Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin

Tlacotzin, a grandson of Tlacaelel, held like him the office of cihuacoatl — chief counsellor — under Moctezuma II and Cuauhtémoc. As Cuauhtémoc's general during the siege of Tenochtitlan he was a key negotiator between the beleaguered Aztecs and Hernán Cortés.

After the city fell he became one of Cortés's trusted men, was made ruler of Moyotlan — the largest of Tenochtitlan's four districts, today the Barrio de San Juan in Mexico City — and was baptised Juan Velázquez Tlacotzin, as the Crónica Mexicayotl records. He directed the reconstruction of the city and had its first market built near his own residence. Little noted by historians, he played a privileged role in the first years of Spanish rule.

Taken along on Cortés's expedition to the Hibueras (Honduras) in 1524 with Cuauhtémoc and other Mexica nobles, he and Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuh warned Cortés of a planned revolt; Cortés executed Cuauhtémoc and named Tlacotzin his successor as huey tlatoani, presenting him with Spanish weapons and a white horse. He never ruled: he died of an illness at Nochixtlan in 1526, on the way home, and his subjects, mindful of his non-royal birth, remembered him as a cuauhtlatoani, an interim "eagle ruler".

Sources

Facts in this profile are drawn from the Wikipedia article(s) linked below, consulted on 21 September 2026; the text is original. Wikipedia (English) · Wikipedia (Spanish)

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