The Huexotzinco Codex or Huejotzingo Codex is an eight-sheet
document on amatl, a pre-European paper made in Mesoamerica. It
is part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives
of the colonial government in Mexico, ten years after the
Spanish conquest in 1521. Huexotzinco (Way-hoat-ZINC-o) is a
town southeast of Mexico City, in the state of Puebla. In 1521,
the Nahua Indian people of the town were the allies of the
Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés, and together they confronted
their enemies to overcome Moctezuma, leader of the Aztec Empire.
After the conquest, the Huexotzinco peoples became part of
Cortés's estates. While Cortés was out of the country from 1529
to 1530, Spanish colonial administrators intervened in the daily
activities of the community and forced the Nahuas to pay
excessive taxes in the form of goods and services. When Cortés
returned, the Nahuas joined him in a legal case against the
abuses of the Spanish administrators. The plaintiffs were
successful in their suit in Mexico, and