Changing History in the Lienzos de Guevea and Santo Domingo Petapa

The Lienzo de Guevea, an important Zapotec pictographic document from 1540, contains historical information about the geographic expanse and the lords of the indigenous community of Guevea. An extensive investigation has clarified the complex relation between the different copies or versions of this particular document. The iconographic analysis of the pictorial scenes and the study of several documents related to the lienzo (large cotton cloth) shed a new light on the form and contents of Zapotec historiography, on the indigenous perception of the local political structure, and particularly on the transformations caused by the Spanish colonization.