Xayacamach of Tizatlan was an

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

poet from the

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

state of

Tlaxcallan Tlaxcala ( 'place of maize tortillas') was a pre-Columbian city and state in central Mexico. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Tlaxcala allied with the Spanish Empire against the Aztecs, supplying a large contingent for and somet ...

, born between 1450 and 1455. He was the son of the "Señor de Aztahua de Tizatlan" (Lord of Aztahua of Tizatlan). He took his father's place as governor, and assisted at the meeting called by Tecayehuatzin of Huextonzinco to converse on the meaning of "flower and song", which is where we get both of his recorded poems. Tecahueyatzin said of him:

A beautiful song is heard
Xayacamach Tlapeltuetzin raises it
these are his flowers

It is known that he died before the year 1500, because by this time his brother, Xicohtencatl, was the governor of the

altepetl The (, plural ''altepeme'' or ''altepemeh'') was the local, ethnically-based political entity, usually translated into English as "city-state," of pre-Columbian Nahuatl-speaking societiesSmith 1997 p. 37 in the Americas. The ''altepetl'' was co ...

of Tizatlan. He sided with the

Huastecs The Huastec or Téenek (contraction of ''Te' Inik'', "people from here"; also known as Huaxtec, Wastek or Huastecos) are an indigenous people of Mexico, living in the La Huasteca region including the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potos� ...

in their war with

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...

and was killed (Leon-Portilla and Shorris 670).

Sources

* *Leon-Portilla, Miguel and Shorris, Earl. ''In the Language of Kings: An Anthology of Mesoamerican Literature--Pre-Columbian to the Present''. W. W. Norton & Company (July 2001) 1450s births 15th-century deaths Tlaxcaltec nobility Nahuatl-language poets {{mexico-poet-stub Nobility of the Americas