Great Pyramid of Cholula
15 December 2009The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtepetl (Nahuatl for “artificial mountain”), is a huge complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the world’s largest monument and largest Pre-Columbian pyramid by volume.
The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BCE through the 9th century CE, and was dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl. It has a base of 450 by 450 m (1476×1476 ft) and a height of 66 m (217 ft). According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is in fact the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world, with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million m³, even larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt which is about 2.5 million m³. However the Great Pyramid of Giza is higher at 138.8 m (455 feet). The Aztecs believed that Xelhua built the Great Pyramid of Cholula.
Today the pyramid at first appears to be a natural hill surmounted by a church. This is the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Church of Our Lady of the Remedies), also known as the Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios (Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Remedies), which was built by the Spanish in colonial times (1594) on the site of a pre-Hispanic temple. The church is a major Catholic pilgrimage destination, and the site is also used for the celebration of indigenous rites. Many ancient sites in Latin America are found under modern Catholic holy sites, due to the practice of the Catholic Church repurposing local religious sites.
Because of the historic and religious significance of the church, which is a designated colonial monument, the pyramid as a whole has not been excavated and restored, as have the smaller but better-known pyramids at Teotihuacan. Inside the pyramid are some five miles (8 km) of tunnels excavated by archaeologists.
See also
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Cholula de Rivadavia
Cholula is a city in the Mexican state of Puebla. The official, though little used, full name of the city is Cholula de Rivadavia. The city of Cholula is divided into two municipalities, San Andrés Cholula and San Pedro Cholula, which are considered to be part of the conurbation of the city of Puebla, and a third, more rural municipality called Santa Isabel Cholula.
Cholula is located about 15 km west of the city of Puebla, at an approximate elevation of 2135 meters (about 7000 ft) above sea level. The population of Cholula de Rivadavia as of the 2005 census was 82,964 people, the population of San Andrés Cholula was 35,206 and the population of Santa Isabel was 12,349. The municipality of San Pedro Cholula has an area of 51.03 km² (19.7 sq mi) and a population of 113,436, and the municipality of San Andrés Cholula has an area of 61 km² (23.55 sq mi) and a population of 80,118. Most of the residents of the municipality of San Andrés Cholula who do not live in the city of San Andrés Cholula reside in the city of Tlaxcalancingo, which, at a population of 38,541, is actually more populous than the municipal seat. Santa Isabel Cholula has an area of 67.61 km², which make it the largest municipality of all three by surface alone and the one with the lowest population density.
History
Main article: Cholula (Mesoamerican site)
Cholula, or in Nahuatl Cholollan, was an important city of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, dating back to at least the 2nd century BC, with settlement as a village going back at least some thousand years earlier.
Cholula was a major center contemporary with Teotihuacan and seems to have avoided, at least partially, that city’s fate of violent destruction at the end of the Mesoamerican Classic period. Cholula thus remained a regional center of importance, enough so that, at the time of the fall of the Aztec empire, Aztec princes were still formally anointed by a Cholulan priest in a manner reminiscent, and perhaps even analogous, to the way some Mayan princes appear to have come to Teotihuacan in search of some sort of formalization of their rulership.
At the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés Cholula was second only to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) as the largest city in central Mexico, possibly with a population of up to 100,000 people. In addition to the great temple of Quetzalcoatl and various palaces, the city had 365 temples.
During the Spanish Colonial period, however, Cholula was overtaken in importance by the nearby city of Puebla.
Great Pyramid of Cholula
Main article: Great Pyramid of Cholula
Cholula is most famous as the site of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest man-made pyramid and monument by volume in the world.
Etymology
The original Nahuatl name was Cholollan. Probably composed of the two roots “choloa” “to flee” or its nominalized form “chololiztli” “flight” and the locative suffix -tlan meaning “place of” – making the names meaning something close to “place of flight”.
It is possible that this meaning has to do with the original inhabitants of the city having been forced to leave by the expanding Nahuas. Some historians have posited that Cholula was originally inhabited by the Oto-Manguean Chorotega people who were driven from central Mexico with the incursions of the Nahuas.
Modern Cholula
As part of the Puebla urban area, Cholula is famed locally for its lively night life. Its town centre and zócalo area are filled with a wide range of bars and restaurants that are popular with young people from local areas and especially from the nearby Universidad de las Américas (University of the Americas, Puebla, or UDLAP for short). The city is also the namesake for Cholula hot sauce.
