Located in the Morelos neighborhood, heart of Tepito, between Constancia and Tenochtitlán streets is the parish of Concepción Tequipeuhcan; place where it is said that the last Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire had to make one of the most important decisions in the history of Mexico.
People say that Cuauhtemotzin and the last guard of Aztec warriors they were definitively defeated by the conquistadors on the day August 13, 1521. With enormous courage, the Mexica Tlatoani fought until the last moment and made one of the most important and difficult decisions in the country’s history, because he knew that his actions would affect his people for generations.
It is believed that the capture of Emperor Cuauhtémoc occurred in the old Texcoco Lagoon, while another part of the story tells that it probably Cuauhtemotzin surrendered to Cortés in what we now know as the rough neighborhood of Tepitoright where you are the chapel of the Conception of Tequipeuhcan. However, and according to the conquistador’s letters, there were other soldiers from the Old World who participated during the “capture” of the Aztec King.
The last Mexica emperor never imagined that he would see his people and their culture reduced to ashes without being able to die with honor. Discover how the events that changed the history of the country unfolded, within one of the most representative neighborhoods of Mexico City and the ancient Aztec Empire: Tepito.
On the part of experts on the subject, there are different opinions on how and where the last Aztec emperor, the Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc, was “captured”. On the part of the oral tradition, the stories that go from mouth to mouth from generation to generation; There are also different versions of the same fact: The surrender of Cuauhtémoc and the fall of the Mexica Empire.
The history of the founding of Tenochtitlán, here.
The last battle of the Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc, the fall of the Mexica Empire in Tequipeuhcan, Tepito
The great Tenochtitlán and its people were in a very bad state, almost completely under the Spanish yoke. Only the Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc, his warriors and a small group of rulers along with what was left of his troops remained standing. The area of what is now known as the brave neighborhood of Tepito was going to be the last to fall.
Despite of fighting spirit and thirst for justice that burned in the skin of Cuauhtémoc, by the mind of the young Mexica passed the hunger and thirst that his people were going through since the conflict broke out, as well as the attacks that were taking place at that precise moment. He thought of the Spaniards bombarding from the water, those approaching from the causeways that connected to the mainland, and the indigenous armies that had allied themselves with the invaders under false promises of freedom.
Smallpox had carried away the mighty Cuitláhuac, the best strategist and fiercest warrior of Anahuac; so he became the leader of the Mexicas and he was not going to fall without a fight, because if he was going to die, it would have to be in honor of his gods and in a ritual way; as an offering to the people he had failed, to their gods and to the gods of the victors, or so the legend said. tradition that was respected among the indigenous peoples of Mexico during the pre-Hispanic era.
However, neither he nor the indigenous allies of the Spanish imagined that everything would end with the near extinction of their peoples.
Cuitláhuac, the story of the eagle on the water.
Cuauhtémoc’s decision
There are different versions about the decision that Cuauhtemotzin made. It is said that he was going in search of Cortés to challenge him to fight; so there would be no more casualties and things would be done under the warrior tradition of pre-Hispanic Mexico. As they would say in today’s Tepito “to sing him a shot”. To win courteous, the Tlatoani would be sacrificed with honor together with his warriors and his people would submit to the victors, paying them tribute and joining them in war; adopting their deities and beliefs.
Other sources, mainly documents of the time such as the letters of Hernán Cortés and some Franciscan chronicles; They say that the leader of the Mexicas was fleeing through the currently extinct lagoon of Tlatelolco when he was captured and brought before the Spanish captain.
A third version says that, aware of everything that was happening at that time and the possible future for his people if they continued fighting; the last Tlatoani of the Mexica Empire made the decision to surrender, at that time and place that in the future would be known as Tequipeuhcan.
The fall of the great Tenochtitlan.
The capture of Cuauhtémoc: the Mexica Empire ends and Tequipeuhcan is born
Some believe it was in the tlatelolco lagoonothers that it was in the Cuautlalpan shore; however, it is in a Tepiteño area belonging to Tlatelolco where the parish of the conceptionthe place where every August 13 hundreds of people gather in the church to commemorate the last Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and his defense of the great Tenochtitlán.
On the corner of the building there is a plaque dating from 1699the year in which it went from being a hermitage to a parish and that names the site as Tequipeuhcan, which means “place where slavery began”; because contrary to indigenous customs, Cuauhtémoc was not only denied death by ritualhe was forced to be an ally and had to watch the brutal submission of his people to the victors.
Humiliated and tortured for years, Cuauhtémoc was assassinated between February 23 and 26, 1526.. The official story says that he was hanged together with the lord of Tlacopan when being taken by Cortés on an expedition to Las Hibueras, Honduras; for fear that they would rise up the Mexica people against him. He was killed there and it is not known what happened to his remains.
On a plaque in the Historic Center of Mexico City, just behind the Metropolitan Capital, next to number 30 on República de Guatemala street; they find each other the last words of the Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc for the people of Mexico:
Our Sun went down, our Sun disappeared its face and in complete darkness it has left us.
But we know that it will come back again, that it will come out again and shine on us again. But while there I am and in the mansion of silence I remain, very soon let us meet and shake hands; in the center of our being let us hide everything that our heart loves and that we know is a great treasure.
Let us destroy our enclosures at the creative principle, our schools, our ball fields, our youth enclosures, our houses for singing and playing. May our paths be abandoned and our homes protect us until our new sun rises.
The papacitos and the mamacitas, may they never forget to guide their youth and let their children know as long as they live, how good our beloved Anahuac land has been up to now under the protection and protection of our destiny for our great respect and good behavior, confirmed by our ancestors and that our papacitos very courageously sowed in our being.
Now we will instruct our children not to forget to inform their children how good she will be, how she will get up, achieve strength and how well she will fulfill her great destiny in this our beloved Anahuac motherland.
Cuauhtémoc, the last Tlatoani of the Mexica Empire.