The Lords of Tetzcoco

Bradley Benton is Assistant Professor of History at North Dakota State University. His areas of research include Colonial Mexico; Aztec politics, society, and culture; the early-modern Atlantic world; and cross-cultural contact and exchange.

• Introduction; Part I. Conquest and Continuity: 1. Tumultuous colonial beginnings, 1515–39; 2. Reassertion of traditional authority, 1540–64; Part II. Post-1564 Transformative Forces: 3. Noble resources: tribute, labor, and land; 4. Interethnic unions and the rise of Mestizos; 5. Family conflict and local power; Conclusions: a colonial aristocracy.

'Tetzcoco was known in pre-hispanic and colonial central Mexico not only as the leading city-state in the Acolhuacan region, major partner in the Triple Alliance, but also as a center of law and culture. Its ruling dynasty produced two of the major chroniclers of native indigenous cultural and history, both of whom played roles in the region's governance despite their mixed-race background as this gracefully written history shows. The political history of the ruling family and the colonial vicissitudes they endured has needed a chronicler and Bradley Benton has proven to be the historian to provide it.' Susan Kellogg, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Latin American Studies, University of Houston