The Huejotzingo Codex of 1531

The Huexotzinco Codex (Huexotzinco Codex) is an eight-sheet legal document from sixteenth-century New Spain. The document is a part of the testimony by the Nahua people from Huexotzinco in a legal case against representatives of the Spanish colonial government in Mexico. Huexotzinco is a town southeast of Mexico City. The Nahua people were allies of Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquistador's campaigns against the Aztec Empire. After the defeat of the Aztec, the people of Huexotzinco became part of Cortés's estates. During Cortés's absence from his estates in 1529-30, colonial administrators levied excessive taxes on the people of Huexotzinco. Upon Cortés's return, the Nahuas joined his legal suit against the administrators. The case eventually made its to the court of King Charles of Spain in 1538 where he sided against the administrators and ordered that two-thirds of the tribute taken from the people of Huexotzinco should be returned to them.