The Azteca
The Azteca, also known as the Aztec people, are a significant cultural group originating from a mythical ancestral land called Aztlán, which is often described as a prosperous and idyllic environment. This land is characterized by the cultivation of maize and the creation of floating gardens, supporting a rich biodiversity of wildlife. The Azteca, guided by Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, left Aztlán to explore and eventually conquer new territories, establishing their empire through agricultural practices and warfare.
Central to Aztec culture is their understanding of time, divided into fifty-two-year cycles known as "bundles," celebrated through ceremonies such as the Tying of the Years. During these events, priests interpreted omens that foreshadowed the future of the empire. The most notable ruler, Montezuma II, faced ominous visions of impending doom related to foreign invaders and advanced weaponry, signaling the eventual fall of the Aztec Empire during the Spanish conquest.
The myth of Aztlán, which reflects the evolution of humanity and the contrasts between perfection and hardship, plays a crucial role in the cultural identity of modern Mexico. Today, it continues to inform sociocultural movements aiming to honor the legacies of pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Aztecs, and to promote awareness of their historical significance.
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Subject Terms
The Azteca
Author: Traditional Aztec
Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE
Country or Culture: Mesoamerica
Genre: Myth
PLOT SUMMARY
According to myth, the Azteca (Aztec people), originated in an ancestral land known as Aztlán—possibly meaning “white place” or “place of herons”—an idyllic world filled with sufficient bounty to nurture a large population. In Aztlán, the people learned to cultivate maize and the other principal crops of their culture and developed vast, floating gardens on the waters surrounding a central mountain. The land was filled with birds of white and green plumage, and flocks of ducks populated the waters. Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, convinced some of his people to leave Aztlán to explore the world that surrounded them. Outside of Aztlán, they encountered murderous jaguars, dangerous thorned plants, and other warring tribes. Over time, the immigrants conquered the new land, subdued the animals, and planted the crops they had grown in Aztlán and had carried from their floating gardens.
The Azteca divided time into sets of fifty-two years called “bundles” and celebrated the passage of a fifty-two-year period with a ceremony known as the Tying of the Years. At each ceremony, priests would analyze portents they believed would foretell future fortunes and dangers facing the empire. During one ceremony, which is attended by Montezuma, the king of the Aztecs, the omen reveals a pair of sandals found in the temple of Huitzilopochtli. Montezuma believes that the sandals are a message that Huitzilopochtli will never leave the Azteca. Messengers are dispatched to deliver the sandals to Coatlicue, Huitzilopochtli’s mother, and to inform her that her son will never return to Aztlán because he will not leave the people who had proved to be such able conquerors.
The priests of Huitzilopochtli decipher the path to Aztlán, and Montezuma’s messengers eventually find the ancestral land. Once there, they realize time does not pass at the same rate in Aztlán, with the residents living for hundreds of thousands of years. They also learn that the diet of the Azteca, consisting of meat and pulque (a fermented drink made from agave), makes them heavy, while the diet of the people in Aztlán is vegetarian and they only consume water, making them light and agile. The ambassadors deliver the sandals to Huitzilopochtli’s mother, who is dressed in a garment made of serpents, and she is saddened that her son will not be returning to her.
Upon their return to the empire, the messengers learn that another fifty-two years have passed and that Montezuma has died, passing rule on to his son, Montezuma II. At a new Tying of the Years ceremony, a number of dread portents are revealed, including a shining stone found lodged in the skull of a bird caught by a fisherman. Montezuma II and the priests then see a vision of the king’s deceased sister, who tells them she has seen great ships bearing men from beyond the Eastern Sea (the Atlantic Ocean), carrying weapons more deadly than any known to the Aztecs. This vision is believed to signal the end of the Aztec Empire.
SIGNIFICANCE
The term Aztec is derived from the Nahuatl language and translates as “people from Aztlán.” The myth of the ancient exodus from Aztlán has appeared in many different forms and is one of the most important myths in Aztec culture. Historians speculate that Aztlán was called the “white place” because it was home to large populations of bird species with white feathers, such as herons and egrets, which feature prominently in many Aztec myths. Some historians believe that Aztlán refers to a portion of what is now central Mexico, which is believed to have been one of the birthplaces of the Nahuatl language.
The myth of the Aztec return to Aztlán may be considered part of a class of myths that display the evolution of humanity through environmental or self-inflicted actions that serve to remove humans from the path of their ancestors. While Aztlán is depicted as an idyllic, balanced, and largely perfected world, the outside world is portrayed as harsh and imperfect. In one sense, this myth explains that the hardships of the outside world result from the fact that humanity has not achieved perfection in the new kingdom, thus allowing room for improvement and growth.
This version of the myth of the Azteca was reformulated long after the fall of the Aztec Empire following the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the sixteenth century. Montezuma II, the last ruler of the Aztec Empire, lived from 1466 until June 30, 1520, when he was killed during the Spanish conquest under Hernán Cortés. Though some Spaniards used early muskets called harquebuses, it was the Spanish cavalry and their superior hand weapons, including swords and spears, that allowed the force of a few thousand Spaniards and their allies to defeat tens of thousands of Aztec warriors. In the wake of the collapse of the Aztec Empire, many of the myths were reworked to reflect the end of the empire in a way that suggested that the Aztec gods had known what would occur and even warned the people that their end was approaching.
Many of the myths of the Aztec Empire have been absorbed into modern Mexican culture. The god Huitzilopochtli is considered the patron of Mexico and features prominently in a number of myths that involve the differentiation of the Mexican people from their Aztec ancestors. The legend of Aztlán has also been embraced by modern sociocultural movements seeking to celebrate or recognize the pre-Columbian cultural legacy that was shared by the Olmecs, Toltecs, Maya, and Aztecs and is part of the important cultural ancestry of the modern Mexican people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: FOF, 2006. Print.
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Herrera-Sobek, María. Chicano Folklore: A Handbook. Westport: Greenwood, 2006. Print.
León-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. Trans. Jack Emory Davis. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1990. Print.