#aph texcoco

[aphmexphil]

The altepetl (city-states) that made up the Triple-Alliance, nowadays most commonly known as the "Aztecs" though this label is of relatively recent origin and was never in use during their time.

From front to back: Texcoco, Tlacopan, and Tenochtitlan. Their human names are Noxochicoztli, Teoxihuitl, and Matlalihuitl respectively if anyone's curious ;v;

It's important to remember while all three spoke Nahuatl as their main language and shared the same religion, they didn't consider themselves as belonging to the same people. Texcoco was mainly inhabited by the Acolhua, and Tlacopan by the Tepaneca which while sister groups to the Mexica (who mainly inhabited Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco) they had a distinct history and identity which is beyond the scope of this post but I hope to go over in detail someday. I find a bit of a shame that both Texcoco and Tlacopan tend to be downplayed or ignored in favor of the Mexica when they also contributed a lot to the alliance.

Fun facts(?: the prestige dialect of Nahuatl that was spoken throughout the valley of Mexico at the time is based on the Texcocan dialect. Thought by both native and non-natives alike to the most refined and elegant manner of Nahuatl speech.

In the tributary system both Tenochtitlan and Texcoco would each receive 2/5 of tribute collected, while Tlacopan would receive the remaining 1/5.

[aphmexphil]

I think I only posted this to Instagram only orz but I suppose there’s no harm in posting here as well! 

This is my Texcoco oc! Her name is Noxochicoztli (though I imagine her name upon baptism is Cristina) She represents the city-state (altepetl) of Texcoco, predominantly inhabited by the Acolhua (a Nahuatl speaking people and a sister culture to the Mexica) which was both a key player and a part of the Triple Alliance along with Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan.

(Mainly rambles as to her design below ^^;)

I had originally designed her wearing red lipstick since I read in some sources that it was popular for women to wear, but recently I read some other articles that stated that wearing lipstick was something that was frowned upon since the Nahua considered the mouth to have the potential to be erotic, and bringing attention to it (either by wearing lipstick, chewing gum in public (which among adult women only prostitutes did) or dyeing your teeth) was considered vulgar, though in others it states that it some women did wear lipstick, just stopped short of painting their teeth. Either way, I took it away to be on the safe side.

I’m not sure if it was colonial influence/meddling or if it was always controversial, like makeup is these days and seems to always have been.

Texcoco’s natural skin color is a lot darker but the fashionable shade of skin for women at the time was a yellow, and this was achieved by either using colored powders/ochre or a cream made with axin, which is a waxy substance made by drying, crushing, and cooking the bodies of fat producing insects. This yellow makeup was called Tecoçahuitl.

Her hair is also tinted since hair dyeing was very popular and it was made from the dye of local plants (indigo?) I based her clothing off of a figure of a noblewoman in the Codex Primeros Memoriales [b&w] [color]