Chicon (MH879r)

Like Macuil, Chicon is a popular name which seems to be a remnant from the old naming practices that came from the religious divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli. Typically, a number like five or seven would accompany a day name (such as acatl or cuauhtli). But by the time of the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, sometimes the day names were gone–and sometimes just the day name would appear with no companion number. At other times, just the number would be used and the day sign omitted. See below for other examples of the name Chicon, many of which employ the comitl (ceramic pot) as a phonetic indicator for -con. In one example, the notation is gone, and just the ceramic pot appears! There, the pot is more than just the -co-, -con-, or -com- syllable; it has become Chicon itself, probably as a result of the heavy usage of the pot for -con-. It is also conceivable that the changes in naming practices that drew from the tonalpohualli were not from forgetfulness, but as a result of the clergy discouraging the use of that calendar. Serious events in 1539 may have made Nahua tlacuilos more cautious when writing and painting about aspects of their faith even twenty-one years later. See Patricia Lopes Don for information about the Inquisition case against don Carlos Ometochtli, a Chichimecatecuhtli (or Chichimecateuctli) executed in late 1539, in Bonfires of Culture, 2010. Bradley Benton (The Lords of Tetzcoco, 2017, 46) also writes that the case “demonstrates that blatant disregard for Christianity had serious consequences.”