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gobernador.

(a loanword from Spanish)

Headword: 
gobernador.
Principal English Translation: 

in this context, the highest officer of an indigenous municipality, a Native man; the term came into Nahuatl from Spanish governmental practice
The Tlaxcalan Actas: A Compendium of the Records of the Cabildo of Tlaxcala (1545-1627), eds. James Lockhart, Frances Berdan, and Arthur J.O. Anderson (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986), 153.

In the Codex Mendoza, many different titles (e.g. tlacochtec[uh]tli and tlacatec[uh]tli on 17 verso), in Nahuatl were glossed "gobernador;" gobernador was not just the translation for tlahtoani. In fact, two titles, tlacochtecuhtli and tlacatecuhtli, are paired for both of the two pueblos mentioned on this folio, as though they worked together, and both titles are glossed "governador," as though each pueblo once had these two governing leaders. We see the same pairing for a town on 18 recto, but there we also see that another town's governors had the titles tezcacoacatl and tlilancalqui. (SW)

Orthographic Variants: 
governor, gouernador, gunvernador, gonvernador, gonbernador, combernador, cobernador, covernador, cobernatol, copelnatol, cobelnatol, gupernator, guuernador, journador
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

also called juēz gobernadōr. Sp.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 217.

Attestations from sources in English: 

niGouernador, Nalcalde = I [am a] governor, I [am an] alcalde (central Mexico, 1634)
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 23.

xi. tecpatl xihuitl 1568. años. ypan in halla ce Juez gouernador tecamachalco = The year Eleven Flint, 1568. At this time a judge-governor came who was a resident of Tecamachalco. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 176–177.

ojuezgouernadortico = he came here to serve as judge-governor (early seventeenth century, central New Spain)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 112–113.

Cobernatol = governor (San Miguel Totocuitlapilco, Toluca Valley, 1652)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 83.

nahui xihuitl. oninochiuh nigobernador = I spent four years as a governor (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1691)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 130.

nicopelnatol = I, the governor (central Mexico, late seventeenth or early eighteenth century)
Bancroft Mexican Ms. 469, Techialoyan manuscript, also known as Codex Nahuatl B -- Stephanie Wood translation.

copelnatol = governor (central Mexico, late seventeenth or early eighteenth century)
Byron McAfee translation of the Tepotzotlan Techialoyan, published in Donald Robertson, The Techialoyan Codex of Tepotztotlan: Codex X (Rylands Mexican Ms. 1), Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 43:1 (Sept. 1960), 128.

In nican cabildo mocentlanlique in gouor alldes regidores yn ievatzin mgco señor diego rramirez corrort yn nican prouia tlaxcallan .. gouernador (Tlaxcala, 1547)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 22.

ni don juan combernador yn coyovacan (Coyoacan, circa 1550)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 26.

in señor don juan in gunvernador in coyovacan (Coyoacan, circa 1550) Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 26:5.

don franco de leon gonvernador (Huitzilopochco, circa 1550–55?) Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), appendix.

Nevatl don juo gouerdor (Coyoacan, 1554)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 10.

neuatl don juan gor (Coyoacan, 1557)
ˆ, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 12.

yn tlacatl in tlatoani yn cenca maviztililoni don luis de vellasco visorrey ∫ytechpatzinco yn toveytlatocauh su magesdad [Mexico City (by Coyoacan writer?), 1557]
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 35.

neuatl nigoueror ihuan in tialldesme tirregidoresme (Huejotzingo, 1560
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 29.

don leonardo Ramirez governador (Huejotzingo, 1560)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 29.

don juo min gouor (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 1.

nican audia tlxn— yn sr gouor yuan alldes (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 1.

muy magco sor goueror juez (Xochimilco, 1572)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 2

nehuatl don loreçon de guzman t[latohuani] yhuan gouernador (Coyoacan, 1575)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 13.

yntencopanco señores gouernador alldes nicneltili amatlacuillo yntencopanco su magtt augustin de galiza escrivano (Coyoacan, 1575)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 13.

yehuatl gobernadortiz don balthasar garcia (Cuernavaca, circa 1610)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 4.

ocatqui prouision rreal ynic ayac ocpa gouernatortiz (Cuernavaca, circa 1610)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 4.

don constano huizmingari juez gor (Coyoacan, 1613)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 6.

yn oquimotily juez gor ynin petiçion (Coyoacan, 1613)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 6.

yquiahuac governador (Huejotla, 1634)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 7.

