gloss, ”Tepostecatzin” (name)

We have some doubt that this man was from the well-known town of Tepoztlan (state of Morelos) that the name might suggest. There was a Tepoztlan in the Chilapa region, diocese of Tlaxcala, according to Peter Gerhard, A Guide to the Historical Geography of New Spain (1972, pp. 18, 113). There was a Tepuztlan in the Chalco area, too, according to Pedro Carrasco's Estructura politico-territorial del imperio tenochca (1996, pp. 402-403). So there are probably various possibilities for the origins of a person named Tepoztecatl. The figure in this manuscript may be the Tepuztecatl mentioned in the sixteenth century by Bernardino de Sahagún (General History of the Things of New Spain, Book 12, Chapter 3, last line) and in the early seventeenth century by Juan de Torquemada (Monarquía Indiana, Book 4, Chapter 13, p. 481) as having been sent by Motecuzoma to meet Cortés. But we know nothing of that man's origins or subsequent activities in this part of New Spain. In the Mapa de Cuauhtlantzinco we would expect to find a local hero. Sure enough, however, the family name Tepoztecatl does live on in Cuautlancingo (the modern rendition of the town name). [SW & RH]