California State University (CSU): Open Journal Systems

Báez, Eliot

Spanish

El Heraldo, 2018.

Martínez, Katherine

TRUMP

Huffman, Alice A.

Journal of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies - Vol. 7 No. 1, May 2018
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CRITICAL ANALYSIS 
The Neoliberal Attack on the Public Education of 
Students of Color 
Alice A. Hufman, California Hawaii NAACP President 
In the late 19th century, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision
sustained a legal standard of separate but equal. The 
unfortunate result was a continuation of laws that 
relegated children to racially separate and unequal 
schools in the Jim Crow South. For almost 70 years, 
students of color dwelled in the valley of government-
funded inferior legal education. Then, in 1954, the 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People (NAACP) victory in Brown v. Board struck down 
the separate but equal doctrine. 
The negative reaction by Whites to integration 
that I experienced was deep and profound. In the
South, public schools were closed. Home schooling 
and voucher segregation academies fourished
purposefully to block integration and specifcally 
drain funds from public schools serving African 
American students. In the North, segregation and 
redlining by neighborhood persisted. Additionally, 
policies were created to promote small segregated 
schools within large public schools—which 
still gave White students a separate, privileged 
schooling experience. Due to “White fight” 
from cities, the suburbs grew rapidly and school 
funding mushroomed in predominately White
neighborhoods. With the funding came quality 
teachers and an abundance of resources in schools. 
The opposite was true in the urban core of the cities. 
Despite these setbacks, schools serving students 
of color that remained in the inner city tried various 
school choice strategies to halt the White fight. 
Magnet schools were one of the most innovative 
approaches that were created initially to promote
integration. Unfortunately, since that time, magnet 
schools have largely failed to realize their promise as 
mechanisms of equity and inclusion as they became 
increasingly selective and less integrated. 
After Brown, Milton Friedman and other White 
academics wrote about giving every student a 
voucher so they could choose a privately managed
school in an education market. The frst major push 
to bring these economic ideas into reality occurred 
during the late 1980s and 1990s. Proponents of 
school privatization tried to pass school vouchers in
California, Texas, Pennsylvania and many other states. 
A grand bargain was struck in many states when a 
diferent market-based school choice option was 
codifed by legislatures instead—charter schools. 
Charter schools have grown rapidly since their 
inception in Minnesota in 1991. There are now 
thousands of charter schools serving millions of
students in the United States. I chaired the NAACP’s 
Task Force on High Quality Education, and our 
concluding report found that that during the past
decade the number of students in charter schools has 
nearly tripled, with approximately 3.1 million students 
enrolled in 2016-17. We also found that 1 in 8 African 
American students now attends a charter in the 
United States—more than any other race/ethnicity 
(NAACP, 2017).
Considering the rapid growth and growing
critiques of charter schools—many of which are 
represented in this special volume for the Journal 
of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies 
(JTLPS)—public school supporters are engaged in 
a heated discourse with the private sector about 
who should educate urban students of color.
Neighborhood public schools are caught in the 
crossfre of neoliberal privatization and private control
push for charters that has recently swept through 
sectors such as healthcare, energy and prisons. Titans 
of industry, hedge funds, and private entrepreneurs
are using market-based school choice to wrest away 
control of the nation’s annual $5 billon school budget 
from democratic control and the public sector. 
Neighborhood public schools are also the center 
of an attack being waged by wealthy foundations 
that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in 
support of privately controlled schools. Billionaires
13 
Journal of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies - Vol. 7 No. 1, May 2018
 
 
 
