Aztecs at Independence: Nahua Culture Makers in Central Mexico, 1799–1832 by Mariam Melton-Villanueva (review)

Melton-Villanueva has presented the reader with a powerful and unique view of Nahuatl speakers at the time of Independence in Mexico, laced with recollections of her research time in the village of San Bartolomé Metepec, in the Toluca Valley of the State of Mexico. She mines a cache of over 150 wills written in Nahuatl, dating from the time of Independence, to uncover a lost era. The discovery of these documents was remarkable in itself, since many scholars felt that the use of Nahuatl in legal and quasi-legal documentation had largely disappeared by 1800. Of even greater importance was the fact that the wills presented an theretofore unknown view of society in late colonial New Spain, as the region moved toward Independence.

The book starts with an overview of the altepetl and its internal workings about 1800, and then delves more deeply into the local society, rituals of death, and a vision of the town as it moved into the modern era. The first chapter takes a look at the workings of the fiscalía. This important institution mirrored the municipal council, but served the religious or spiritual life of the community. All of the witnesses of the wills came from the ranks of the fiscalía. Even though individuals would move from roles in the political realm into the spiritual one, this transfer was not a fixed cargo system as seen in modern villages, best documented in Chiapas. Moreover, there were three offices shared by the fiscalia and the municipal council.

Melton-Villanueva next focuses on the content of the Nahuatl language testaments, documents in Spanish, and other products of the office. Interestingly, she concludes that these documents capture a moment of linguistic transition when scribes were writing in a Spanish that reflected the older Nahuatl way of doing things. Of the scribes writing in Nahuatl, she concludes that there were two principal lineages springing from two distinct families. As with all such documents, the wills were highly formulaic, but Melton-Villanueva has concluded that there were several important variants. Her on death rites and rituals is particularly evocative; in particular, she studies the role of women both as will makers and as participants in the rituals of death, such as the choosing of a tree near which to be buried. From the wills, she is likewise able to extract a vision of household rituals, devotions to specific saints, and remembrances of the dead. The latter created a continuity through the generations. Melton-Villanueva interprets this discourse of remembrance as a system of customs that linked land with the family in an enduring manner over the passage of many lives.

This slim volume is a fascinating glimpse into the life and death of villagers near the time of the Mexican War of Independence, in a locale near Mexico City yet clearly of the countryside. She correctly notes that although the Aztecs are no longer with us, many aspects of their culture remain, particularly in villages, in the thoughts, customs, and practices of the residents. The wills of San Bartolomé Metepec allow the historian to trace some of these cultural traits over time. Comparing the documents of this cache with previous work on Nahuatl-speaking villages from earlier periods shows clear signs of continuity and transition. Perhaps most importantly, Melton-Villanueva sees the transition to Spanish as being informed by and flowing from the older Nahuatl ways. Some readers might find the intrusion of her experiences in the modern era to be a distraction, but Melton-Villanueva uses them to surround the reader with the ethos and spirit of the place that she studies. Quite simply, this is a fascinating work that documents a poorly studied topic.