Verdades y mentiras en torno a don Diego de Mendoza Austria Moctezuma

Don Diego de Mendoza Austria Moctezuma, the sixteenth-century cacique and indigenous governor of Tlatelolco, carried two of the most recognizable names of the colonial period. He was the namesake of the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, and the huei tlatoani Moteuczoma Xocoyotzin, whose names were linked in don Diego's surname by “Austria,” suggesting the Hapsburg dynasty. María Castañeda de la Paz's extraordinary study unravels all that is encapsulated in this name and its potent legacy. However, as she notes in the opening paragraph, her study is not of the governor of Tlatelolco but rather of how this name was associated with the production of documents of questionable legitimacy in the later colonial period. Noble natives, like the true descendants of don Diego, brought before authorities alphabetic and pictorial documents that supported claims to lands and position based on the status and deeds of their ancestors. Those records...