 
Hufman The Neoliberal Attack on the Public Education of Students of Color 
such as the Walton Family, the Koch Brothers, Eli 
Broad, Bill Gates and others profer that a market-
based system benefts and improves public schools 
for urban students of color. Their argument is a 
ruse. The critical research in this special volume was 
recently underscored by testimony gathered by
our NAACP Task Force on High Quality Education 
from communities across the nation. The voices 
from communities most impacted by charters (New 
Orleans, Detroit et al.) in the aforementioned report 
demonstrated that the market-based school choice 
movement is dedicated to competitive ideals that are 
antithetical to a public education committed to serve 
all students regardless of their needs or cost. 
This could be the last big push to save 
neighborhood public schools and democratic 
control of public education. Here is why. We’ve 
allowed the constant bashing of public education 
in the inner cities to distort its efectiveness and 
undermine its essential mission and funding. Titans 
of industry, hedge funds, and private entrepreneurs
used a test-score driven accountability to weave a 
narrative of global public education failure to seize 
the opportunity to proft. America should pause and 
examine the privatization path we are now pursuing. 
This issue of JTLPS undertakes this task. I commend 
the scholars’ work in this special volume. It is clear 
that they are committed to the American ideal of 
public education and have carefully studied the 
opportunities and the challenges that plague charter
schools today. 
Public education was originally founded to lift up 
the American citizenry. While signifcant challenges 
still remain for urban students of color, writ large, our 
system of public education should be commended
because our nation is still the most powerful on 
the planet and is one of the most productive in the 
history of any modern society. We must not allow the 
mission of public education—having a well-informed, 
active citizenry to reach a more perfect union—to 
be co-opted to empower the pursuit of private-
management, privatization and proft on the backs of 
students of color. 
REFERENCES 
NAACP Task Force on Quality Education Hearing 
Report, 2017. Retrieved from http://www. 
naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Task_ 
ForceReport_fnal2.pdf 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Alice A. Hufman is a grassroots leader at 
the local and national levels, a manager, and 
consultant. She is the president of the California 
Hawaii NAACP, a member of the National Board 
of the NAACP, and was the Chairperson of the 
NAACP Task Force on High Quality Education. 
14 


English

The Neoliberal Attack on the Public Education of Students of Color

We study the link between groups and graphs created by considering the commuting graph of a group. We focus our efforts on groups that can be represented as the semidirect product of cyclic groups, and we describe the commuting graphs of two classes of such groups