See also
External links
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Puebla, Puebla
The city and municipality of Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico.[1] It is located to the east of Mexico City and west of the port of Veracruz, on the main route between the two. The city was founded in 1531 in an area called Cuetlaxcoapan which means “where serpents change their skin.”[2] This valley was not populated in the 16th century as in the pre-Hispanic period, this area was primarily used to the “Flower Wars” between a number of populations.[3] Due it its history and architectural styles ranging from Renaissance to Mexican Baroque, the city was named a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city is also famous for mole poblano, chiles en nogada and Talavera pottery. However, most of its economy is based on industry.
History
In the 15th century, this valley was set aside for use for the so-called Flower Wars among the populations of Itzocan, Tepeaca, Huejotzingo, Texmelucan and Tlaxcala, with those soldiers captured being used as sacrifice victims.[3]
The foundation of Puebla begins with a letter from the bishop of Tlaxcala in 1530, Julián Garcés, to the Spanish queen outlining the need for a Spanish settlement between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz.[4] According to legend, the bishop had a dream about where to build the city. In this dream, he saw a valley with woods and meadows crossed by a clear river and dotted with fresh-water springs on fertile land. While he was contemplating this scenery, he supposedly saw a group of angels descend from heaven and trace out the city. Convinced he had seen a divine vision, he celebrated Mass, and took some of the brothers out in search of the place. Five leagues from the monastery he declared they had found the place shown in the dream. This legend is the source of Puebla’s original name, Puebla de los Angeles, and its current nickname Angelópolis.[2][5]
The city was founded in the Valley of Cuetlaxcoapan through which run the San Francisco, Atoyaca and Alseseca rivers. This valley was bordered by the provinces of Cholula, Tlaxcala, Huejotzingo and Tepeaca, all of which had large indigenous populations. After the city’s foundation, this valley became the main route between Mexico City and Veracruz. Official date of foundation is 16 April 1531, however, this first attempt at settlement failed due to constant flooding of the site right next to the river.[4]
Most of the population moved away from the west bank of the San Francisco River to a higher site. A few families remained behind and renamed the original settlement Alto de San Francisco. The Spanish Crown supported the founding of Puebla as a city without encomiendas, as this system was being abused and a number of Spaniards were finding themselves landless. Puebla received its coat-of-arms in 1538, and the titles “Noble y Leal” (Noble and Loyal) in 1558, “Muy Noble and Leal Ciudad” (Very Noble and Loyal City) in 1561 and “Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad” (Very Noble and Very Loyal City) in 1576.[4]
The layout of the city is of classic Spanish design, centered on a main plaza, today called the Zocalo. This main plaza originally was rectangular, but later made square because the earlier version was considered to be ugly. Another major feature of the city was the weekly markets (tianguis), in which indigenous sellers would come with their wares and foodstuffs to sell to the population. By the mid 16th century, water was brought in to the main plaza to a newly installed fountain. By the end of the century, the city occupied 120 blocks, much of which was under construction, with the new Cathedral begun in 1575.[4] Its favorable climate and strategic location helped the city to prosper, quickly becoming the second most important city in New Spain.[2]
The city council of Puebla, being made up of only Spaniards, had a certain amount of autonomy in the politics of the city and the land under its jurisdiction. This council annexed the towns of Amozoc, Totimehuacán, and Cuautinchán to its territory in 1755. By 1786, Puebla’s lands reached from what is now Veracruz to Guerrero states.[3] The city continued to grow and be more regulated during the 17th and 18th centuries. A new city hall was built in 1714 and the tianguis in the main plaza was replaced by wood stalls by the 1770s. The streets were paved with stone between 1786 and 1811.[4]
Commercial activity was dislodged from the main plaza completely by the early 19th century and placed in the San Francisco Parian market. Other plazas, such as the San Luis, San Antonio, El Carmen, La Concordia and Santa Inés were built. The main plaza underwent several transformations, adding statues and gardens.[4] During the Mexican War of Independence, Puebla’s main role was the printing and distribution of the plan for independence.[2] After Independence in 1827, all Spaniards were expelled from the city’s lands.[6]
In 1847, the city was taken by U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott, without a shot fired. These forces left in 1848 after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.[6]
On 5 May 1862, defending Mexican forces under Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French army under Count de Lorencez, which was considered to be the most powerful in the world at the time. The city’s name was changed to Puebla de Zaragoza in 1862, by a decree issued by Benito Juárez and the holiday “5 de Mayo” is a major annual event here.[2] The city was attacked again by the French in 1863, who succeeded in taking it. French forces left in 1866 and reconstruction began in 1867.
