Singing in the Mexica Royal Court: The Chalca Woman’s Song In 1479 and 1564

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, singing was an important political tool for commoners and other city-states (altepemeh) to communicate grievances to the Mexica nobility. In general, we have limited historical resources to understand the specific political context of how and why songs were sung. However, several Nahuatl language songs preserved in the sixteenth-century manuscript the Cantares Mexicanos, and descriptions from Nahuatl language annals (xiuhpohualli, or year counts) give us strong hints about deeper political meanings and contexts.

One song, “the Chalca Woman’s Song” (Chalcacihuacuicatl), was performed in the years 1479 and 1564 publicly to the Mexica nobility. By comparing the surviving lyrics to the two historical descriptions we learn that this song was invoked to make important public statements about justice, taxation, and oppression. This political positioning was articulated into a metaphorical context of what it was like being a Nahua woman, even though we know the song was performed by a Nahua man.

This paper explores new historical terrain on one of the most discussed Nahuatl songs in the context of the public performance of music in Mexica society before and after the arrival of the Spanish.