Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 August 2020
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 August 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0237
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 August 2020
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 August 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0237
Introduction
Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (b. c. 1578–d. 1650) is a relatively unknown figure outside of specialist academic circles, yet he has been very influential in the development of the historiography of pre-Hispanic central Mexico, or Anahuac. Born in the last quarter of the 16th century, his family had roots in Anahuac and in Spain. His mother was descended from elite native rulers of the city of Tetzcoco, while his father was a Spanish settler who worked as a Nahuatl-Spanish interpreter in the courts of Mexico City. Alva Ixtlilxochitl also served as an interpreter and as a bureaucratic official in the colonial government. During his lifetime, Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s family’s wealth and status were tied to his mother’s and grandmother’s connections to the family’s cacicazgo (landed estate) in San Juan Teotihuacan. Yet it was his ancestors from Tetzcoco who were the primary object of study in his five historical works. In four historical accounts and his magnum opus, the History of the Chichimeca Nation (2019, cited under Manuscripts, Editions, Translations), Alva Ixtlilxochitl recounts the origins, deeds, and exploits of the leaders of Tetzcoco, including the renowned Nezahualcoyotl (r. 1429–1472) and Nezahualpilli (r. 1472–1515). For these histories he relied on native sources. As he says himself in the prefatory materials to the History of the Chichimeca Nation, these sources included “painted histories and annals and the songs with which they preserved them,” and to make sense of these materials he sought out “the elders of New Spain who were renowned for their knowledge and understanding of those stories” (History of the Chichimeca Nation, p. 29). The result of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s research and writing has left an important legacy in studies of the history of ancient Mexico. Scholars from the 17th century onward drew on Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s representations of pre-Hispanic and conquest-era Mexico to such an extent that his depictions of Tetzcoco as a center of learning and culture and his depictions of Nezahualcoyotl as a revered poet-king became standard in both academic studies and popular culture. Burgeoning scholarly interest in mestizo historians in the 1990s brought renewed attention to Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s writings and to his position as a colonial subject and author, while the rediscovery of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s original manuscripts in the 1980s provided new material sources with which to study the creation and impact of his works. Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s own projects and his legacy represent an important reminder of how, on occasion, the stories and storytelling of native peoples survived the brutalities of conquest and colonialism.
General Overviews
The most comprehensive overviews of the life and works of Alva Ixtlilxochitl are found in three introductions to volumes or editions, along with an essay that introduced a special issue of a journal dedicated to Alva Ixtlilxochitl. O’Gorman 1975 is the introductory essay to Edmundo O’Gorman’s two-volume Alva Ixtlilxochitl 1975–1977 (cited under Manuscripts, Editions, Translations) and is the first detailed study of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s oeuvre based on archival sources. O’Gorman 1977 is a compilation of archival documents related to Alva Ixtlilxochitl found at the end of the second volume. These sources provide a foundational context for the study of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s biography and his writings. Brian, et al. 2019 is a scholarly introduction to the History of the Chichimeca Nation (Alva Ixtlilxochitl 2019, cited under Manuscripts, Editions, Translations), Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s lengthiest and most widely read work. Townsend 2014 offers an insightful introduction to Alva Ixtlilxochitl more broadly, as does Lee and Brokaw 2016.
Brian, Amber, Bradley Benton, Peter B. Villella, and Pablo García Loaeza. “Introduction.” In History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico. Edited and translated by Amber Brian, Bradley Benton, Peter B. Villella, and Pablo García Loaeza, 3–23. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
This introductory essay situates Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s life and work in colonial-era Mexico, emphasizing how the History of the Chichimeca Nation is the product of the author’s access to native sources that are reinscribed in a Hispano-Catholic sociopolitical context. The essay also addresses the many later scholars, including Sigüenza y Góngora, Boturini, and Prescott, who drew on Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s history in their own studies and writings.
Lee, Jongsoo, and Galen Brokaw. “Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl and Colonial Indigenous Historiography from the Conquest to the Present.” In Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl and His Legacy. Edited by Jongsoo Lee and Galen Brokaw, 3–28. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016.
This essay serves as an introduction to an edited volume, containing an additional eight chapters, dedicated to Alva Ixtlilxochitl. The authors trace aspects of his biography, acknowledging some that are disputed, such as the suggestion that he was a student at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco. They also outline major studies of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s writings and their impact, including those of Ángel María Garibay Kintana and Rolena Adorno.
O’Gorman, Edmundo. “Estudio introductorio.” In Obras históricas. Vol. 1. By Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. Edited by Edmundo O’Gorman, 1–257. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Institución de Investigaciones Históricas, 1975.
This expansive introductory apparatus accompanies the most comprehensive and reliable published edition of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s five historical works. O’Gorman includes multiple chronologies related to Alva Ixtlilxochitl as well as his antecedents and his legacy, in addition to comparative chronologies of significant events from the histories. He includes extensive lists of quotations from the texts and from other related texts. Of enduring relevance is his detailed study of the texts themselves.
