French lawmaker seeking codex restoration visits lower house

▲ Page 13 of the Bourbon Codex found in the Bibliothèque Du Palais Bourbon. Photo Wikipedia

Fernando Camacho Servín

La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, September 7, 2025, p. 5

French parliamentarian Éric Coquerel visited the Chamber of Deputies as part of the work to restore to Mexico the so-called Bourbon Codex, a pre-Hispanic document currently housed in the library of the French National Assembly and of particular importance to the Hñahñu (Otomi) people.

Accompanied by Morena representatives Eunice Mendoza and Damaris Silva, as well as various residents and representatives of indigenous communities in the Mezquital Valley, Hidalgo, the legislator from the La Francia Insumisa (LFI) party confirmed that he will present a bill to return the piece to Mexico.

“I discovered that in the National Assembly we had such a valuable document for Mexico and for the Hñahñus, and I never imagined that it would be the spokesperson for a legitimate vocation of that people and of Mexico in general: the reappropriation of their history, culture, cosmogony, and rites,” Coquerel stated at a press conference.

The parliamentarian, who welcomed the rapprochement between the Mexican and French left-wing parties, noted that the continued existence of the Bourbon Codex in Paris is like another nation holding a fundamental French document, and thus once again expressed his support for the manuscript's restitution process.

"I am committed to submitting a bill to the National Assembly, and if that's not enough, to launch an initiative, proposed by Representative Sophia Chikirou—also a member of LFI—on this particular codex. Let's hope for a consensus by 2026, the bicentennial year of the relationship between France and Mexico," he emphasized.

For her part, Emilia Mendoza, a representative of the indigenous communities of the Mezquital Valley, stated that "the return of these so-called codices, although they should be called 'tonalás,' represents hope for the indigenous peoples who identify with this manuscript that our ancestors made for us."

As reported in this newspaper, Alfonso Suárez del Real, political advisor to the Mexican Presidency, highlighted in recent months the importance of LFI's efforts to send the codex to Mexico, whose return the country has demanded since the 19th century.