Townsend - Fifth sun: a new history of the Aztecs

As the Aztecs well knew, no one ever accomplishes anything alone. Certainly I owe my ability to write this book to the hundreds of people whose lives have touched mine along the waythose who raised me and loved me, educated me or studied with me, worked with me as colleagues, or shared their knowledge of early Latin America. The list is so long, and the influences so varied, that I sometimes find the thought overwhelming. Please know, every one of you, that I feel the gratitude I should, and like the Aztecs, hope to pay my debt to the universe through the way I live my life and my efforts on behalf of the people of the future.

There are two groups of people who have helped me so much on this project that I must call out their names individually. One group consists of the Nahuatl scholars whose work made this book possible. I dedicated the last book I published to two recently deceased intellectual giants, James Lockhart and Luis Reyes Garca, whose translations of Nahuatl texts formed the bedrock of much of my own work. In those pages I also referenced my gratitude to the late Inga Clendinnen and Sabine MacCormack. It has occurred to me since that I should not wait for people to pass away to the next world before speaking aloud of my debts. I deeply thank Michel Launey and Rafael Tena, two modest men who have made breath-taking contributions with their work in Nahuatl. You remind me of Nanahuatzin, though I certainly hope you have not felt your work to be a sacrifice.

The other group includes the Mexican intellectualsteachers, professors, researchers, writers, publishers, and filmmakerswho in the past few years have personally welcomed my contributions and offered me their own, thereby enriching this book immeasurably. I humbly thank (in alphabetical order) Sergio Casas Candarabe, Alberto Corts Caldern, Margarita Flores, Ren Garca Castro, Lidia Gmez Garca, Edith Gonzlez Cruz, Mara Teresa Jarqun Ortega, Marco Antonio Landavazo, Manuel Lucero, Hector de Maulen Rodrguez, Erika Pani, Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, Marcelo Uribe, and Ernesto Velzquez Briseo. Your combination of pride in your heritage, openness to others, and intellectual acumen have inspired me more than I can say.

I must not wax poetic and omit to mention matters of daily sustenance; the Aztecs certainly would never have been been so nave. Years ago, the American Philosophical Society awarded a grant that allowed me to travel to the Bibliothque nationale de France and see the work of don Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza. I got the bug and have pursued the Nahuatl annals ever since. More recently, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and a sabbatical from Rutgers University allowed me to do the necessary research in the genre as a whole. A Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for the Humanities made it possible for me to take a year off from teaching and write, day in and day out.

The research would not have been possible without the years of painstaking work accomplished by the staffs of the institutions that safeguard the annals and other important texts. A number of them made me welcome over the yearsthe Library and Archive of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia in Mexico City, the Bibliothque nationale de France, the British Library, the Library of Uppsala University in Sweden, the New York Public Library, and the Library of the American Museum of Natural History.

I thank my family for being who they are. My sister, Cynthia, and sister-in-law, Patricia, are the bravest of women. Your children and grandchildren will speak of you with love and admiration. My partner, John, and my two sons, Loren and Cian, have made me proud to know them as they have faced lifes challenges. For years now, the three of you have shared me with many othersstudents, aging parents, former foster children, and the historical figures who live in my mindbut it is you who are my precious beloveds, always.