The Texcoco Coat of Arms

Abstract

Abstract During the last couple of years, the Texcoco coat of arms has received much attention, yet there is no agreement on the interpretation of some of its heraldic elements or its date and authorship. In this article the author presents a new iconographic study accompanied by a review of an important part of Texcoco’s history to demonstrate that the goal of the artist who painted this coat of arms was to exalt that city’s most significant political events: Nezahualcoyotl’s conquest of the Acolhua capital of Coatlinchan and the relocation of its court to Texcoco. Various additional aspects suggest that this coat of arms pertains to the first half of the seventeenth century; they also provide clues to the possible identity of the intellectual author of this shield.