AZTLÁN & MEXICA

The mythic home of the Aztecs and the people they became

Of all the contributions the native people have given to modern Mexico, perhaps the most prominent is the country’s name. According to some sources, the native people of what is now known as the Mexican valley or basin emerged from a fertile hill known as Chicomoztoc (Place of the Seven Caves) and inhabited Aztlán (Place of the White Heron), an ancient waterbounded settlement whose people were called the Azteca. They emerged on the prompting of the great god Huitzilopochtli and, in the Codex Aubin, it says that upon their departure from Aztlán the god named them the Mexica, the origin of the term Mexican. Over the years, the concept of

Aztlán as the place of origin of the pre-columbian Mexican civilization has become a symbol for various Mexican nationalist and indigenous movements, including the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, a civil rights movement in the US that sought to promote the rights of Mexican-americans.

As with the Black Power movement, it fell victim to repression and police brutality. Aztlán’s appropriation by the Chicano Movement is often credited to the activist Oscar

Zeta Acosta, and many consider this hallowed motherland to refer to the lands of Northern Mexico that were annexed by the United States during the Mexican–american War (1846-1848). In truth, no one can say for sure where Aztlán lies, though it still lives in the hearts of many Latinos who look back with pride on their Aztec past.