-Amequemecan. It was written to serve as a judicial guide for the viceregal authorities for the granting of privileges and offices to members of the indigenous nobility. There are eight of these ''relaciones''. All contain ethnographic, social and chronologic information of great value to historians. His manuscripts came into the possession of

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (August 14, 1645 – August 22, 1700) was one of the first great intellectuals born in the New World - Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico City). He was a criollo patriot, exalting New Spain over Old. ...

. For an account of what happened to these documents after the death of Sigüenza, see

Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (also Botterini) 1698, Sondrio, Italy – 1749, Madrid) was a historian, antiquary and ethnographer of New Spain, the Spanish Empire's colonial dominions in North America. Early life Born in Italy of noble parentag ...

References

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* * {{Authority control 1579 births 1660 deaths People from Amecameca Nahua people Nahuatl-language writers Novohispanic Mesoamericanists Historians of Mesoamerica Aztec scholars 17th-century Mesoamericanists 17th-century Mexican historians People of New Spain Indigenous Mexicans Classical Nahuatl

References

Further reading

External links