Articles of Interest Mexican Memories

Some of the most advanced and earliest civilizations in the Western Hemisphere were in what is now Mexico. Historians note that hunters lived in the area in 21000 BC or perhaps even before that. Cultivation of crops started in 8000 BC, with squash as the probable first crop. The Olmecs established the first primary Mesoamerican civilization somewhere between 1500 and 600 BC. Mayans were at the peak in the Mexican area around the 700's AD. Toltecs, a warring people, migrated down to Mexico from the north and established their empire in the Valley of Mexico in the 900's. Tula and Talncingo were cities north of present day Mexico City that they founded. Here a great civilization grew that can be seen today in the ruins of what were monuments and building of magnificence.

The Chichimeca people vanquished the Toltecs in the 12th century and took over their civilization. The Toltecs dispersed. 100 years later seven tribes of the Nahuatlan came together from the north, presumably New Mexico and Arizona. The leading tribe was the Aztecs, who, in 1325 founded Tenochtitlan, creating causeway to dam the waters and create a town with an impregnable island fortress. The Aztec influence, under the leadership of Itzcoatl, the first emperor, spread throughout most of 15th century Mexico.

Artistic, intellectual and agricultural describe the Aztecs aptly. They learned to grow corn and exist on its cultivation. They were wealthy and vibrant, with cities full of social, religious and political ties and influence. Europeans sent an explorer to the region in 1517. This Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba went to the Yucatan and their found traces of the Mayan civilization. Cuba sent an explorer a year later. This Juan de Grijalva found the Aztecs living all along the east coast of Mexico and traveled back to his Cuban emperor Diego Velazquez, who immediately dispatched warrior Hernan Cortes and a large number of soldiers to conquer the Aztecs.

By this time 38 Aztec provinces had been established, all independent, some fiercely so. It was this internal strife that made the Cortes victory over the Aztecs possible. Nor did it help the Aztec cause that the Aztec emperor Montezuma welcomed Cortes, thinking that their soon to be conqueror was the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, also called the Plumed Serpent.

The Aztecs had three classes of society. There were slaves, commoners and nobles. The slaves were like indentured servants. The poor could sell their children into this servitude for a specific period of time. Slaves were also able to buy their way out of slavery and if they somehow managed to escape and reach the royal palace they were freed immediately. Commoners were known by the Aztec name of Maceaultin. All but the lowest group of commoners known as tlalmaitl could own land and could build their houses on that land. The tlalmaitl were tenant farmers, however. The nobles were priests, warriors and those born into nobility.

Early Aztecs worshipped at the altars of several gods. Their gods presided over the sun, the moon, the rain, the calendar, the Aztec writing, and resurrection. Aztecs produced many writings called codices, which archeologists have kept intact today. These writings, many with drawings, were made on animal hide or on paper. The Aztecs developed a 365-day, 18-month calendar. Each month was the same - 20 days each. However, five other days, called hollow days, were considered days of bad luck. The Aztecs haven't disappeared. There are more than one million of their civilization still around the Mexico City area. They don't practice modern day life, but rather subsist as illiterate farmers. Their religion is partly that of earlier Aztecs but also part that of present day Roman Catholics.