During the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Puebla remained important culturally and economically. It had a thriving textile industry at this time. Immigration from Europe was encouraged and people from Spain, Italy, Germany France and Lebanon came to live in the city. French influence can still be seen in much of the city’s architecture. The Germans mostly settled in the Humboldt neighborhood where Bavarian style houses and the Alexander von Humboldt German College can still be found. German immigration here was one of the reasons Volkswagon built a large factory just outside of the city, later in the 20th century.[2]
In what became a precursor to the Mexican Revolution, Carmen and Máximo Serdán were behind one of the first conspiracies against the Porfirio Diaz government. Their plans were discovered and their house, located on 6 Oriente Street was surrounded by federal troops. A gun battled ensued, killing both brothers on 18 November 1910.[2] During the Mexican Revolution, the city is taken by forces under General Pablo Gonzalez, then later was under Zapatista control.[6]
From 1931 until the end of the 20th century, growth of the city spurred the absorption of the municipalities of Ignacio Mariscal, San Felipe Hueyotlipan, Resurreccion, San Jeronimo Caleras, San Miguel Canoa and San Francisco Totimehuacán into the city.[3] In 1950, by decree of the state congress, the city received the title of Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza. In 1977, the federal government declared the city as a Zone of Historical Monuments. In 1987, the historic center of Puebla is declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The municipality
As municipal seat, the city of Puebla is the government for 482 other communities[7] with a total area of 534.32km2.[3] However, 94% of the municipality’s population lof 1,485,941 lives in the city proper.[7] The municipality is located in the west central part of the state bordering the municipalities of Santo Domingo Huehutlán, Teopantlán, Amozoc, Cuauthinchán, Tzicatlacoyan, Cuautlancingo, San Andrés Cholula, Ocoyucan and the state of Tlaxcala.[3] Most of the municipality has been deforested, including the lower portions of the Malinche Volcano, due to logging and seasonal farming. The higher elevations still conserve forests of pine, holm oak and other tree species. The Sierra de Amozoc has been completely deforested but the forests of Sierra del Tentzon are stil intact. Animal life consists mostly of small mammals such as rabbits and skunks as well as birds such as owls, buzzards and some wild waterfowl.[3]
Some agriculture still takes place in the municipality but environmental degradation and the growth of the city is making this a smaller sector of the economy. Crops raised include corn, beans, wheat, oats, avocados, pears, apples, peaches, choke cherries, Mexican hawthorns, nuts and white sapotes. Most agriculture takes place on small plots on the edges of the municipality. Similarly livestock such as cattle, pigs, sheep and horses are raised.[3]
Industry accounts for about eighty percent of the economy and is mostly based on the outskirts of the city as well as in some surrounding municipalities. Main products include basic metals, chemicals, electrical items and textiles. The main employers are Hylsa and the Volkswagan automotive plant. A growing sector is food processing. Many industries are consolidated into parks such as the 5 de Mayo Industrial Park, the Resurrección Industrial Zone and the Puebla 2000 Industrial Park. These three parks provide just under 50% of the state’s jobs.
Geography
Puebla is located at the Valley of Puebla also known as the Valley of Cuetlaxcoapan, a large valley surrounded on four sides by the mountains and volcanoes of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. It is located 40 km. east of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes, giving the residents a magnificent view of their snow-topped peaks. La Malinche dormant volcano is located to the north of the city, and the Pico de Orizaba to the east. Hydrologically, the city is part of the Atoyac river basin; the river runs through northern, eastern and southern portions of the municipality, and connects to the Lake of Valsequillo, where the Manuel Ávila Camacho dam has been built. Other rivers that cross the area are the Alseseca and San Francisco.
Climate
Under the Koppen climate classification, Puebla features a Subtropical highland climate. The climate is moderated by its high altitude of 2,200m (7,000 ft). As a result it rarely gets truly hot in Puebla, with an average of only three days seeing temperatures rise above 29°C (85°F). Night temperatures are cool at all times of the year, often requiring additional clothing. Puebla experiences a dry season from November through April and a rainy season from May-October. The valley has a temperate climate while the higher elevations have cold climates. Most rain falls in the summer and early fall.
