MEXICO: Senor y Rey

Cuauhtemoc, last of the Aztec Emperors, is one of Indian Mexico’s greatest heroes. After his desperate temple-to-temple defense of Mexico City against the Spaniards had collapsed in 1521, Cortes captured him, took him as a prisoner on a campaign of conquest through the southern jungles. There, in 1525, the conqueror had the emperor hanged. For more than 400 years, scholars have wondered what became of Cuauhtemoc’s body. Last week, in the muddy village of Ixcateopan, 120 miles southwest of Mexico City, the riddle was finally solved.

Some months ago the priest in Ixcateopan sent the National Museum a frayed and yellowed manuscript that had been brought to him by an Indian farmer whose family had preserved it through the centuries. It was signed by one of Cortes’ companions, Padre Francisco Toribio de Benavente, whom the Indians had called Motolinia (the Poor Man), because of his strict asceticism.

The document told how Motolinia and a group of Aztec warriors cut the Emperor’s corpse down from a tree, smeared it with a paste of herbs and took it hundreds of miles to Ixcateopan, Cuauhtemoc’s birthplace. There they buried the Emperor and erected a church above the crypt.

After deciphering the document and verifying its authenticity, Dr. Eulalia Guzman, the National Museum’s chief of historical research, led an expedition to Ixcateopan. There, beneath the altar of Santa Maria de Asuncion, diggers uncovered a huge stone slab with a large oval copper disc. Under a small cross at the top were the words Senor y Rey. Beneath them was the name Coatemo (one of the alternate spellings of Cuauhtemoc).

The stone covered a small vault. Within were a skull and other calcified bones, 37 beads, two rings, three cut amethysts, and a large uncut diamond. Greying, spectacled Doctor Guzman grabbed the Mexican flag from a nearby chair and ran to the door of the church. With tears in her eyes she lifted the banner-high and announced proudly: “The remains of the last Emperor of the Aztecs have been found.”