Don franco hernandez gobernador yhua antonio perez allde ortinaria juo pablo juo ximeo alldes andres bunefacia regitor mayor franco juares rexitor alexu martonato rexito (Tehuacan, 1642)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 24. (more very similar passages with slight variations of spelling)

Sr Juez gfor (Azcapotzalco, 1703)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 14.

ni Jues Gor ihuan moxtintzitzin Ofisiales de Republica (Azcapotzalco, 1738)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 17.

covernador and convernador (for gobernador)
Fray Alonso de Molina, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM, ed. and trans., Barry D. Sell (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 2002), 6, 7.

ogouernadortic yn teoyotica tlahtohuani Don Po Moya de contreras. Arҫobispo mexico. ca ynic otetlatetemolli ynic visitador mochiuh yhuan ynic otlapacho yn ogouernadortic yn itequitzin catca = the spiritual ruler don Pedro Moya de Contreras, archbishop in Mexico, governed. His tasks were investigating as appointed inspector and governing (central Mexico, 1608)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 148–9.

"guuernador" and "journador" are two renditions of gobernador found in the Códice de Santa María Asunción. (Tepetlaoztoc, sixteenth century)
Barbara J. Williams and H. R. Harvey, The Códice de Santa María Asunción: Facsimile and Commentary: Households and Lands in Sixteenth-Century Tepetlaoztoc (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1997), 71.

"1534 Yancuic Gobr Tlaxcalan itoc Don Diego Tlilyahuatzin" (p. 740) = "1534. The first governor of Tlaxcala was called don Diego Tlilyahuatzin." (Anales de Puebla y Tlaxcala, no. 1, part 1, 1519–1739)
Frances Krug, "The Nahuatl Annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla Region," ch. 2, p. 67, Ph.D. Dissertation written in the 1980s, with transcriptions and translations approved by James Lockhart. Cited here by SW.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

in governador ome toquichtin ichan tlapiyaz yvan ome ҫivatl ynic quitlaecoltizque = al gobernador, dos varones le cuidarán su casa y dos mujeres le darán servicio (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla, s. XVI)
Luis Reyes García, "Ordenanzas para el gobierno de Cuauhtinchan, año de 1559," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 290–291.

Gupernator homochiuh don Diego Martin Faostino = Fue gobernador don Diego Martín Faustino (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 600–601.

mochiuh gobernador Quiahuiztlan yn itoca don Pasqual Ramirrez chane San Bartasar Tlapitzahuacan amo pili yn itech hoquizqui çan itlamozcalti totatzin frey Agostin de Artiaga = fue gobernador el llamado don Pascual Ramírez, de Quiahuiztlan, habitante de San Baltazar Tlapitzahuacan. No era descendiente de pilli, sólo era criado de nuestro padre fray Agustín de Arteaga. (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 566–567.

yn tlatoani Don Ju. andres cobernador mo tequi panilhuia alcalde ton mateo lexitol mayol ton andres miquel ton Juan Diego alhuasil mayol, ton felipe de santiaco cobelnatol pasado ton fransisco de Bargas chicotencatl tlatoani chanè ipan altepetl acaiocan = Señores: Don Juan Andrés, Gobernador, que también era Alcalde; Don Mateo, Regidor Mayor; Don Andrés Miguel; Don Juan Diego, Alguacil Mayor; Don Felipe de Santiago, Gobernador pasado; Don Francisco de Vargas Xicotencatl, Gobernador y vecino en el pueblo de Acayocan (Estado de Hidalgo, ca. 1722?)
Rocío Cortés, El "nahuatlato Alvarado" y el Tlalamatl Huauhquilpan: Mecanismos de la memoria colectiva de una comunidad indígena (New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Colonial Spanish American Series, 2011), 30, 42. [Note: The orthography here is much like that found in Techialoyan manscripts. (SW)]

yn iquac covernador yn yehuatzin don Juan Cortes yn iquac tlatocati covernador mochihuaya ya ca oniquinnotlaneuhtilli yn tomines ynic maxilti yn tlacalaquilli = cuando fue gobernador don Juan Cortés, cuando gobernaba, que les empresté, con que se ajustaron los tributos (Toluca, 1621)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 134–135.

ipa noofisio onechmotlalilique ymasehualti yn nigobernador yn ipan altepeuhtl San Agosti Acolma = en este oficio en que me han puesto los indios deste pueblo de San Agustín de Oculma por su gobernador (Acolma, 1581)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 240–241.

Yacuica mochiuh gobernador meztiço don Nicolas Mendez de Luna = Por primera vez fue gobernador el mestizo don Nicolás Méndez de Luna. (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 324–325.

yn oquiquixtique yn icopica coyoli ynic tlacatiz yn omochiuh coyoli ychatzinco gobernador = se saco el vaciado de le campana para fundirla. Se hizo la campana en la casa del gonbernador (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 382–383.

themes: 
Politics, Power, Governance