VARIETY
Laurette Sejourne
THE BONES OF CUATEMOC
The bones were found last fall
in the state of Guerrero. On Sep–
tember 27, Eulalia Guzman, Di–
rector of Historical Archives, un–
earthed, under the altar of the
church in the little town of Ich–
cateopan, a copper plate bearing
the inscription: S. E. COATE–
MOC. She had gotten a hint from
a document that had turned up
in the town a little earlier. Con–
tinuing to dig, she next brought up
some human bones that had been
placed in a hole cut into the rock.
Everybody was sure that Senora
Guzman had found the remains
of Cuatemoc, the last king of the
Arztecs, precisely as the document
-which was signed, "Motolinia,"
and bore a sixteenth-century date–
had indicated.
There was a veritable explosion
of emotion in the town. Excite–
ment approached delirium. People
wept and kissed each other in the
streets. The church bells rang out
widely to spread the great news to
the countryside. Eulalia Guzman,
at the head of a joyous procession,
marched through the streets car–
rying a Mexican flag. It was a
great victory. The legendary last
Aztec king had been delivered
761
from the shadow of oblivion in
which his bones had rested for
more than four centuries.
I t had all begun the preceding
February (1949), when the local
priest, speaking from his pulpit,
had told his flock that the bones of
Cuatemoc were preserved in their
church. He had the information
from the last recipient of a "liv–
ing letter," as those documents are
called that are handed down from
one generation to another. In–
structed in a dream, this man
revealed the secret to his priest,
who made it public.
When the news reached the Na–
tional Institute of Anthropology in
Mexico City, Senora Guzman was
sent to Ichcateopan to investigate
on the spot. The documents she
first brought back were examined
by archaeologists and pronounced
false--that is, not dating from the
sixteenth century. Returning to
the village to make new inquiries,
she ran across an oral tradition,
bearing likewise on the secret of
Cuatemoc, which a dozen old peo–
ple, all aged eighty or more, had
been jealously guarding. Finally,
she turned up a document which
revealed that Cuatemoc's bones
were buried under the altar of
the church.
The discovery made a sensation
throughout Mexico. A number of
eminent scientists and politicians
went to Ichcateopan. The Gov–
ernor of Guerrero ordered all the
