Plate 4, elaborate cloth(?) tributes

This plate illustrates some of the tribute items the indigenous people of Huexotzinco had to provide to the Spanish colonial authorities. In all cases, this appears to be an elaborately designed cloth tribute, with eighty pieces or bundles due at any one time. A complex pattern (what came to be called “grecas” in Spanish) and a red color (perhaps colored with cochineal) added to the value of the items. Tributes were taxes paid in kind (and in labor). The petitioners requested a reduction in what they had to provide (based on the fact that they had allied with Cortés to defeat the Aztecs), and they were rewarded for their role in the conquest--and for their judicial activism--with a 66% reduction in what they had to pay. [SW]