Acatlan (T2680:19:9r)

Acatlan’s glyph appears in the upper right-hand corner of the map (the direction “east” in its orientation). It is linked to a drawing of a church, a semantic indicator that this is a “pueblo,” a statement seconded by the alphabetic gloss appearing just to the right of the building’s bell tower (see the gloss and the historical contextualizing image). This structure undoubtedly represents the Augustinian monastery church of San Miguel Arcángel The church is outlined in black and filled with gray and brown shading. It has a large arched doorway connected with a curving road glossed as a Camino Real edged in black lines and filled with tan pigment that also sports a series of human footprints. The church has a round window flanked by two smaller arched openings above the door and is topped by a bell tower surmounted by an orb and cross. The side walls of the church are shown in perspective. All of this betrays a fair amount of Spanish artistic influence in its composition. The map itself was included among a relatively small number of Spanish-language folios concerning a request submitted to the viceregal authorities by the Spaniard Melchor de Carejas for a grant of a sitio de estancia para ganado menor (site for a small livestock—in this case cabras [goats]). In 1564 the request was investigated and witness testimony was taken, all of which characterized the proposed goat ranch as posing no threat to the wellbeing of the people of Acatlan or their agricultural lands. The pueblo’s gobernador at the time, don Domingo de Alvarado, was informed of these proceedings, but neither he nor any other Indigenous town council members seem to have resisted the grant.