The actas de cabildo, or minutes of the municipal council of Tlaxcala, constitute a rich source for the history of the colonial Indians of Mexico. This book not only contributes to its diffusion, especially among those who are not familiar with the original Nahuatl text, but goes a step further by enriching this celebrated documentary corpus with notes and comments. It should be regarded as a valuable piece of scholarly work that succeeds in making documents virtually come alive. The merit of the book as a guide and digest of the actas is enhanced by the fact that it can be useful as a teaching device. Important contributions, among them sophisticated yet simple and precise definitions of subjects such as encomienda, sujeto, or tribute collection, make this book a reliable mirror of the latest scholarly trends in the field.
The content of the actas is recorded in a detailed calendar, and 25 of them are fully transcribed, translated, and commented. The selection is somewhat arbitrary, and the comments frequently repeat the content of the documents, but these are minor drawbacks because both the calendar and the translation are very reliable. An occasional mistake, like supposing some trees were cut instead of planted (p. 47), does not detract from the excellence of the work. It should be noted that a recent Spanish translation and transcription of the entire text is also available. Both translations basically coincide, although there are disparities of style and emphasis, especially meaningful when they suggest a different intention in the Nahuatl writer. The English version usually gives a more pondered meaning than the Spanish one. Unfortunately, both translations are not easily comparable in view of their different editorial criteria. The English edition is very manageable and handles all information clearly and neatly, although, inconceivably, it does not provide an index.
The authors’ notes and comments suggest a myriad of topics for discussion, but space limitations only permit a brief reference to one of them. The actas are a rich source of information on the altepetl, a pivotal element in the social and political organization of Mesoamerican Indians. The authors provide a valuable approximation to the topic from the point of view of the multitlatoani Tlaxcalan state. Frequently, however, they disregard the meaning of the altepetl as opposed to that of the city, as their rather inconsistent translation of the terms ciudad and atl tepetl shows. The city, it should be noted, is a recurrent, but not exclusive, point of reference in the actas. A relatively weak treatment of the Tlaxcalan “hinterlands” in both notes and comments contributes also to a perhaps too centralized image of Tlaxcala, to the great pleasure, one is tempted to think, of that segment of Tlaxcalan society that took pains to build up precisely that image.
