Don Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuh Huitznahuatlailótlac, also known as Motelchiuhtzin, was the ruler of Tenochtitlan (1525–1530). After the death of Don Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin in Nochixtlan in 1525,

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

chose Don Andrés Motelchiuhtzin as the new ruler of

Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...

. Motelchiuhtzin was not of the upper classes; he was born as a " macehualli" or working commoner, but he had gained renown as a warrior captain. He was captured together with

Cuauhtémoc Cuauhtémoc (, ), also known as Cuauhtemotzín, Guatimozín, or Guatémoc, was the Aztec ruler ('' tlatoani'') of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521, and the last Aztec Emperor. The name Cuauhtemōc means "one who has descended like an eagle", an ...

, and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

d along with him to reveal the location of the

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

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

. Eventually he was freed and he returned to his lands. Because Tenochtitlan was in ruins, he stayed in Nochixtlan. In the three years of Cortés expeditions, he had been ruling Tenochtitlan as ''cuauhtlatoani''. He would not be

tlatoani ''Tlahtoāni'' ( , "ruler, sovereign"; plural ' ) is a historical title used by the dynastic rulers of (singular ''āltepētl'', often translated into English as "city-state"), autonomous political entities formed by many pre-Columbian Nahuatl- ...

, but he would stayed as ''cuauhtlatoani'' two years more. During his rule, the Aztec titles and decorations were suppressed by the Spanish rulers. In 1530, Motelchiuhtzin went with the Spaniards to an expedition to Teocolhuacan, against the

Chichimeca Chichimeca () is the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples who were established in present-day Bajío region of Mexico. Chichimeca carried the same meaning as the Roman term "barbarian" tha ...

and in Aztatlan was wounded by a Chichimecan arrow while he was bathing, and died of the wound. He left a son called Hernando de Tapia. (Bowditch 1904) identifies this person simply as Motelchiuh, and says he was named for "his godfather, Don Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuh". This presumably refers to the Spanish conquistador Don Andrés de Tapia, and probably should read "his godfather, Don Andrés de Tapia".

References

*'' Anales de Tlatelolco'' (1540)

External links

Tenochca tlatoque 16th-century monarchs in North America 16th-century indigenous leaders of the Americas 16th-century Mexican people Year of birth missing 1530 deaths Spanish Indian auxiliaries {{mesoamerica-stub

See also

References

External links