Gonzalez, Erick

Commuting Graphs of Split Metacyclic Groups
E. Gonzalez
Abstract - We study the link between groups and graphs created by considering the
commuting graph of a group. We focus our efforts on groups that can be represented as the
semidirect product of cyclic groups, and we describe the commuting graphs of two classes
of such groups.
Keywords : commuting graph of a group; semidirect product; split metacyclic group
Mathematics Subject Classification (2010) : 05C25
This note is organized as follows. In Section 1 we recall a few definitions. In Section
2 we work with dihedral-like groups, and in Section 3 we approach groups with more
complex structure.
1 Background
Given a group G, the center of G is
Z(G) = {g ∈ G; gx = xg, for all x ∈ G}.
Clearly, G is abelian if and only if Z(G) = G. When G is not abelian, we define the
commuting graph of G, denoted C(G) by having vertex-set G\Z(G) and edges connecting
vertices g1 and g2 if and only if g1g2 = g2g1.
In this note we obtain a simple presentation of C(G) in the case G is a semidirect
product of certain cyclic groups. In this way, we generalize results obtained in [1], [5], [6],
and [7].
A well-known object in group theory is the semidirect product of two groups (see, e.g.,
[2]). Since we will work with groups of this type, we define them next. Let H and K be
groups and let φ : K → Aut(H) be a homomorphism. In order to avoid confusion, we
will use the notation φ(k) = φk. Let G = H ×K be endowed with the operation:
(h, k)(a, b) = (hφk(a), kb)
This multiplication makes G into a group, called the semidirect product of H and K,
with respect to φ. We will denote this group by H oφ K. It is known that if a group
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 62
G has two subgroups, H and K, so that HK = G, H E G, and H ∩ K = {e}, then
G ∼= H oφ K, for some φ.
We recall now the definition of split metacyclic groups, which are semidirect products
of cyclic groups:
Definition 1.1 [3] A group is called split metacyclic if it has the following presentation:
Gα,β,γ =< a, b; a
α = bβ = 1, aba−1 = bγ >,
where α, β, γ ∈ N, and β|γα − 1 (note that this implies that gcd(β, γ) = 1).
We remark that these groups are called metacyclic on page 462 of [4]. As remarked in
[3], the integers α, β, γ do not identify the isomorphism type of the group. The example
given in [3] is G6,36,19 ' G18,12,7, but a simpler example is G3,7,2 ' G3,7,4 (see the discussion
at the beginning of Section 3).
We have that Gα,β,γ = ZβoφZα, where φ ∈ Aut(Zβ) is defined by φ(b) = bγ (we write
the operation of Zβ as multiplication instead of addition).
2 Dihedral-like Groups
We start by considering dihedral-like groups, which are split metacyclic groups Gi2n =
Gn,2,i with i > 1. By Definition 1.1, it follows that they can be presented as
Gi2n =< s, r; r
n = s2 = e, srs−1 = ri >
where n, i ∈ N, n > 1, and 1 < i < n (i = 1 is uninteresting to us in this paper, as
G12n ' Zn × Z2 is abelian) satisfies i2 ≡ 1(mod n). In conclusion, we can simply say that
i has order 2 modulo n. Note that Gi2n ' ZnoZ2, for every i, and that Gn−12n ' D2n (the
standard dihedral group of order 2n).
Lemma 2.1 Let n, i ∈ N, 1 < i < n, and d = gcd(i − 1, n). Then, Z(Gi2n) =< rn/d >,
and thus |Z(Gi2n)| = d.
Proof. Assume that srk ∈ Z(Gi2n). This element would commute with every element of
the form rj. Hence, we get
srk+j = (srk)(rj) = (rj)(srk) = s(srjs)rk = srijrk = srij+k
It follows that k + j ≡ ij + k (mod n), and thus j ≡ ij (mod n), for every j. This is
false, and so srk /∈ Z(Gi2n), for all k.
Now we assume that rk ∈ Z(Gi2n). This element commutes with, at least, all elements
of the form rj. We only need to check when it would commute with s. We get
