Forty Years of Rule, and a Dyke Across the Lake

Set the theology aside and a solid political career remains. Nezahualcóyotl was the son of Ixtlilxóchitl I of Texcoco, who was killed by Tezozómoc of Azcapotzalco while his son was still young. He spent years in exile in Tlaxcala and Tenochtitlan, returned in the war that broke Azcapotzalco, and was installed at Texcoco in 1431 as one of the three partners of the alliance with Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan. He ruled until 1472. Under him Texcoco held the eastern side of the lake, kept its own body of law, and acquired a reputation among later Nahua writers as the place where the learned went. The engineering is the least disputed part of the record. A dyke some sixteen kilometres long was built across Lake Texcoco to hold the brackish eastern water away from the fresh water around Tenochtitlan, and it is credited to him working with the Mexica ruler Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina.

The gardens, terraces and waterworks at Tetzcotzinco on the hillside above his city are archaeologically visible and can still be walked, which makes them the one part of his legend that can be checked with the feet. His son Nezahualpilli succeeded him and ruled until 1515, so the Texcocan court that the colonial writers remembered was in place for the better part of a century, which is one reason so much tradition attached itself to it.