Cultural attractions
One of the reasons Puebla was chosen as a World Heritage Site was due to the historic and cultural value of its architecture. Various styles and techniques such as Baroque, Renaissance and Classic are represented here in over 5,000 buildings included in the catalogue.[9] The historic center is filled with churches, monasteries, mansions and the like, mostly done in gray cantera stone, red brick and decorated with multicolored tiles. Puebla is also considered to be the “cradle of Mexican Baroque” both in architecture and in the decorative arts,[10] and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico.[1]
In spite of the many commercial centers that exist in Puebla today, the Zocalo remains the cultural, political and religious center of the city.[11] It was the first block to be laid out, with the rest of the historic center traced out from it in the form of a checkerboard. This main plaza originally was rectangular, but later made square because the earlier version was considered to be ugly. Until the end of the 18th century, this was the main market for the town. For much of the colonial period, it was the main source of potable water via a fountain that had been installed in center in the mid 16th century.[4] Many political and cultural events have been and continue to be held here. Bullfights were held in the main square from 1566 to 1722.[11] Today, the Zocalo is a tree-filled plaza and contains a large number of sculptures, but the most noted is the one of the Archangel Michael that is in a fountain placed in the center in 1777. Many notable buildings surround the Zocalo including the Municipal Palace, the Casa de Muñecas and the Cathedral. Most of the streets in Puebla are named on a numbering system, which centers on the northwest corner of the Zocalo.
The Cathedral, located on 16 de Septiembre and 5 Oriente, took 300 years to complete, in part due to interruptions in its construction. The Cathedral was begun in 1575 under orders of Philip II of Spain by architects Francisco Becerra and Juan de Cigorondo. The building was consecrated in 1649 even though only half of the walls and much of the roof were missing and the towers not yet built. The north tower was added in 1678 and the south tower in 1768.The shape of the cathedral is a Latin cross and contains five naves. The main altar is octagonal, with four others oriented to the cardinal directions[10] The complex consists of fourteen chapels in various styles with numerous artistic works such as the main cupola and the main altar, both decorated by Cristóbal de Villalpando. The facade is classified as late Baroque in transition to Neoclassical, with Doric and Corinthian columns. Its bell towers stand at just under 70 meters high, the tallest in Mexico. The seating in the choir is made of parquetry of fine woods, onyx and ivory of Moorish design. The two organs were donated by Charles V.[9] In the crypt under the Cathedral, numerous statues of saints and angels made of onyx can be seen.[13]
The Museo Amparo (Amparo Museum) is housed in two colonial-era buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries that were popularly known as El Hospitalito. One was the Hospital of San Juan de Letrán, which was converted into a college for women. The other is a mansion from the 18th century. It was joined to the hospital and then became the “Deposito de Mujeres Casadas” (Refuge of Married Women) This was established in 1606 for women whose husbands were gone for long periods of time. However, the idea was not popular with women and in 1609, it became the asylum for “lost women,” those obligated to be secluded for some reason. This facility was moved to another building and the building became part of the women’s college founded next door, then a convent. The museum has fourteen exhibition halls with pottery, steles and sculptures from the Zapotec, Huasteca, Maya, Olmec and Aztec cultures as well as fine furniture and religious objects from the colonial period and examples of contemporary art. These represent the three epochs of Mexican history, pre-Hispanic, colonial-era and post-Independence. Seven of the halls are dedicated to pre-Hispanic pieces.[14][15]
The Biblioteca Palafoxiana (Palafoxiana Library) was established in 1646 by Juan de Palafox y Mendoza for the Seminary of Puebla. He donated his own collection of 5,000 books to the College of San Juan to start the collection. It was the first library in the Americas and is the only one to survive to the present day. The main room is in Baroque style which was constructed in 1773, by Bishop Francisco Fabian y Fuero who also named the institution after Palafox. Today the library contains over 42,000 books, 5,000 manuscripts and other items, which date from 1473 to 1910. The Library was named a Monumento Histórico de México and UNESCO has made it part of Memory of the World.[16]
The Casa del Deán is the oldest noble house in the city of Puebla, constructed by Tomás de la Plaza Goes, who was the deacon of the Cathedral of Puebla. It was finished in 1580. The building remained practically intact until 1953, when it was going to be demolished to construct a movie theater. Protests to save the building, due to it’s murals and façade, succeeded. The murals are frescos, which are the only surviving non-religious examples from the 16th century in their original place in Mexico. The gray stone facade is completely smooth to let the main portal, of Renaissance style, stand out. The portal contains and upper and lower portion with a crest.[17]
The Centro Cultural Santa Rosa is housed in a building that dates from the 17th century which originally was housing for Dominican nuns. Later, it became a convent in the name of Saint Rose of Lima. This is where the story of the invention of mole poblano takes place. In 1869, it ceased being a convent and became a psychiatric hospital. In the 20th century the Ceramic Museum was founded in the building’s kitchen, with the rest of the building occupied as tenements for about 1500 people. In 1973, the Museo de Arte Cultural Poblano was founded and in 2000 the name was changed to the current one. The facility offers expositions, shows and art classes.[18]
The Museo de la Revolución (Museum of the Revolution) was the home of Aquiles Serdán in the very early 20th century. He was active and the anti-reelection movement of the time and was accused of distributing propaganda against President Porfirio Diaz. Police assaulted the building and Serdán and his family fought back, until Aquiles was killed. President Francisco I. Madero stayed at the home in honor of Serdán. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Mexico City and the building became tenements and stores. Decades later, the federal government acquired the building from the family to convert it to the museum that is here today.
