A treasured 16th-century Mexican manuscript that chronicles the history of the Aztecs through pictograms went on public display Thursday in Mexico City, nearly two centuries after it was taken to France.
The Codex Azcatitlan documents the history of the Aztec civilization, spanning from the founding of the empire to its collapse following the Spanish conquest and the introduction of Christianity.
Mexico has sought the manuscript’s return from France for years, but Paris has so far declined to hand it back.
Members of an Indigenous community that has long campaigned for the codex’s restitution expressed overwhelming joy at seeing two folios from the rare document exhibited inside a glass case at the National Museum of Anthropology.
“They hid our history from us, they stole it!” Emilia Mendoza of the Hnahnu community told AFP at the exhibition’s opening.
“This is a victory won, a first step toward recovering these books that reside in other countries,” she said.
At the inauguration, Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco described the exhibition as a way of “reuniting a people with its collective memory.”
The pictograms “represent our history, the written voice of our ancestors, and the deep root of our identity,” he said.
A Question of Belonging
Composed shortly after the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, the codex is regarded as one of the most significant records of Aztec culture.
It tells the story of the migration from Aztlan, the mythical origin of Aztec civilization, to the promised land of Tenochtitlan, the ancient city that preceded modern-day Mexico City.
Scenes rendered in vivid reds, blues, greens, and yellows depict warriors adorned in feathered headdresses and ceremonial rites performed within pyramid temples.
France’s National Library, which has held the manuscript for over a century, loaned it to Mexico to mark 200 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
However, Mexico — which has launched a broader campaign to recover colonial-era cultural objects located abroad — wants France to go further and permanently return the codex.
Since 2018, more than 16,200 items have been repatriated from various countries, according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged French President Emmanuel Macron to return the Codex Azcatitlan and another prized manuscript, the Codex Borbonicus, during Macron’s visit to Mexico last year.
“If it’s from Mexico, why isn’t it in Mexico?” asked Karen Trejo, a 28-year-old ethnohistorian, at the exhibition opening.
A Complicated History
The manuscript comprises 25 sheets of parchment imported from Europe in the 16th century and was donated to the National Library of France in 1898 by the widow of Franco-Mexican collector Eugene Goupil.
It had been brought to France half a century earlier by Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin, a French researcher who specialized in Indigenous American cultures.
The Codex Azcatitlan is one of two major volumes depicting Aztec Indigenous life held in France, alongside the Codex Borbonicus, which illustrates divinatory and solar calendars.
The Codex Borbonicus is housed in the library of the French parliament’s lower chamber, the National Assembly.
In 1982, the matter of colonial-era relics sparked tensions between Mexico and France when Mexican lawyer Jose Luis Castaneda stole another manuscript, the Codex Tonalamatl, from France’s National Library and brought it back to Mexico.
France condemned the act as theft, while Mexico celebrated the recovery and retained the document.
Both the National Assembly and the National Library maintain that they are the rightful custodians of the other codices.