O’Gorman, Edmundo, ed. “Apéndice documental.” In Obras históricas. Vol. 2. By Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. Edited by Edmundo O’Gorman, 265–402. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Institución de Investigaciones Históricas, 1977.
At the end of the second volume of O’Gorman’s two-volume edition of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s works, he includes twenty-six primarily legal documents associated with the author. These materials, largely located in the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, provide relevant context for Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s historical works and his legacy.
Townsend, Camilla. “Introduction: The Evolution of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s Scholarly Life.” Colonial Latin American Review 23.1 (2014): 1–17.
As the introductory essay to a special issue of Colonial Latin American Review related specifically to Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Townsend presents a detailed explanation of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s biography, his intellectual project, and the social milieu that informed it. She emphasizes that the author was engaged with both native story-keepers and writers, like Tlaxcalteca Tadeo de Niza, and European intellectuals, like Fray Juan de Torquemada, from whom Alva Ixtlilxochitl presumably acquired Niza’s text.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abolition
- Abortion and Infanticide
- African-Descent Women in Colonial Latin America
- Agricultural Technologies
- Alcohol Use
- Ancient Andean Textiles
- Andean Contributions to Rethinking the State and the Natio...
- Andean Music
- Andean Social Movements (Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru)
- Anti-Asian Racism
- Antislavery Narratives
- Arab Diaspora in Brazil, The
- Arab Diaspora in Latin America, The
- Argentina in the Era of Mass Immigration
- Argentina, Slavery in
- Argentine Literature
- Army of Chile in the 19th Century
- Asian Art and Its Impact in the Americas, 1565–1840
- Asian-Peruvian Literature
- Asunción
- Atlantic Creoles
- Baroque and Neo-baroque Literary Tradition
- Beauty in Latin America
- Bello, Andrés
- Black Experience in Colonial Latin America, The
- Black Experience in Modern Latin America, The
- Body, The
- Bogotá
- Bolaño, Roberto
- Borderlands in Latin America, Conquest of
- Borges, Jorge Luis
- Bourbon Reforms, The
- Brazilian Northeast, History of the
- Brazilian Popular Music, Performance, and Culture
- Buenos Aires
- Cali
- California Missions, The
- Caracas
- Caribbean Philosophical Association, The
- Caribbean, The Archaeology of the
- Cartagena de Indias
- Caste War of Yucatán, The
- Caudillos, 19th Century
- Cádiz Constitution and Liberalism, The
- Central America, The Archaeology of
- Chaco War
- Children, History of
- Chile's Struggle for Independence
- Chronicle, The
- Church in Colonial Latin America, The
- Chávez, Hugo, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela
- Cinema, Contemporary Brazilian
- Cinema, Latin American
- Colonial Central America
- Colonial Latin America, Crime and Punishment in
- Colonial Latin America, Pilgrimage in
- Colonial Legal History of Peru
- Colonial Lima
- Colonial New Granada
- Colonial Portuguese Amazon Region, from the 17th to 18th C...
- Comics, Cartoons, Graphic Novels
- Contemporary Indigenous Film and Video Production
- Contemporary Indigenous Social and Political Thought
- Contemporary Maya, The
- Cortés, Hernán
- Costa Rica
- Cárdenas and Cardenismo
- Cuban Revolution, The
- de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Fernando
- Dependency Theory in Latin American History
- Development of Architecture in New Spain, 1500–1810, The
- Development of Painting in Peru, 1520–1820, The
- Disability
- Drug Trades in Latin America
- Dutch in South America and the Caribbean, The
- Early Colonial Forms of Native Expression in Mexico and Pe...
- Economies from Independence to Industrialization
- Ecuador
- Ecuador, La Generación del 30 in
- Education in New Spain
- El Salvador
- Enlightenment and its Visual Manifestations in Spanish Ame...
- Environmental History
- Era of Porfirio Díaz, 1876–1911, The
- Family History
- Film, Science Fiction
- Football (Soccer) in Latin America
- Franciscans in Colonial Latin America
- From "National Culture" to the "National Popular" and the ...
- Gaucho Literature
- Gender and History in the Andes
- Gender during the Period of Latin American Independence
- Gender in Colonial Brazil
- Gender in Postcolonial Latin America
- Gentrification in Latin America
- Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe
- Guaraní and Their Legacy, The
- Guatemala and Yucatan, Conquest of
- Guatemala City
- Guatemala (Colonial Period)
- Guatemala (Modern & National Period)
- Haitian Revolution, The
- Havana
- Health and Disease in Modern Latin America, History of
- History, Cultural
- History, Food
- History of Health and Disease in Latin America and the Car...
- Honor in Latin America to 1900
- Honor in Mexican Public Life
- Horror in Literature and Film in Latin America
- Hospitals
- Human Rights in Latin America
- Immigration in Latin America
- Independence in Argentina
- Indigenous Borderlands in Colonial and 19th-Century Latin ...