srk = rk s = s(srks) = srik
and thus k ≡ ik (mod n), which implies n | k(i− 1). It follows that n
d
divides k · i−1
d
, but
this implies that n
d
divides k. Hence, k has the form n
d
t, for t = 1, 2, . . . , d. 
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 63
Theorem 2.2 Let n, i ∈ N, 1 < i < n, and d = gcd(i − 1, n). Then, C(Gi2n) is the
disjoint union of d+ 1 complete graphs; one Kn−d and nd copies of Kd.
Proof. The vertex-set of C(Gi2n) contains all the elements of the form srk, and the
elements rk, for k 6= n
d
t, for t = 1, 2, . . . , d.
We know that elements in < r > commute with each other. Now, none of the elements
in < r > \ < rn/d > commutes with elements of the form srk, as if any did then they would
commute with s, and thus would be in the center. Hence, elements in < r > \ < rn/d >
commute only among themselves. This yields a complete graph on n − d vertices in
C(Gi2n).
Next we check when (srk)(srj) = (srj)(srk) occurs. Assuming this, we get:
rik+j = rikrj = (srks)rj = (srk)(srj) = (srj)(srk) = (srjs)rk = rijrk = rij+k
which implies ik + j ≡ ij + k (mod n). We re-write this equation as i(k − j) ≡ k − j
(mod n), and notice that this equation was already solved in the proof of Lemma 2.1. It
follows that k − j has the form n
d
t, for t = 1, 2, . . . , d. This yields n
d
complete graphs on
d vertices in C(Gi2n). 
Remark 2.3 Since we know that the structure of C(Gi2n) is a disjoint union of complete
graphs, it is now easy to find standard values associated to graphs, such as the mini-
mum/maximum degree, diameter, chromatic number, etc. These parameters were part of
the motivation given by authors in [1], [5], [6], and [7].
3 Groups of Order nq, for q Prime and n | q − 1
We start by recalling a well-known construction. Consider a non-abelian group Gpq, of
order pq, where p and q are odd primes and p < q. Since Gpq is non-abelian, we must
have that p | q − 1, Z(Gpq) = {e}, and Gpq ∼= Zq o Zp. Moreover, the structure of Gpq
does not depend on φ (see [2], Section 5.5), and so we can present it as follows:
Gpq =< x, y; x
q = yp = e, yxy−1 = xz >
where z has order p in Z∗q. With the notation of Definition 1.1, we have that Gpq = Gp,q,z
for all z 6= 1.
Instead of considering this group, we will next look at the non-abelian split metacyclic
group Gn,q,z, where q is an odd prime and z has order n modulo q − 1. We will denote
such a group by Gznq. This is a non-abelian group, of order nq, isomorphic to Zq oφ Zn,
for some homomorphism φ : Zn → Aut(Zq), and has the following presentation
Gznq =< x, y; x
q = yn = e, yxy−1 = xz >
where 1 < z < q has order n modulo q. That is, gcd(z, q) = 1, zn ≡ 1 (mod q), and
zi 6≡ 1 (mod q), for all 1 ≤ i < n. Note that this implies that n|q − 1.
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 64
Remark 3.1 In Gznq, we get
yjxy−j = yj−1(yxy−1)y−j+1 = yj−1(xz)y−j+1 = (yj−1xy−j+1)z
and so, an induction argument yields
yjxy−j = xz
j
for all j ∈ N. Note that the expression above also works for j = 0.
Next, we find the general structure of C(Gznq).
Theorem 3.2 Let n, q, z ∈ N, where q is an odd prime, n | q − 1, and 1 < z < q has
order n modulo q. Then, Z(Gznq) = {e} and C(Gznq) consists of q + 1 disjoint graphs: one
Kq−1, and q copies of Kn−1.
Proof. Fix the element xa ∈ Gznq, where 0 < a < q. Clearly xa commutes with all the
elements in < x >. Now we will see what other elements commute with xa. We take yj,
where 0 < j < n, and assume xa commutes with it. We get:
xayj = yjxa
xa = yjxay−j
xa = (yjxy−j)a
xa = xa·z
j
which implies a ≡ a · zj (mod q). Since q is prime and 0 < a < q, we get that zj ≡ 1
(mod q). However, 0 < j < n and the order of z modulo q is n, a contradiction. It follows
