Chimalpopoca (MH550r)

"Smoking Shield," as most translate the name, was a prominent leader in the autonomous era, with one especially prominent man with this name living in the early fifteenth century. It is interesting that boys in the mid-sixteenth century might still have been named for him, although perhaps the concept of a smoking shield was what was appealing.

This may be a simplified war shield of the ihuiteteyo design, discussed by Frances Berdan and Patricia Anawalt (The Codex Mendoza, 1992, vol. 1, Appendix G). It can come in different colors. Sometimes the symbols on this design are taken for shells. An article by Ian Mursell in Mexicolore and citing the same authors, reminds us that they are down balls, which have associations with death. He also paraphrases John Pohl, saying that the war shield was very personal, it "represented the warrior’s soul, and would generally be burned at the funeral of a dead man." We also learn from The Codex Mendoza: New Insights (2022, 24), that "the tlacuiloque drew and painted a total of eleven ihuiteteyo, one for each one of the rulers of the city."