La cartografía como relato: intervenir los mapas, narrar las ciudades

Abstract

The mystery surrounding the map of the first Aztec imperial city, published in the Latin translation of the Segunda Carta de Relación by Hernán Cortés —its origin, orientation, authorship, sense— goes with the changes that are introduced with a clear ideological bias in later reproductions by printers all over Europe. While the unaltered features are enigmatic, the new uses are not explanatory either, independent as they become from the Cortesian relation in order to illustrate more chronicles or complete the description of other American cities. The study of that conquered city map —attributed by some to Durero himself— and its fate needs to deal with the complex process by which a cartographic representation (intended to be descriptive, objective, exact) assumes the ways of a fiction or a mirage, until it stops working solely as a map to become a handful of interwoven tales.

Keywords

• Cartografía
• Relato
• Tenochtitlan
• Atribución/restitución
• Mirada colonial