that xa commutes only with the elements in < x >. Hence, Z(Gzpq)∩ < x >= {e}, and
thus that the degree of xa in C(Gznq) is q − 2 (we do not count e and xa). Moreover, the
vertex-set < x > \{e} induces a complete graph on q − 1 vertices in C(Gznq).
Similarly, the vertex-set < y > \{e} induces a complete graph on n − 1 vertices in
C(Gznq). These two complete graphs are disjoint from all other vertices in C(Gznq).
Now fix the element xayb ∈ Gznq, where 0 < a < q and 0 < b < n. Assume it commutes
with xiyj, where 0 < i < q and 0 < j < n. One of the products yields:
(xiyj)(xayb) = xi(yjxay−j)yjyb
= xi(yjxy−j)ayj+b
= xixa·z
j
yj+b
= xi+a·z
j
yj+b
Thus, assuming (xiyj)(xayb) = (xayb)(xiyj) implies xi+a·z
j
yj+b = xa+i·z
b
yj+b. Hence,
those two elements commute if and only if
i+ a · zj ≡ a+ i · zb (mod q)
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 65
which can be re-written as
a(zj − 1) ≡ i(zb − 1) (mod q) (1)
We want to solve Equation (1) for i and j, under the assumptions of a, b, q, z are given,
and that 0 < a, i < q and 0 < b, j < n. However, instead of doing that, we will only count
how many solutions we can find for a fixed pair a, b.
Note that none of the four factors in Equation (1) are congruent to zero modulo q,
either by assumption or because the order of z modulo q is larger than both b and j.
Hence, once 0 < j < n is fixed and using that q is prime, there is exactly one solution
(modulo q) for i, namely
a(zj − 1)(zb − 1)−1 ≡ i (mod q)
where (zb − 1)−1 is the inverse of (zb − 1) modulo q.
It follows that xayb commutes with exactly n− 1 elements of Gnq, one of them being
itself. Moreover, none of these elements is in the center of Gnq because each one of them
commutes with only n− 1 elements. It follows that the degree of xayb in C(Gnq) is n− 2.
Finally, we re-write
a(zj − 1) ≡ i(zb − 1) (mod q)
using that q is prime and that both zj − 1 and zb − 1 are not congruent to zero modulo
q. We get
a(zb − 1)−1 ≡ i(zj − 1)−1 (mod q)
where inverses are taken modulo q. It follows that every two elements that commute with
xayb must also commute with each other. Hence, the set of all elements commuting with
xayb induce a complete graph in C(Gnq). 
Just like we had for the dihedral-like groups, now that we completely know the struc-
ture of C(Gnq), it would be easy for us to find important values usually associated to
graphs, such as the minimum/maximum degree, diameter, chromatic number, etc.
Acknowledgments
We thank the referee(s) for their valuable comments, they helped us improved the pre-
sentation of our results considerably.
References
[1] F. Ali, M. Salman, S. Huang, On the commuting graph of dihedral group. Comm. Algebra 44 (2016),
2389–2401.
[2] D. Dummit, R. Foote, Abstract algebra, Third edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2004.
[3] S.P. Humphries, D.C. Skabelund, Character Tables of Metacyclic Groups, Glasgow Math. J., 57
(2015), 387–400.
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 66
[4] S. Mac Lane, G. Birkhoff, Algebra, The Macmillan Co., New York; Collier-Macmillan Ltd., London
1967.
[5] Z. Raza, S. Faizi, Commuting graphs of dihedral type groups. Appl. Math. E-Notes 13 (2013),
221–227.
[6] T. Tamizh Chelvam, K. Selvakumar, S. Raja, Commuting graphs on dihedral group. J. Math. and
Comput. Sci. 2 (2011), 402–406.
[7] J. Vahidi, A. Asghar Talebi, The commuting graphs on groups D2n and Qn. J. Math. and Comput.
Sci. 1 (2010), 123–127.
Erick Gonzalez
California State University, Fresno
5245 North Backer Avenue, Fresno, CA.
E-mail: erick13@mail.fresnostate.edu
Received: June 2, 2018 Accepted: December 1, 2018
Communicated by Serban Raianu
the pump journal of undergraduate research 1 (2018), 62–67 67


