Abstract

This detailed 16th century lienzo (cloth painting) was created by an anonymous Nahua chronicler from the city-state of Quauhquechollan, located in present-day Puebla, Mexico. The Lienzo is a narrative map that depicts a series of alliances, battles, and events that took place from 1527 to 1529 in Mexico and Guatemala. The events shown represent an extraordinary moment in the region’s history in which people from Quauhquechollan allied themselves with Spanish colonial forces to conquer a series of southern Maya city-states. It may also be one of the oldest surviving depictions of the territory that we now call Guatemala.