Thread: Is Pacific Coast village mystical city of Aztlan?

Is Pacific Coast village mystical city of Aztlan?
By JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Saturday, September 06, 2008

MEXCALTITAN, Mexico — In the pre-dawn darkness, the fishermen return with nets brimming with plump shrimp and tie up their canoes behind homes of mud and wood.

It's a way of life that's hardly changed over the last thousand years in Mexcaltitan, an isolated Pacific coastal island that's been dubbed the Venice of Mexico because its sunken streets become canals during the rainy season.

But embedded in that humble daily ritual may lie clues to one of the hemisphere's great historical mysteries: Where did the mighty Aztec civilization come from?

For local officials and some historians, Mexcaltitan is nothing less than the mythical Aztlan, birthplace of the ancient Aztecs.

According to legend, the Aztecs left an island in 1091 and wandered for two centuries before settling in what is now Mexico City. There they founded the legendary city of Tenochtitlan, an island city of canals and floating gardens, and lorded over an empire that stretched from Guatemala to northern Mexico before the Spanish conquered them in 1521.

But the location of Aztlan is no mere academic exercise: the term has become a flashpoint in today's raging U.S.-Mexico immigration debate. Entering "Aztlan" in an Internet search is to be immersed in a fierce, often nasty, ideological battle over immigrant rights.

Historians and archeologists are bitterly divided over the location of Aztlan, or even over whether the place ever existed.

With some theories placing the Aztec homeland in the U.S. Southwest, Utah or California, the notion has become fraught with political overtones.

For decades, the idea of an Aztlan located within the United States was an important part of the growing Chicano pride movement.

Anne Martinez, a University of Texas history professor, said the embrace of Aztlan reflected a desire by Mexican-Americans to forge a clear geographical link, and thus a belonging, to the United States.

"It was also the idea that wherever Mexicans are outside of Mexico that that is Aztlan," she said. "That we take Aztlan with us."

Today, the term is more likely to be used by anti-immigration groups warning of a "reconquista," or reconquering, of the Southwest U.S. by Mexican immigrants. The Just Build the Fence blog defines Aztlan as "the enemy encamped within our own borders."

"(Aztlan) is a very powerful idea," said Mexican archeologist Jesus Jauregui, a leading expert on Aztlan theories. "It can mean something different to each person."

In Mexcaltitan, located in the Pacific state of Nayarit, clues that this was once Aztlan are tantalizing.

In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs (who called themselves the Mexica), Azltan means place of whiteness or place of herons. And the village is indeed a favorite haunt of white herons, which nest in the surrounding lagoon, as well as seasonal blooms of white water lilies.

Hector Apodaca, a guide at the village's museum, argues that local fishing holes have the same names as Aztec places like Toluca. And Apodaca says that Cora Indians, who were among the last indigenous groups to be subdued by the Spanish and speak a version of Nahuatl, still come to the island every year to make offerings.

"That's because they believe that this was a ceremonial center of the Mexica," Apodaca said.

Others point to Mexcaltitan's striking physical resemblance to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital whose ruins sit under Mexico City. Some historians say Mexcaltitan's circular shape and cruciform design are similar to that of Tenochtitlan, which Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz described as "an enchanted vision."

Tenochtitlan was destroyed in 1521, long before the invention of the camera, and officials in Mexcaltitan say their village is the closest thing to a living replica.

Local officials are so certain that Mexcaltitan is Aztlan that they've dubbed the state of Nayarit the "cradle of Mexicaness" and changed the state's official seal to include a diagram of the Aztecs' departure from Mexcaltitan.

But despite the local certainty, historical debate rages on. No definitive archeological evidence has yet been uncovered to prove Mexcaltitan's connection to Tenochtitlan.

Jauregui, the Mexican archeologist, believes Aztlan is more myth than place and says the official sanctioning of Mexcaltitan as Aztlan stemmed from political, rather than historical reasons.

He said that during the 1960s and 1970s, Mexican officials grew alarmed by Chicano and Mexican-American assertions that the ancient homeland actually sat outside the boundaries of Mexico. He argues that such a possibility embarrassed and potentially undermined what has become Mexico's creation myth.

And the state of Nayarit, traditionally one of the poorest in Mexico, was in need of a tourism boost.

"Mexcaltitan is a beautiful place," he said. "But that's a lot different than saying it's Aztlan."

In Mexcaltitan, any collective memory of the Aztecs' presence there seems to have been lost.

Antonio Osuna Carbajal, a Mexcaltitan fisherman, smiles slyly when asked if his home is Aztlan.

"That's what they tell us," he said. "But the bad thing is that the older generations didn't leave us any writings or anything like that."

Life on the island continues much as it has for a millennia, although the demographics changed. After Chinese fishermen came to the island early in the 20th century to export shrimp to San Francisco, intermarriage followed and many families on the island have Chinese surnames.

Tourism has increased in recent years, driven mostly by the state-sanctioned Aztlan theory, but the village is mostly untouched by modernity.

Residents still live in simple adobe homes and live off the surrounding lagoon.