Commuting Graphs of Split Metacyclic Groups

Marshall, Taylor

Tlaxcala Under Spanish Rule 
By Taylor Marshall 
Over the course of the five centuries that have elapsed since the Spanish 
conquest of Mexico, a myth of desolation has been propagated by literature 
and scholarship regarding the ensuing fate of the natives of Central Mexico. 
This myth of native desolation determines that “the Conquest left in its wake a 
silence that was immense, terrifying. It engulfed the Indian world…reduced it 
to a void. Those Indigenous cultures, living, diverse, heirs to knowledge and 
myths as ancient as the history of man, in the span of one generation were 
sentenced and reduced to dust, to ash.”[1] With the primary retelling of the 
story of the 16th century conquest and its after effects originating from the 
Spanish perspective the myth of native desolation may have appeared to be 
true. However, contemporary native-language based research on this topic 
suggests otherwise. One central Mexican native group in particular authored a 
written record, the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, that tells a different story. The 
Tlaxcalan people of central Mexico, indigenous allies of Cortez during the 
conquest, successfully referenced that pact to adapt to the new Spanish social 
system while they strove to maintain their unique culture, history, language, 
and traditions long after the conquest. 
Early in Hernan Cortez’s expedition into the Mexican interior, his detachment 
of men came across an abandoned wall on the outskirts of the province of 
Tlaxcala. Upon further movement into Tlaxcalan territory they were attacked 
by Tlaxcalan troops and fought vigorously with the indigenous warriors before 
the native army was forced to retreat in defeat under the onslaught of Spanish 
cavalry and superior weaponry. The Spanish had heard from a messenger of 
the Tlaxcalan resistance to the Aztec empire and that the natives sought to 
barter an alliance against Tenochtitlan. Cortez himself describes Tlaxcala as “a 
very extensive province called Tlaxcala, which they informed me was near this 
place, as it proved to be. I had also been informed by them that the natives of 
this province were their allies, but deadly enemies of Moctezuma; and they 
desired me to form an alliance with them, because they were a numerous and 
powerful nation.”[2] After much debate within the altepetl council as to 
whether Tlaxcala should continue fighting Cortez and his men, or accept an 
alliance and join Cortez’s forces in an attempt to topple the Aztec Emperor 
Moctezuma, the Lords of Tlaxcala finally decided upon uniting with the 
Spanish. Tlaxcala then joined thousands of its warriors to Cortez’s cause as 
well as an abundance of food, porters to carry the Spaniards goods, and guides 
for the long march to the capital of the Mexica Empire. The remaining parts of 
the story of the Spanish-Tlaxcalan alliance entail the Spanish-Tlaxcalan 
capture of Tenochtitlan followed by the eventual conquest of the Mexica 
Empire’s land holdings as well as much more territory beyond its borders. 
These events involving the Tlaxcalans and their pact with Cortez’s 
conquistadors are the basis of Tlaxcalan expectation of an elevated status in 
post conquest Spanish colonial society. 
The Tlaxcalan altepetl council utilized their alliance with Cortez during the 
conquest to effectively lobby the Spanish crown for corporate privileges and 
elevated status within colonial Mexico. This attempt at influencing King 
Charles V is evidenced by the fact that around the year 1552 the city 
government of Tlaxcala decided upon the rendering of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, 
an epic painting in the native pictograph style depicting the history of 
Tlaxcalan alliance with the Spanish. 
. 
Figure 1: Tlaxcalan coat of arms taken from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (Chavero, 
Alfredo. “Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.” Mesolore: A research & 
teaching tool on Mesoamerica. Accessed October 19, 2017.  
This effort was described in the June 17, 1552 minutes of the town council of 
Tlaxcala from the Tlaxcalan Actas: 
1. The cabildo discusses sending a delegation to Spain to lay Tlaxcala’s 
troubles before the emperor; contributions from all Tlaxcalans are to pay 
expenses of travel and solicitors’ and counsel’s fees, etc., since city assets are 
insufficient. The viceroy’s approval is to be asked by a committee of an 
alcalde and two regidores sent to Mexico City… 
4. A painting of Cortes’s arrival in Tlaxcala and the war and conquest is to be 
prepared for presentation to the emperor; two regidores are to oversee the 
project and arrange for artists’ supplies through the city majordomo and to 
choose the artists. At this point it is not decided whether the painting should 
be on cloth (tilmatly) or paper (amatl).[3] 
The painting then was to be sent to King Charles V to demonstrate the massive 
amount of aid given to Cortez by Tlaxcala and in doing so to lobby the king for 
more preferential treatment in addition to the rewards that had been secured 
by the city after the conquest. The coat of arms depicted at the top of the 
painting is a primary example of the indigenous retaining their own identity 
and ethnic heritage as their local mountain peak, today known as La Malinche, 
and the city state’s political organization as well as its ruling families are 
prominently featured on their own emblem just below the Spanish royal 
family’s crest. 
The Tlaxcalans were making rational calculated decisions to advance their 
own interests even during the conquest years that run contrary to the 
traditional notion that their society simply collapsed and ceased to exist. 
Tlaxcala entered into an alliance with Cortez after fighting against him for 
about two weeks as they realized the possibilities of toppling the Mexica 
empire and seeking the best possible outcome for themselves thence forward. 
The yalso understood that converting to Catholicism was part of making a pact 
with the Spanish. 
 
