cactli (Mdz66r)
This example of shoes or sandals we are labeling cactli (given that there is no Nahuatl gloss to ensure the reading) shows a man's feet in profile, walking toward the viewer's right. The skin of the lower legs and feet is a purplish gray color. The shoes are white with red (perhaps leather) ties. The toes are uncovered, and the red tie hangs over the top of the foot. The shape of the bow ties is much like that of the loincloth.
Stephanie Wood
The cactli taken from the Codex Ixtlilxochitl (below) have a more elaborate design on the heel covering. This was posted to X by a UTSA student with the nickname @Tlatollotl. Googling cactli will bring up many recreations and other sandals that are called cacles in Spanish today. We can see, too, how the cactli was a precursor to modern huaraches. The Gran Diccionario Náhuatl has a large collection of images of cactli.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, by 1553 at the latest
zapatos, sandalias, huaraches, cacles
cac(tli), shoes or sandals, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cactli
Codex Mendoza, folio 66 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 142 of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
