ohuatl (HJ276:79pt2:62r)

This glyph appears as one of several images of sugar cane plants on a pictorial manuscript submitted by indigenous petitioners on or around October 9, 1549, as evidence during a land dispute between the Cuernavacan community of Tianquiztenco and the Marquesado del Valle. One of the more elaborate pictorials found in the so-called Códice del Marquesado del Valle, it pictures a total of fourteen properties, six of which are shown being planted with sugar cane and each of which appears to measure forty by one hundred twenty maitl (see contextual image). A witness confirmed that the Marqués del Valle had been raising sugar cane for two years on tierras comunes (community lands) that he allegedly confiscated from Tianquistenco. Four of the six plots where the cane is depicted sport two plant images, while the other two of the parcels only have one each, though whether or not this is meant to indicate relative density of cane plantings is unknown. For more information, see Códices indígenas de algunos pueblos del Marquesado, 1933 and 1883, “Códice núm. 6;" and Santiago Sánchez, Códices del Marquesado del Valle, 2003, 106-109.