Figure 2: The conversion of the Tlaxcalans to Christianity from the Lienzo de 
Tlaxcala (Chavero, Alfredo. “Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.” 
Mesolore: A research & teaching tool on Mesoamerica. Accessed October 19, 
2017.  
This level of strategic initiative does not fall into correlation with the narrative 
that the natives were destitute and anemic. In a blatant contradiction of the 
myth of native desolation the Tlaxcalan people acted methodically in their own 
interests and threw massive amounts of resources and lives behind the 
support of their new Spanish allies in the hopes that their gamble would pay 
worthwhile dividends at the conclusion of the war. 
In the decades and centuries following the installation of Spanish rule in 
Mexico and the implementation of the Spanish social order the Tlaxcalan 
people their ancestors to gain economic and socially advantageous positions in 
colonial Mexico. Peter Villella’s article on the Salazars of colonial Tlaxcala 
highlights one noble Tlaxcalan family’s utilization of their city’s elevated status 
to secure prominent careers for many generations. Peter Villella’s analysis of 
the Salazar family’s history determines that “the Salazars avoided the twin 
fates of Hispanization and impoverishment by relying heavily for their 
prestige, honor, and status on their Tlaxcalan heritage.”[4] The family 
preserved documentation of their ancestral roots thereby maintaining their 
cultural integrity while ensuring the family’s continued prosperity in the new 
social order. A few notable sons of the family achieved grados or degrees from 
local universities which in turn unlocked further prestige for the family and 
successive generations. The patriarch of the family, Tececepotzin, achieved the 
honorary title of Don after his election to the governorship of the Quiahuiztlan 
cabildo which was then transmitted to his heirs and on down the line of 
succession indefinitely. 
Many generations after the conquest, a son of the Salazar family was accepted 
into the clergy and in doing so enabled successive male members of the 
lineage to enter the brotherhood of the cloth if they so desired. Probably the 
most prominent and famous member of the family was Don Manuel de los 
Santos y Salazar whose writings on philosophy and religious thought were in 
service to the church. His literary achievements were at the height of the 
intellectual and philosophical thought of the day and can be viewed even today 
at museums such as the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. 
The Salazar family in particular was able to leverage its ancestor’s alliance 
with the Spanish to gain access to an upper tier of the Spanish social order, all 
while maintaining ties to their specific indigenous cultural history that 
predated their new surroundings. 
Native members of elite post conquest Mexican society earnestly sought to 
maintain links to their cultural inheritance. Indian writers began to 
aggrandize their culture and dictate its history in an effort to preserve their 
social identity for generations to come. Copyist and writer don Domingo de 
San Anton Munon Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin transcribed numerous 
indigenous works into Spanish and many Spanish chronicles into Nahuatl 
over the course of his lifetime. He wrote grand histories of several altepetls 
and celebrated indigenous Mexican culture as unique and important as a 
means of showcasing his ancestors’ way of life for future generations. His total 
transcribed works total more than 1800 pages and he is one of the only known 
indigenous writers of the alphabetic Nahuatl language to sign his work as his 
own. “Chimalpahin once described Mexico’s first peoples, the Teochichimeca 
of Aztlan, as a most robust, wise, warlike people. They were the forebears of 
the glorious Mexica state and the history that he was so keen to preserve.”[5] 
Like Chimalpahin, there are colonial indigenous writers who perceived the 
story of the conquest quite differently from the Spanish and sought to alter the 
narrative with their own voices in representation of an indigenous view of the 
conquest. Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl in his numerous literary 
chronicles explains the native perspective of the conquest and its aftermath 
while asserting native Mexican control over their own history. Accoding to 
Peter Villela “this sort of directed assault at the base of Spanish historical 
remembrance by Ixtlilxochitl is the type of substantive evidence that warrants 
a total dejection of the myth of native desolation that Matthew Restall brought 
to the attention of history.[6] 
Spanish colonialism did not inherently disrupt indigenous social stratification, 
so that numerous integral aspects of the native social identity continued 
unabated after the conquest. According to the Tlaxcalan Actas the town 
councils were set up to parallel the existing power structure in the Alteptl. 
 
