Aztec Autumn

more attentively, for he had really informative things to tell. For example, Pochotl provided my first knowledge of the orders and ranks and authorities by which New Spain was ruled and governed.

'The very topmost personage,' he said, 'is a certain man named Carlos, who resides back in what the Spaniards call the Old World. He is sometimes referred to as 'king,' sometimes as 'emperor,' sometimes as 'the crown' or 'the court.' But clearly he is the equivalent of a Revered Speaker, such as we Mexica once had. A good many years ago, that king sent ships full of warriors to conquer and colonize a place called Cuba, which is a very large island in the Eastern Sea, somewhere beyond the horizon.'

'I have heard of it,' I said. 'It is now populated by varicolored mongrel bastards.'

He blinked and said, 'What?'

'No matter. Go on, please, Cuatl Pochotl.'

'From that Cuba, about twelve or thirteen years ago, came hither that Carlos's captain-general Hernan Cortes, to lead the conquest of our One World. Cortes naturally expected that the king would make him lord and master of all he conquered. However, it is now common knowledge that there were many dignitaries in Spain, and many of his own officers, who were jealous of Cortes's presumption. They persuaded the king to clamp a firm restraining hand on him. So now Cortes holds only the grand but empty title of Marques del Valle—of this Valley of Mexico—and the real rulers are the members of what they call the Audiencia, or what in the old days would have been a Revered Speaker's Speaking Council. Cortes has retired in disgust to his estate south of here, in Quaunahuac—'

I interrupted. 'I understand that place is no longer called Quaunahuac.'

'Well, yes and no. Our name for it, Surrounded by Forest, is pronounced by the Spaniards Cuernavaca, which is ridiculous. It means 'Cow's Horn' in their tongue. Anyway, Cortes now sits sulking on his fine estate there. I do not know why he should sulk. His herds of sheep and his plantations of the sugar-yielding cane and the tribute he still receives from numerous tribes and nations—all of that has made him the wealthiest man in New Spain. Perhaps in all the dominions of Spain.'

'I am not much interested,' I said, 'in the intrigues and exploitations that the white men concoct and inflict among themselves. Nor in the riches they have laid up for themselves. Tell me the details of the hold they have on us.'

'There are many who do not find that grip too onerous,' said Pochotl. 'I mean those who have always been the lower classes. Peasants and laborers and such. They so seldom raise their eyes from their toil that they may not yet have noticed that their masters have changed color.'

He went on to elaborate. New Spain was governed by the councilmen of the Audiencia, but, every so often, their King Carlos would send across the sea a royal inspector called a visitador, to make sure the Audiencia was properly attending to its business. The visitadores reported back to a council in Old Spain, the Consejo de los Indios. That council was purportedly responsible for protecting the rights of all in New Spain, natives and Spaniards alike, so it could change or amend or overrule any laws made by the Audiencia.

'I personally believe, though,' said Pochotl, 'that the Consejo exists mainly to make sure that the quinto gets paid.'

'The quinto?'

'The King's Fifth. Every time a quill measure of gold dust or a handful of sugar is extracted from our land—or cacao beans or cotton or anything else—one fifth of it is set aside for the king, before any others get their share of it.'

The Audiencia's laws and regulations made in the City of Mexico, Pochotl continued to explain, were passed along for enforcement by Spanish officials called corregidores, posted in the major communities throughout New Spain. And those officials, in turn, enjoined the encomenderos residing in their districts to abide by those laws and see that they were obeyed by the native population.

'The encomenderos, of course, are usually Spanish,' he said, 'but not all of them. Some are the survivors or descendants of our own onetime overlords. The son and two daughters of Motecuzoma, for instance, as soon as they converted to Christianity and took Spanish names—Pedro, Isabel and Leonor—they were given encomiendas. So was Prince Black Flower, the son of Nezahualpili, the late, great and sincerely lamented Revered Speaker of Texcoco. That son fought on the side of the white men during their conquest, so he is now Hernando Black Flower, and a wealthy encomendero.'

I said, 'Encomendero. Encomienda. What are those?'

'An encomendero is one who has been granted an encomienda. And that is a territory of varying size, within which the encomendero is master. The cities or towns or villages within that area pay him tribute in money or goods, all who grow or produce anything give him a share of it, all are subject to his command, whether to build him a mansion, to till his fields for him, to tend his livestock, to hunt or fish for him, even to lend him their wives or daughters, if he demands. Or their sons, I suppose, if it is a female encomendera of lascivious tastes. An encomienda does not include the land, only everything and everybody on it.'

'Of course,' I said. 'How could anyone own land? Own a piece of the world? The notion is beyond belief.'

'Not to the Spaniards,' said Pochotl, raising a cautionary hand. 'Some of them were granted what is called an estancia, and that does include the land. It can even be bequeathed from one generation to the next. The Marques Cortes, for example, owns not just the people and produce of Quaunahuac, but also the very ground under the whole of it. And his former concubine Malinche, that traitress to her own people, is now respectfully entitled the Widow Jaramillo and owns an entire, immense river island as her estancia.'

'It is against all reason,' I growled. 'Against all nature. No person can claim to possess the smallest fragment of the world. It was put here by the gods, it is managed by the gods. In times past, it has been purged of people by the gods. It belongs only to the gods.'

'Would that the gods would purge it again, then,' said Pochotl with a sigh. 'Of white people, I mean.'

'Now, the encomienda I can understand,' I went on. 'It is no more than our own rulers did. Collect tribute, conscript workers. I do not know of any who demanded partners for their beds, but I suppose they could have done, if they had wanted to. And I can understand why you say that many persons nowadays do not perceive any difference in the change of masters from—'

'I said the lower classes,' Pochotl reminded me. 'What the Spaniards call indios rusticos—clods, bumpkins, priests of our old religion, other persons easily dispensable. But I am of the class called indios pallos—persons of quality. And, by Huitztli, I perceive the difference. So does every other artist and artisan and scribe and—'

'Yes, yes,' I said, for I could recite his lamentations almost as well as he, by now. 'And what of this city, Pochotl? It must constitute the biggest and richest encomienda of all. To whom was it granted? To the Bishop Zumarraga, perhaps?'

'No, but sometimes you would think he owned it. Tenochtitlan—excuse me, the City of Mexico—is the encomienda of the crown. Of the king himself. Carlos. From the things made here and the things traded here—every commodity from slaves to sandals, and every last copper maravedi of profit realized therefrom—Carlos takes not just the King's Fifth, but everything. Including all the precious gold and silver I had worked all my life to—'

'Yes, yes,' I said again.

'Also, of course,' he went on, 'any citizen can be commanded to cease his occupation of earning his livelihood, to help dig or build or pave for the king's city's improvement. Most of Carlos's buildings are completed now. But that is why the bishop had to wait impatiently for the start of his Cathedral Church, and why it is still under construction. And I believe Zumarraga works his laborers harder than ever the king's builders did.'

'So... as I see it...' I said pensively, 'any revolt would best be fomented first among the so-called rusticos. Stir them up to overthrow their masters on the estancias and encomiendas. Only then would we persons of the higher classes turn against the Spanish higher classes. The pot must start to boiling—as a pot does in actuality—from the bottom up.'

'Ayya, Tenamaxtli!' He grabbed at his hair in exasperation. 'Are you again thumping that same flabby drum? I assumed you would abandon that nonsensical idea of rebellion, now that you are such a