History, especially ancient history, gains reality when it can be related to modern geography. The interplay appears in instances cited throughout this study -- specifically of Mexican geographical identifications that help recover segments of the country’s pre-Columbia past. This study’s principal aim is to show how a particular identification augments the history that can be extracted from a related group of Mexican pictorial manuscripts, whose historical value, though well recognized, has as yet been little explored. These are the lienzos -- genealogical, historical & geographical documents painted on cloth -- of the Coixtlahuaca Valley in the northern region of the state of Oaxaca known as the Mixteca Alta. Illustrations.