Moctezuma II: Symposium and Exhibition

Moctezuma II London symposium logo

With an international symposium in March followed in September by a blockbuster exhibition at the British Museum, 2009 is proving to be Moctezuma’s year! (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

On Friday March 13th at the Institute of Historical Research and on Saturday March 14th at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, an inspiring international symposium on Moctezuma II took place, organised by Dr. Elizabeth Baquedano of University College London.

The speakers, invited from Britain, USA, Mexico, Spain, Poland and France, gave the following papers (Friday in Spanish):-
• José Contel (Université du Littoral, Cote d’Oppale): Ahuitzotl o la Predestinación de un Tlatoani: Ensayo sobre el nombre de los Reyes Aztecas
• Juan José Batalla (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): La representación de Motecuhzoma II en los códices: contextos en los que aparece figurado y análisis historiográfico
• Patrick Lesbre (Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail): Entrevista entre Moctezuma y Nezahualpilli: Augurio de la Conquista
• Katarzyna Mikulska (Universidad de Varsovia): Escapando a Cincalco: las facultades (no) divinas de Moctezuma Xocoytzin

(Saturday in English):-
• Nicholas James (Independent Scholar): Urban crisis: Manners in Tenochtitlan
• Elizabeth Graham (Institute of Archaeology, UCL): Warfare and the Faces of Tribute
• Patrick Hajovsky (University of Texas at San Antonio): Moctezuma’s Portrait at Chapultepec
• Elizabeth Baquedano (Institute of Archaeology, UCL): Fit for a King: Gold among the Aztec élite
• Emily Umberger (Arizona State University): Aztec Historical Thought: Moctezuma II and the Conquest of Mexico
• Stacie Widdifield (University of Arizona): Moctezuma in the 19th Century: from Archaeology to diplomacy
• Patrick Johansson (Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Autónoma de México): Moctezuma’s Death: history and mythology

Many insights were offered in the presentations:
- Juan José Batalla drew our attention to several of the anomalies and pitfalls in interpreting images and references to Moctezuma in the codex record that have been added/later retouched/falsified or even simply missing where we would expect to find them
- Patrick Lesbre explored the relationship between Moctezuma and the great Texcocan king Netzahualpilli (who gave M lessons in star reading and in dignity and strong leadership...); did you know that M and N played the ballgame together? (N one 2-0!)
- Katarzyna Mikulska explored the supernatural abilities that ‘men-gods’ such as M and N were believed to possess
- Patrick Hajovsky interpreted the steadily fading clues on the badly eroded sculpted portrait of Moctezuma II on Chapultepec hill: he stressed the value of older photographs of the monument, such as those on this page, taken in 1968 by Werner Forman

Two highlights for Mexicolore, however, were undoubtedly
• Nicholas James’s brilliant analysis - illustrated entirely and to great effect by one simple line drawing by the hugely influential Mexican illustrator Alberto Beltrán - of Aztec ‘sumptuary rules’ (essentially, ‘dressing to impress...’) alongside the traditional emphasis on modesty and reserve, in a fast-growing and ever more complex and anonymous metropolis - and
• Patrick Johansson’s penetrating study - and a fine ending to the symposium - of how to interpret the few ‘facts’ and the abundant mythology surrounding Moctezuma’s death: more important than what actually happened is grasping - from the Aztec/Mexica perspective - the way it should have happened...

The symposium - the timing for which Dr. Baquedano stressed was coincidental to the exhibition - provided a welcome backdrop to the major British Museum exhibition scheduled for the autumn of 2009. The last in the BM series on great rulers, the exhibition has already been promoted in the media as posing a challenge to established views of Moctezuma’s last days: according to The Guardian,
New exhibition challenges view of Aztec emperor Moctezuma as traitor - contrary to popular belief, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma was murdered by his Spanish captors and not by his own people, the British Museum will argue in a new exhibition that will try to rehabilitate the emperor’s image as a traitor.
It promises to be a blockbuster...

Mexicolore will be running workshop sessions for schools in support of the exhibition, in November/December 2009 and January 2010. See us there...!

Picture sources:-
• Symposium photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Line drawings of Moctezuma and ‘Cortés and Montezuma’ scanned from Indian Races..., op.cit. (private collection)
• Photos of Moctezuma’s sculpted portrait and of his headdress (original in Vienna) courtesy of the Werner-Forman Archive