Figure 3: Indigenous map of Cholula showing Spanish grid pattern influence 
(Relaciones Geográficas at the Benson Collection. Accessed December 1, 
2017.  
Native lords, even some who fought against the Spanish during the conquest, 
remained in power afterwards and essentially governed in the same fashion 
they had before. “From the Spanish point of view, mid-century Indian 
government was a most practical and economical institution; it maintained 
itself without expense to the royal treasury; it required the presence of only a 
few Spanish officials; it preserved local order; it handled all the details of 
tribute exactments; it came rarely into conflict with Spanish authority.”[7] 
Numerous prominent Spanish subjects of indigenous traditions were able to 
call on their indigenous lordship heritage as reference even if the noted 
ancestor was from before the Spanish arrival as the Spanish system retained 
the existing social hierarchy. The maintenance of the community hierarchy 
within colonial Mexican indigenous societies allowed some natives to retain 
this aspect of their culture and therefore continue the legacy of their former 
civilization and its people. 
Much has been forgotten about the illustrious history of the indigenous 
peoples of Central Mexico in the wake of the Spanish conquest and 
colonization of their homeland. Only recently has the tireless lobbying 
campaign for recognition and expanded corporate privileges on the part of the 
Tlaxcalan people been displayed in full for academic viewership. Many 
indigenous historians have contributed to an expansion of the history of the 
Spanish conquest and in doing so properly elevated their ancestors’ significant 
contributions to the cause while celebrating their remarkable native culture. 
The fact that there are in Mexico today millions of indigenous language 
speakers continuing to live in their ancestral lands is emblematic of the idea 
that Restall’s myth of desolation is truly a myth. The accumulation of 
Tlaxcalan actions in securing dispensation for their people and the insertion of 
indigenous perspectives into history by numerous native Mexican authors 
should permanently dispel the notion that indigenous Mexican culture and 
society collapsed following the Spanish conquest. 
End Notes 
[1] Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford 
University Press, 2003:102. 
[2] Cortez, Hernan. Letters from Mexico. Edited by Anthony Pagden. New 
York: Grossman Publishers, 1971:49. 
[3] Anderson, Arthur J.O., Frances F. Berdan, and James Lockhart. The 
Tlaxcalan Actas: A Compendium of the Records of the Cabildo of Tlaxcala, 
1545-1627. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986:51. 
[4] Villella, Peter B. “Indian Lords, Hispanic Gentleman: The Salazars of 
Colonial Tlaxcala.” The Americas 69, no. 1 (July 2012): 1-36. 
[5] Schroeder, Susan. The Conquest All Over Again: Nahuas and Zapotecs 
Thinking, Writing, and Painting Spanish Colonialism. Brighton: Sussex 
Academic Press, 2011:117. 
[6] Villella, Peter B. “Indian Lords, Hisanic Gentleman: The Salazars of 
Colonial Tlaxcala.” The Americas 69, no. 1 (July 2012):1-36. 
[7] Gibson, Charles. Tlaxcala in the 16th Century. New Haven: Conn., 1952:123 
Works Cited 
Primary Sources 
Castillo, Bernal Diaz Del. 2009. The History of the Conquest of New Spain. 
Edited by David Carrasco. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 
Chavero, Alfredo. n.d. “Introduction to the Lienzo de Tlaxcala.” Mesolore: A 
research & teaching tool on Mesoamerica. Brown University. Accessed 
October 19, 2017. 
Cortes, Hernan. 1971. Letters from Mexico. Edited by Anthony Pagden. New 
York: Grossman Publishers. 
James Lockheart, Frances Berdan, Arthur J. O. Anderson. 1986. The Tlaxcalan 
Actas: A Compendium of the Records of the Cabildo of Tlaxcala, 1545-1627. 
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 
Secondary Sources 
Gibson, Charles. 1952. Tlaxcala in the 16th Century. New Haven: Yale 
University Press. 
Gillespie, Jeanna. 2004. Saints and Warriors: Tlaxcalan Perspectives on the 
Conquest of Tenochtitlan. New Orleans: Univ. Press South. 
Lockheart, James. 2004. We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest 
of Mexico. Eugene, Or: Wipf & Stock. 
Restall, Matthew. 2003. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: 
Oxford University Press. 
Schroeder, Susan. 2011. The Conquest All Over Again: Nahuas and Zapotecs 
Thinking, Writing, and Painting Spanish Colonialism. Brighton: Sussex 
Academic Press. 
Villella, Peter B. 2012. “Indian Lords, Hispanic Gentlemen: The Salazars of 
Colonial Tlaxcala.” The Americas, July: 1-36. 


Tlaxcala Under Spanish Rule

This case story describes the collaborative development and use of a teaching observation rubric to support and scaffold evidence-based changes in the focal educator preparation program (EPP). The case highlights the power of EPP-district collaborations for improving the teaching and coaching practices for both stakeholders while strengthening trust. Additionally, this case demonstrates how the focal EPP worked with districts to ease preservice-to-inservice transitions for novice teachers, through development of a feedback instrument that spans the transition, thereby decreasing teacher attrition within the first three years on the job.&nbsp

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