Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs (review)

Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. By Elizabeth Hill Boone (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2000) 296 pp. $55.00

Mesoamerica constitutes a cultural region characterized by provincial kingdoms, ruling dynasties, and a tradition of written record keeping that distinguished it from the rest of the Americas during the pre-Hispanic period. In this extensively illustrated book, Boone presents a welcome overview of two Mesoamerican regional traditions—Mixtec and Aztec pictorial manuscripts—that share many features but have largely been treated separately. She excludes Maya writing on the grounds that its strong phonetic element sets it apart. Although Mixtec and Aztec pictorial representation includes some phonetic representation, it does not primarily represent language. Boone, however, persuasively argues against the traditional scholarly position that Mixtec and Aztec pictorial representation is not "true" writing. She makes her case, in part, through a broad comparative context that includes such other graphic systems of communication as mathematical, musical, and choreograph- ical notation. She also argues that Aztec and Mixtec pictorial manuscripts constitute "true" histories, previously defined more narrowly as narratives written in European alphabetical script. The title of the book alludes to her central claim. It derives from the Aztec "metaphor for writings or books [which] was in tlilli in tlapalli, which translates literally 'the black [ink], the red [ink]' but is always used for its larger meaning" (21).

After the Spanish conquest, indigenous scribes continued to produce pictorial histories, valued by Spanish officials and native rulers alike. Most extant pictorial histories were, in fact, produced during the colonial period; they were rendered largely in traditional graphic style but incorporated European elements and postconquest people and events. Boone joins a growing number of scholars who approach these pictorial manuscripts as distinctly colonial products—earlier studies emphasized their value as sources primarily for the preconquest period—that help bridge the long-standing divide between colonial-era pictorial and alphabetical sources. She also bridges disciplinary divides. Boone draws on the methodology of various disciplines—art history, history, anthropology, and literary theory.

Boone first analyzes the pictorial conventions used to represent dates and time, persons, places, and events and action—common to both Mixtec and Aztec traditions—and then reading order, which varied by genre. Boone distinguishes between pictorial histories that were organized by a series of events (res gestae), space (cartographical histories), or time (annals), though many manuscripts blend these distinct forms. She argues that the stories as told structured their form. Mixtec screen-fold manuscripts, centered on genealogies and the legitimacy of ruling families, were organized around such events as dynastic marriages and succession, whereas Aztec codices, concerned with the history of provincial kingdoms, came in the form of annals.

Both regions produced histories concerned with the foundation and territory of provincial kingdoms that blended res gestae and cartographical formats. The cloth lienzos (sheets) and tiras (rolls) from Oaxaca and Puebla were closely related to the Mixtec genealogical histories but placed greater emphasis on the description and inheritance of territory. Blended Aztec histories, composed on paper or hides, told the story of a people's origin and migration into the Valley of Mexico. Although different historical genres emphasized different elements of the past, they were all told from a local perspective and used to bolster the legitimacy and power of ruling families and affirm the collective identities of provincial kingdoms.

Stories in Red and Black will find a broad and diverse audience. It is an excellent introduction to Aztec and Mixtec pictorial histories and imperative reading for specialists, who will return to it repeatedly with great profit. Furthermore, because Boone so effectively places Aztec and Mixtec pictorial writing in a broad comparative context, this excellent study will also appeal to many scholars outside the Mesoamerican field, especially those interested in visual arts and graphic systems of communication.