The village is famous throughout the region for its unique shrimp tamales and local chefs have created a dizzying array of shrimp dishes including shrimp pate, shrimp empanadas and shrimp meatballs.

Island dwellers cherish the town's tranquility — the village is reachable only by boat and its streets, which are sunken about three feet to accommodate constant flooding, aren't big enough for cars

Construction materials must be brought in by boat and the town's trash must be taken out on the water. Townspeople have erected floating pigpens in the lagoon to keep the smell from invading the tiny island.

"Here instead of learning how to drive a car, you learn to steer a canoe," said Anafrancisca Ahumada Villa, a mother of eight. "There's no traffic here."

Despite the Aztlan debate that rages around them, most residents are more focused on squeezing a living out of the dwindling shrimp population than proving historic connections.

"The island is like a big family," Osuna said. "The island gives us what we need to get by."

http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/se ... 1_AUS.html

Anne Martinez, a University of Texas history professor, said the embrace of Aztlan reflected a desire by Mexican-Americans to forge a clear geographical link, and thus a belonging, to the United States.

"It was also the idea that wherever Mexicans are outside of Mexico that that is Aztlan," she said. "That we take Aztlan with us."

What an ethereal bunch of gobbledygook! Just wonder if she is a contributing member of LaRaza or LULAC.

Townspeople have erected floating pigpens in the lagoon to keep the smell from invading the tiny island.

Usually shrimp use deltas and lagoons as nurseries for young shrimp before they are old enough to go to the ocean. I am sure shrimp are happy to have floating pigpens in their nurseries. No wonder these people are not finding a lot of shrimp these days.

With some theories placing the Aztec homeland in the U.S. Southwest, Utah or California, the notion has become fraught with political overtones.


The ONLY "political overtones" to this absurd and insane notion of any part of this country being the rightful possession of Mexico and Mexican nationals....for ANY reason.....should be telling Mexico that they are committing acts of aggression against a sovereign nation, they are to keep their citizens on their side of the border, we will return the ones still here, and if they continue with this ASSAULT on our country, they are not going to be happy with the result.

Mexico has gone too far for too long and it's well past time for them to be put in their place. Continue enforcement, move up the timetable for mass deportations, cut Mexico off COMPLETELY, close our border and militarize the damned thing.

That's the only political overtones which are necessary.







"It was also the idea that wherever Mexicans are outside of Mexico that that is Aztlan," she said. "That we take Aztlan with us."

So, is this an admission that Aztlan......if there ever was one.....is really located in Mexico and NOT in the US as these nut jobs continually claim?

If wherever they decide to go becomes Mexico because they take Aztlan WITH them to those places, then how can they argue that they are travelling FROM Mexico to RECLAIM locations in the US they say were part of Aztlan?

These people talk so much BS even THEY can't keep their lies straight anymore. but the plain truth of the matter is that Mexico is proceeding with a full scale occupation of the United States....nothing more, nothing less......banking on the fact that we will be too civilized to use force to stop them.



Today, the term is more likely to be used by anti-immigration groups warning of a "reconquista," or reconquering, of the Southwest U.S. by Mexican immigrants. The Just Build the Fence blog defines Aztlan as "the enemy encamped within our own borders."



The article failed to mention one HUGELY important FACT.....probably THE most important fact!!

Anti illegal immigration groups are not the ones who came up with this notion of reconquista out of the clear blue sky on a slow day. No one did.
It was brought to the world's attention by none other than the Reconquistas themselves and that is well documented in many, many forms.

And while some may be trying to reclaim Aztlan, let's not forget the FACT that, ever since the Treaty of Hildago was signed, there has been an overwhelming desire by Mexico to, in one way or another, retake the territory which was lost. Embittered, angry, and jealous, this is a society which has, for over a hundred years now, instilled the lie in it's population that this land was stolen from Mexico. This version of the "facts" has been taught in schools, is in their history books, is parroted by their own Consulate employees working here and even officials within the Mexican government including their Presidents

Yet, all of that is conveniently overlooked.

Originally Posted by vortex

Anne Martinez, a University of Texas history professor, said the embrace of Aztlan reflected a desire by Mexican-Americans to forge a clear geographical link, and thus a belonging, to the United States.

"It was also the idea that wherever Mexicans are outside of Mexico that that is Aztlan," she said. "That we take Aztlan with us."

What an ethereal bunch of gobbledygook! Just wonder if she is a contributing member of LaRaza or LULAC.

Don't forget that professors like these are eligible for tax-payer funded grants, the same taxes which, by the way, the federal government takes out of the unemployment compensation checks of the many laborers who lost their jobs to illegal Mexican aliens in the last two years. Many of these federal 'grants', if you want to call them that, give anti-American professors travel money so that they can attend conferences at beach-side resorts with other anti-American academics so they can wallow and moan about how 'evil' the United States is.

Can't think of another society that has screwed things up this badly other than the Roman Empire as it started to fall. And it took Europe over 1500 years to get out of Dark Ages caused by Rome's fall.

Hey, lets send all the illegals in the Southwest that thought they were in Aztlan to their real destination in Mexico.

Dixie