Misplaced Pages

Cosijoeza
Detail of the mural "Civilización mixteco-zapoteca" by Diego Rivera where there is a Coquitao with possible features similar to Cosijoeza.
4th Coquitao of Kingdom of Zaachila
In office 1487–1529
Preceded by	Zaachila III
Succeeded by	Cosijopii
Personal details
Born	c. 1450 Zaachila, Kingdom of Zaachila
Children	Cosijopii Pinopiaa

Guxi Chikoeza, Kosi'ioeza (Zapotec: Guxi Chikoeza or Kosi'ioeza) (c. 1450–1529) was a Coquitao (King in Zapotec) of Zaachila (the kingdom not to be confused with the homonymous city), its name in Zapotec means "Storm of obsidian knives" or "time of obsidian knives", was named by Aztecs as Huizquiauitl. He ascended the throne in 1487, faced the expansionism of the Aztec Empire and built the city of Guiengola.

The geostrategic importance of the kingdom of Zaachila is due to its condition as a bridge between the highlands of the Anáhuac center and the Mayan lands of what is now Chiapas and Guatemala, as well as its important salt production industry on the coast, goldsmith and grana cochineal (these activities continue to be industries in the region although with less economic influence than in the past) because of this Zaachila was seen under the ambition of the Aztecs.

In the face of the threat posed by the Aztecs, in 1494 King Guxi Chikoeza ordered the killing of the children who were in his territory for being the spies, the Aztec Tlatoani Ahuitzotl took these murders as casus belli and in 1497 the war began. Zapotec, the city of Huaxyacac was the first to be attacked and destroyed, then it was Mitla, the military campaign spread through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and reach the Soconusco, this led to Guxi Chikoeza to propose an alliance to the Mixtec king Dzahuindanda, Dzahuindanda accepted this alliance and supplied 24,000 warriors that joined the 36,000 of Zaachila's army, together they succeeded in expelling the Aztecs.

In 1497 Ahuitzotl again attacked the Zapotec and Mixteca allied kingdoms and sent the general command army Tlacatecat to the bastion that represented Guiengola, the siege of the city lasted 7 months. Ahuitzotl then proposed a peace treaty to Guxi Chikoeza in which he included the hand of his daughter, the princess Xilabela. From this union, princes Cosiiopii II and Pinopiaa were born.

At his death Kosi'ioeza was buried in the city of Zaachila, capital of the homonymous kingdom, a place where it was customary to bury the Zapotec sovereigns.

References

1. Zeitlin, Judith Francis (2005). Cultural Politics in Colonial Tehuantepec: Community and State among the Isthmus Zapotec, 1500-1750. Stanford University Press. pp. 5–38. ISBN 978-0-8047-3388-5.
2. Spores, Ronald (2021-11-03). "39. The Zapotec and Mixtec at Spanish Contact". Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volumes 2 and 3. University of Texas Press. pp. 962–990. doi:10.7560/732605-040. ISBN 978-1-4773-0656-7. S2CID 243790815.

• 1450s births
• Zapotec people
• 1504 deaths