Fort Loreto and Fort Guadalupe are located in the Centro Civico 5 de Mayo part of the city. Both were instrumental to the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862. The chapel of the Loreto fort contains a former chapel, which is now the Museo de la No Intervención (Museum of Non-Intervention). This is to commemorate a non-aggression pact signed by Mexico and Central American and two South American countries in the 1960’s. The Museo de Guerra del Fuerte (Fort War Museum) de Loreto y Guadalupe is located in this fort as well. This museum contains cannons, shotguns, swords, documents and other objects related to this battle.[20]
The Galería de Arte Contemporáneo y Diseño (Gallery of Contemporary Art and Design) is dedicated to visual arts such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, metal etching, photography, video, and others and belongs to the Secretary of Culture of the state of Puebla. It is housed in the old La Violeta textile factory, which dates back to 1908, and was one only many factories in this area at that time. This building was renovated between 1995 and 1998 for this museum.[21]
The Museo de José Mariano Bello y Acedo (José Mariano Bello y Acedo Museum) was initially founded with the private collection of the Bello family, along with works donated by friends. It originally began as a private museum or pinacotheca. Upon José Mariano’s death, the house and collection was bequeathed to the city.
The Casa de Alfeñique is named for the intricate mortar work that covers its facade. Alfeñique is a kind of sugar and almond candy. It was constructed by Antonio Santamaría de Incháurregui for Juan Ignacio Morales, who was a master ironsmith. The facades also contain ironwork balconies, cornices and a crown. The house was left to the state by Alejandro Ruiz Olavarrieta in 1896. It was first used to house the first public museum in the city of Puebla. The collection contains more than 1,500 pieces of a historical nature.[23]
The Museo de Arte (Museum of Art) originally was constructed to be the Temple of San Pedro, founded in 1541 to be a church and a hospital. Eventually it was established as the Hospital of San Pedro y San Pablo under the direction of the Cathedral of Tlaxcala. It was functioning as a hospital by 1544, but it incurred major expenditures, forcing it to limit service to men only. The arches of the main courtyard were completed in 1640, as well as it fountain and nursing units. In the first half of the 18th century, the hospital ceased to be under the direct control of the Cathedral, passing to the monks of the order of San Juan de Dios. In the latter half of the century, it began to house soldiers in order to improve its finances. The hospital underwent major reforms in the early 19th century to improve medical care, and began to receive medical students from the Medical-Surgical Academy of Puebla. In 1867, the facility became the Hospital General del Estado. In 1917, the hospital moved to new facilities in the city. Through most of the 20th century, the building was used for a wide-variety of purposes. In 1998, a project to restore the building for its use as Puebla Museum of Viceregal Art. In 2002, this museum was converted into the San Pedro Museum of Art, which exhibits works from various epochs.[24]
The Museum Workshop of Erasto Cortés Juárez was the home of one of the major figures in fine and graphic arts in Puebla in the 20th century. The museum was founded in 2000 and contains more than 400 pieces of both his work and personal effects. The museum also hosts temporary exhibits, workshops and seminars.[25]
The Teatro Principal de Puebla (Main Theater of Puebla) was inaugurated in 1761 by Miguel de Santamaría. In 1902, the theater burned down, and was rebuilt in 1940, and again in 1998. The theater hosts cultural events and art shows featuring regional, national and international artists.
