THE ARCHIVE
About the Archive
The Archive is Wikowí's free library of primary sources: the documents our graded readers are built from, published in three versions on one page. A clean modern edition with every word tappable, an English translation, and the original text exactly as it survives. The readers are the staircase. This is the summit, and it is free for everyone, forever.
Why it exists
Most of the documents that tell the story of the conquest of Mexico are public and scattered: a nineteenth-century transcription here, a scanned manuscript there, a paywalled scholarly translation somewhere else. Nothing free and readable existed for the Anales de Tlatelolco at all. We collect the passage that matters, check it against the best edition we can reach, make it readable at more than one level, and say exactly what we did.
The name comes from Rarámuri, the indigenous language of the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, where the founder's grandfather is from. Wikowí is the Rarámuri word for language. A platform that teaches languages, named after the word for language in a language that almost disappeared and did not. That is why the Archive starts with the voices of the people who were there, including the ones written in Nahuatl.
Editorial standards
- The original is the source of record. Every page names the manuscript or edition it was transcribed from, and shows the original text as it survives, spelling included.
- Modern editions and translations are made from the original. Scholarly translations are used as comprehension keys to check meaning, never copied or paraphrased. Where a passage is spliced from a companion manuscript, the page says so.
- Every page carries a “which edition, and why” note at the top: what was transcribed, what it was checked against, what was modernized and how.
- Images are public domain and credited. Manuscript plates appear with the holding institution and folio in the caption. Nothing is published without a confirmed rights line.
- Nothing beyond the record is added. A graded reader built from a source may compress and select. It may not contradict the document or invent what the document does not say.
Permanence and versioning
Archive URLs are permanent. A page's address never changes; if we ever have to move one, the old address redirects forever. Texts are versioned, never silently changed: a correction produces a dated entry in the changelog below, so a citation made today still points at what it cited.
How to cite
Cite the page title, Wikowí, the URL, and the date you accessed it. The patterns below use La caída de Tlatelolco as the example.
MLA
“La caída de Tlatelolco.” Anales de Tlatelolco, Ms Mex 22. Wikowí Archive, https://wikowi.com/archive/spanish/aztec-world/anales-de-tlatelolco. Accessed 14 Sept. 2026.
APA
Wikowí. (2026). La caída de Tlatelolco [Anales de Tlatelolco, Ms Mex 22]. https://wikowi.com/archive/spanish/aztec-world/anales-de-tlatelolco
Chicago
“La caída de Tlatelolco.” Anales de Tlatelolco, Ms Mex 22. Wikowí Archive. Accessed September 14, 2026. https://wikowi.com/archive/spanish/aztec-world/anales-de-tlatelolco.
License
The original texts are in the public domain and belong to everyone. Wikowí's modern-language editions, English translations and editorial notes are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Copy them, teach with them, put them in a course packet. Credit Wikowí and link to the page. Images carry their own rights line in the caption.
Changelog
- 2026-09-14This page published. Chapter URL convention fixed at capitulo-N for every book; the earlier named chapter addresses of El día que se rompió el mundo redirect permanently.
- 2026-09-05The Archive opens with three Aztec World sources: Los ocho presagios (Florentine Codex, Book 12), La primera vista de Tenochtitlan (Bernal Díaz, ch. 87) and La caída de Tlatelolco (Anales de Tlatelolco, Ms Mex 22).
Who makes it
Wikowí is built by Drew, one person with a pipeline, a level system, and a shelf of real documents. The stories are written with AI and checked against the level gates and the sources; the Archive texts are transcribed and translated with the standards above. If you find an error in a text, that is exactly the kind of thing the changelog is for.