Tlachco Codex

This manuscript resides in the private collection of Sean Galvin in Ireland, who generously made digital photographs available for dissemination and study. This is a record of an investigation into Indigenous people's complaints about tribute demands in kind and in labor, including mine work in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico, in the sixteenth century. Although written (or perhaps just glossed) in Spanish, the drawings were made by Indigenous painters. One section of text refers to eggs, fish, and melons that were provided as foodstuffs. Elsewhere, large numbers of hens (whether chickens or turkeys, it is not clear) had to be provided, along with bundles of tribute cloth, thin sheets, maize, and what appear to be rings (an early manifiestation of Taxco's silversmithing?) to the Spanish overlords and their wives. Both Indigenous men and women are indicated as laborers, including “Indian women who make bread (i.e. tortillas),” shown alongside a grinding stone for making the tortilla dough, and others who had to work as servants in the houses of Spaniards. Men are shown (in tears?) carrying the wives of Spanish colonial officials in hammocks attached to poles. (Stephanie Wood)