The Municipal Palace is located on Maximino Avila Camacho. The facade is made of gray cantera stone in Renaissance style, using Ionic columns and pediments, differing from the other buildings that border the main plaza. The portal has two levels topped by a central garret, in which there is a clock and towers on each side.[9]
The Fountain of the China Poblana is located on Blvd Heroes de 5 de May. It is a monumental work done in cantera stone and Talavera tile, with a base of about thirty meters in diameter. In the center is a column that supports two large bowls and a sculpture of the China Pobalana which is over three meters high.[9]
The Church and ex Monastery of San Francisco is on Blvd Heroes del 5 de Mayo. Its elevated four-level tower stands out with its mouldings and Ionic and Doric pilasters. The main facade is done in gray cantera stone in which are sculpted large jars and flowers. The main portal is of Churrigueresque style, flanked by large panels of tilework surrounded by Plateresque decoration. Inside is a Plateresque choir, Neoclassic altarpieces and the mummified body of the beatified Sebastian de Aparicio.
The Church of Santo Domingo is located on 5 de Mayo Street. The main portal is of pure Classic style finished in gray cantera stone. It consists of three levels with paired Doric-like columns. The facade of the old monastery is highly decorated in Baroque style, in front of which is a large atrium. Inside the ceiling consists of two large vaults and contains gilded altarpieces in Baroque, Salmonic and Churrigueresque styles.[9] The Chapel Del Rosario is located in the Church of Santo Domingo. The Chapel was built between 1650 and 1690 and was the first to be dedicated to the Our Lady of the Rosary. The chapel is filled with symbolism, as it is filled with images and elements which are representative of the Baroque of New Spain. This symbolism is principally meant to aid with the evangelization process. The chapel contains three themes important to the Church, the mysteries of the rosary, the virtues associated with it and the Virgin of the Rosary herself. The cupola is in the shape of the crown of the Virgin Mary. The chapel is decorated with sculpted plaster that has been gilded done by local artists. There are also six paintings done by José Rodriguez Carnero as well as paintings by the altar depicting the life of the Virgin.[27] El Parian is an arts and crafts market, within walking distance of the plaza. It consists mostly of permanent stalls but there is an area provided for vendors who visit and sell their wares on blankets spread on the ground.[5]
Cuexcomate is the smallest volcano in the world at just thirteen meters tall and a diameter of 23 meters. The volcano is inactive and located in the La Libertad neighborhood of the city of Puebla. There is a spiral staircase going down into the crater itself.
5 de Mayo
Every year on the 5th of May, Puebla celebrates the defeat of invading French troops here in 1862. Celebrations include several days of concerts, lectures, other cultural activities. On the 5th itself, there is a very large parade and a re-enactment of the battle.[29][30] The parade includes Mexican Army, Navy, Special Forces and soldiers dressed in period uniform. The military displays tanks, Humvees and armored personnel carriers. Civilian participation includes school bands, students and floats, both from Mexico and from abroad.[31]
However, this holiday is not really celebrated anywhere else in Mexico.
Education
The Universidad de la Américas, Puebla (UDLAP) was founded as part of the Mexico City College in 1940. In 1944, the first twelve students had graduated and by 1959, the college was accepted into the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools of the United States, when it was called the Universidad de las Américas. The Puebla campus was founded in 1967, when the Ex-Hacienda of Santa Catarina Mártir, Cholula, as donated to the school by Mary Street Jenkins. Since 2005, this has been the site of the Rectory of UDLAP. Today, the campus has more than 8,000 students studying at both the bachelor’s the graduate levels.[32]
Other universities include Universidad de Puebla [1], the Benemerita Universidad de Puebla [2], the Universidad Autónoma Popular de Puebla [3] and the Universidad Politécnica de Puebla.