- Indigenous Elites in the Colonial Andes
- Indigenous Peoples of the Andean Region during the Colonia...
- Indigenous Population and Justice System in Central Mexico...
- Indigenous Voices in Literature
- Japanese Presence in Latin America
- Jesuits in Colonial Latin America
- Jewish Presence in Latin America, The
- José María Arguedas and Early 21st Century Cultural and Po...
- Las Casas, Bartolomé de
- Latin American Independence
- Latin American Multispecies Studies
- Latin American Theater and Performance
- Latin American Urbanism, 1850-1950
- Law and Society in Latin America since 1800
- Legal History of New Spain, 16th-17th Centuries
- Legal History of the State and Church in 18th Century New ...
- LGBT Literature
- Literature, Argentinian
- Machado de Assis
- Magical Realism
- Maroon Societies in Latin America
- Marriage in Colonial Latin America
- Martí, José, and Cuba
- Menchú, Rigoberta
- Mesoamerica, The Archaeology of
- Mestizaje and the Legacy of José María Arguedas
- Mexican Nationalism
- Mexican Revolution, 1910–1940, The
- Mexican-US Relations
- Mexico, Conquest of
- Mexico, Education in
- Mexico, Health Care in 20th-Century
- Migration to the United States
- Military and Modern Latin America, The
- Military Government in Latin America, 1959–1990
- Military Institution in Colonial Latin America, The
- Mining
- Mining Extraction in Latin America
- Modern Decorative Arts and Design, 1900–2000
- Modern Populism in Latin America
- Modernity and Decoloniality
- Montevideo
- Music in Colonial Latin America
- Musical Tradition in Latin America, The
- Mystics and Mysticism
- Native Presence in Postconquest Central Peru
- Natural Disasters in Early Modern Latin America
- Neoliberalism
- Neruda, Pablo
- New Conquest History and the New Philology in Colonial Mes...
- New Left in Latin America, The
- Novel, Chronology of the Venezuelan
- Novel of the Mexican Revolution, The
- Novel, 19th Century Haitian
- Novel, The Colombian
- Nuns and Convents in Colonial Latin America
- Oaxaca, Conquest and Colonial
- Ortega, José y Gasset
- Painting in New Spain, 1521–1820
- Paraguay
- Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance)
- Pastoralism in the Andes
- Paz, Octavio
- Perón and Peronism
- Peru, Colonial
- Peru, Conquest of
- Peru, Slavery in
- Philippines Under Spanish Rule, 1571-1898
- Photography in the History of Race and Nation
- Piracy
- Political Exile in Latin America
- Ponce de León
- Popular Culture and Globalization
- Popular Movements in 19th-Century Latin America
- Portuguese-Spanish Interactions in Colonial South America
- Post Conquest Aztecs
- Post-Conquest Demographic Collapse
- Poverty in Latin America
- Preconquest Incas
- Pre-conquest Mesoamerican States, The
- Pre-Revolutionary Mexico, State and Nation Formation in
- Printing and the Book
- Prints and the Circulation of Colonial Images
- Protestantism in Latin America
- Puerto Rican Literature
- Quipu
- Religions in Latin America
- Revolution and Reaction in Central America
- Rosas, Juan Manuel de
- Sandinista Revolution and the FSLN, The
- Santo Domingo
- Science and Empire in the Iberian Atlantic
- Science and Technology in Modern Latin America
- Sephardic Culture
- Sexualities in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Slavery in Brazil
- São Paulo
- South American Dirty Wars
- South American Missions
- Spanish American Arab Literature
- Spanish and Portuguese Trade, 1500–1750
- Spanish Caribbean In The Colonial Period, The
- Spanish Colonial Decorative Arts, 1500-1825
- Spanish Florida
- Spanish Pacific, The
- Spiritual Conquest of Latin America, The
- Sports in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Studies on Academic Literacies in Spanish-Speaking Latin A...
- Telenovelas and Melodrama in Latin America
- Textile Traditions of the Andes
- 19th Century and Modernismo Poetry in Spanish America
- 20th-Century Mexico, Mass Media and Consumer Culture in
- 16th-Century New Spain
- Tourism in Modern Latin America
- Transculturation and Literature
- Trujillo, Rafael
- Tupac Amaru Rebellion, The
- United States and Castro's Cuba in the Cold War, The
- United States and the Guatemalan Revolution, The
- United States Invasion of the Dominican Republic, 1961–196...
- Urban History
- Urbanization in the 20th Century, Latin America’s
- Uruguay
- US–Latin American Relations during the Cold War
- Vargas, Getúlio
- Venezuela
- Venezuelan Literature
- Women and Labor in 20th-Century Latin America
- Women in Colonial Latin American History
- Women in Modern Latin American History
- Women's Property Rights, Asset Ownership, and Wealth in La...
- World War I in Latin America
- Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas