In this chapter, intended as the second of my dissertation, I explore the Spanish invasion of Mexico and the Christian campaign against polygyny (the marriage of one man to multiple women) through the life one Nahua noblewoman, doña Catalina Chimalmantzin, the first woman in her city married in a Christian ceremony. Using the Nahuatl annals of Domingo Chimalpahin as my major source, I follow Chimalmantzin from her birth during the final decades of the Aztec Empire through the Spanish invasion in 1519 and the turbulent decade that followed. Through her life, I consider elite Nahua women’s experiences and agency through two diametrically opposed systems of marriage, precolonial Nahua polygyny and Christian monogamy.

The Spanish abolition of polygyny both radically changed how elite kinfolk related to each other and jeopardized the strategic marriage alliances that defined Nahua politics. It was a traumatic experience for most involved, destroying families and destabilizing the political order. Yet for some women specifically, I argue that Christian monogamy presented a powerful tool that could allow them to exert their will despite patriarchal subjugation. The structure of the chapter is based around the three households Chimalmantzin lived in and the three marriages she participated in. I begin with her childhood in Tlalmanalco Chalco as the daughter of the city’s reigning lord, as he experienced the growing subjugation of his Aztec overlords. I then move to Chimalmantzin’s first marriage to Huehueyotl of Amaquemecan Chalco. Despite her young age, her high nobility allowed her to dominate both her rival cowives and her husband. Huehueyotl died from disease during the early years of the Spanish military conquest, and Chimalmantzin ended up married to Huehueyotl’s younger half-brother Quetzalmazatl, a much more powerful lord. When the Franciscans forced Quetzalmazatl to choose one wife to remarry in a Christian ceremony and cast out the rest, he chose Chimalmantzin, despite her lower ranking compared to his other wives. This choice, I argue, is evidence of Chimalmantzin’s influence over her husband and her destiny. In the final section of the paper, I use Spanish colonial sources to look towards the future of monogamous marriage in Amaquemecan Chalco.

Pre-Circulated Paper and Registration

The pre-circulated paper will be available one-week prior to the workshop. The paper will be available to the Princeton University community via SharePoint. All others should request a copy of the paper by emailing Amanda Pinheiro.