Cuisine
The best-known mole is named after the city of Puebla, mole poblano. The origin of this sauce is disputed and there are two versions of the legend that are most often cited. The first states that 16th century nuns from the Convent of Santa Rosa were worried because they had just found out that the archbishop was going to visit them and they had nothing to prepare for him except for an old turkey in the yard. Supposedly due to divine inspiration, they began to mix together many of the spices and flavorings they had on hand in the kitchen, including different types of chili peppers, other spices, day-old bread, chocolate and approximately twenty other ingredients. They let the sauce simmer for hours and poured it over the turkey meat. Fortunately, the archbishop was very pleased with the meal and the nuns were able to save face.[33]
The other story states that the sauce is of pre-Hispanic times and this was served to Hernán Cortés and the other conquistadors by Moctezuma II.[33] The Aztecs did have a preparation called “chilmulli,” which in Nahuatl means “chili pepper sauce.” [34] However, there is no evidence that chocolate was ever used to flavor prepared foods or used in chilmulli.[33] What has happened is that the sauce gained ingredients as it was reinterpreted over the colonial period.[34] Many food writers and gourmets nowadays consider one particular dish, the famous turkey in mole poblano, which contains chocolate, to represent the pinnacle of the Mexican cooking tradition.
Another famous dish, chiles en nogada, was also supposedly invented here. The story begins with three sisters from Puebla who met officers from Agustin de Iturbide’s Army of the Three Guarantees in Mexico City and fell in love with them. Attempts were made to engage the couples but one problem was that none of the sisters knew how to cook. Upon returning to Puebla, their mother sent them to the Convent of Santa Monica to learn. The women decided they wanted to make an original dish to impress Iturbide and his officers when they were due to visit Puebla. The dish, chiles en nogada, represents the colors of the Mexican flag, green (poblano chili pepper), white (the walnut sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds). The dish was served for the first time at a banquet for Iturbide with great success.
Another signature dish in Puebla is the “cemita,” which is a type of well-stuffed sandwich on a bun.[13] The cemita is considered to be the sister of the Mexican torta, the first cousin of the pambazo, the distant cousin of the paste and the sandwich and the precursor to the giant tortas that are now sold in most parts of Mexico today. This large, meaty sandwich is named after the bread on which is it is served, a cemita. This bread is based on a bread introduced by the French during the period of the French Intervention in Mexico (1863-1867), but since then has evolved to suit Mexican tastes, especially in Puebla state. In the early 20th century, the bread began to be served sliced with a filling of leftovers, generally potatoes, beans, nopal, beef, chicken or pork. The Victoria Market in Puebla became famous for a version with beef hoof, onions and chili peppers with a vinaigrette sauce. Other markets and food stands soon created their own versions of the cemita with just about any kind of filling combination possible. During the same time period, it became traditional to sprinkle sesame seeds onto the cemita bread, often with designs of flowers, stars, animals and other things. While the dish started out as a lower-class meal, it is now enjoyed by people of all social classes in the city as a form of fast-food.
Talavera pottery
Soon after its foundation, Puebla was well-known for its fine ceramics, especially for the style that would be called Talavera. This has been due to the abundance of quality clay in the region, drawing some of the best artisans. Between 1550 and 1570, Spanish potter from Talavera de la Reina in Spain came to Puebla to teach the locals European techniques of using the potter’s wheel and tin-glazing. These new methods were mixed with native designs to give rise to what became known as Poblano Talavera. The glazing technique was first used for the tiles that still decorate many of the buildings in this city. Later, it was used to make pots, plates, jars, religious figures and other items. By the mid 1600s, the industry here had become well-established. Guilds were formed and ordinances passed to ensure quality. Blue was used only on the most expensive pieces due to the cost of the mineral used to produce it. The period between 1650 and 1750 was known as the Golden Age.[37]
In 1813, the constitution eradicated the potter’s guild and revoked the ordinances established in 1653 to standardize production. Now anybody could use this ceramic method in any style they wanted, and the lack of regulations led to a decline in technique and artistic quality. The Talavera market crashed. Out of the 46 workshops in production since the 1700s, only seven remained. When Enrique Luis Ventosa, a 29-year old Catalan, arrived in Puebla in 1897, there were just six workshops left. Ventosa was fascinated by the history and fine craft work that had distinguished Puebla from the rest of Mexico. He became the leading force behind a renaissance in Talavera ware.[37]
Another impetus to the rebirth of Puebla tile was that collectors found out about it. In 1904 an American named Emily Johnston de Forrest traveled to Mexico with her husband and discovered Talavera. She established contact with scholars, collectors, and dealers who assisted her in building her collection. Eventually her collection was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Other museums, like the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, built their own collections. The Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City has the largest collection of 726 pieces.
