[1] His Nahuatl name roughly translated to "Flamingo Snake" in English,[1] although he later adopted the Christian name, Don Jerónimo,[1] after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire of 1519–21.
The story of how Quecholcohuatl made peace with the tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, Axayacatl, is told in the Eight Relations, an annal written by Chalcan annalist, Chimalpahin.
[2] By 1479, the Chalcan people had grown tired of the hegemonic dominion of the Aztecs and wanted to join the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, Tepanecs of Tlacopan and the Acolhua of Texcoco as an allied power in the Valley of Mexico.
[1] In order to achieve this, Quecholcohuatl travelled to Tenochtitlan in 1479, accompanied by other Chalcan drummers and singers to perform for the Tlatoani, Axayacatl.
[1] The Mexica believed that the musicians came for the sole purpose of entertaining the Tlatoani, however, the performance carried a political message.
Women were seen as relatively equal to men during times of peace but were condemned to sex slavery by the victors, a sanction that passed onto her children.
She remembers that, as the children of a noblewoman, her offspring were to be rulers, something that she laments losing: "As a noble girl child, I was spoken of in connection with my marriage...
The line, "I would as soon die" (Classical Nahuatl: Manoce nimiqui), is intended to emphasise her despair upon losing any hope of raising influential children.
The song ends with the Chalcan girl offering to live with the Tlatoani without rancor, if and only if she were treated with respect:[3] "Don't let your heart take a needless tumble...