Matrícula de Huexotzinco

The Matrícula de Huexotzinco is an outstanding document of Spanish colonization in Mexico and the social structures of the indigenous population. The results of an extensive census in the province of Huexotzinco were recorded on a total of 1,136 pages of European imported paper, which were to serve as a tax or tribute register for the Spanish colonial rulers. Settlement by settlement is meticulously listed, whereby social classes and sometimes factors such as gender, age, illness, influence, etc. were often differentiated. While the evaluation and annotation of the census records was carried out in Spanish secretary script, the basic register was written in the local Aztec language Nahuatl and therefore in pictographs. This makes the Matrícula an extremely valuable document for the study of the ancient Aztec language. All in all, it provides a fascinating, albeit colonial, insight into the pre-Columbian societies of Central America.