Legend of the China Poblana
Main article: China Poblana
According to legend, a young Indian woman named Mirra was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates and taken to Cochin (modern-day Kochi), in the south of India. There, she escaped her kidnappers and took refuge in a Jesuit mission, where she was baptized with the name Catarina de San Juan. Mirra was again kidnapped by the same pirates that had taken her from her birth parents, and in Manila they delivered her to the merchant who later took her to New Spain. Once in Acapulco, she was sold to a Puebla merchant by the name of Miguel de Sosa. Through her life, Catarian or Mirra continued to dress in a sari. It is possible that is this gave rise to the “china dress” that became popular in Mexico in the 17th century. A few years after her arrival in Mexico, Miguel de Sosa died, providing in his will for the manumission of his slave. She was taken in by a convent, where it is said she began to have visions of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. The “China Poblana” died on 5 January, 1688 at the age of 82. In Puebla, she was venerated as a saint until 1691, when the Mexican Inquisition prohibited open devotion to her. Today, the Templo de la Compañía, in Puebla, is known as La Tumba de la China Poblana because in its sacristy lie the remains of Catarina de San Juan.
Sports
Puebla has two professional soccer teams, “Puebla F.C.” and “Lobos de la BUAP“. The biggest soccer stadium in the city, “Cuauhtémoc”, with a capacity of 49,914, was built in 1968 as a second soccer field for the 1968 Olympic Games. Matches for the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups were also played in Estadio Cuauhtémoc.
Puebla has a professional baseball team, the “Pericos de Puebla“. Puebla, through the conurbated area of Cholula, has one college American football team, the “Aztecas” of the Universidad de las Américas. The Aztecas have won the championship three times since the creation of the Mexican College Football Organization (ONEFA) in 1978 (1995, 1996, and 1997). The team has been runner’s up in the league 5 times, most recently in 2006 and 2007, losing the championship game all five times to the ITESM Campus Monterrey Borregos Salvajes. The Azteca’s home stadium is the Templo del Dolor (Temple of Pain).
Transportation
Puebla is served by Hermanos Serdán International Airport, which is part of the metropolitan airport group for the Mexican capital and an alternate airport for Mexico City. It provides domestic services and flights to the United States. The airport is going under a construction phase to build a new terminal which would be capable of handling many international flights. The airport is also used as a place to manufacture goods and export and import due to prime location.
The government of the state of Puebla has begun a program of pink taxis exclusively for women, driven by women and equipped with mechanisms to deter assaults. The first 35 taxis have taken to the streets to provide secure rides 24 hours a day.
External links
Government
Sports
Images
Events
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Puebla
This article is about the state. For the city, see Puebla, Puebla.
Puebla is a Mexican state located in the south-central part of the country, to the east of Mexico City. The state borders Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, Mexico State, Tlaxcala, and Morelos to the west, and Guerrero and Oaxaca to the south. The state’s largest cities are Puebla and Tehuacan, it has 217 municipalities. Puebla does not have a coastline.
Etymology
The state of Puebla takes its name from the capital city, which was originally La Puebla de los Angeles (Town of the Angels). The formal name is Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza (Heroic Puebla of Zaragoza), after Ignacio Zaragoza who defeated the Imperial French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, which is commemorated as Cinco de Mayo.
Geography
On the northeast corner of the state, the mountain chain known as the eastern Sierra Madre takes the regional name of Northern Sierra of Puebla, whereas the rest of the state is crossed by the “Transversal Volcanic System”, part of a larger system known as the “Neo-Volcanic Axis”. Within this rugged landscape, some peaks stand out, such as the Citlaltepetl volcano, better known as the Pico de Orizaba, the highest point in all of Mexico reaching an altitude of 5,610 meters above sea level, and which is shared with the neighboring state of Veracruz. Other major elevations in Puebla include the famous Popocatepetl volcano at 5,500 meters; the Iztaccihuatl at 5,230 meters and the Cerro La Negra.
The bodies of water supplying the state with the precious liquid include various rivers such as the Atoyac, Tilaza, Mixteco, Nexapa, Pentepec, San Marcos, Salado Cempoala, Zapoteco, Tehuacan, Ajajalpa and Nexaca rivers, the latter one forming an hydrologic basin protected by the state and listed as Natural Reserve.
The high zones of the Northern Sierra are usually covered by local species called chanchan, ojoh, and palo de agua; while the peaks of the volcanic system displays pine, oak, and oyamel forests. Moving down on to the semi-hot valleys, the landscape features several plant species of falling leaves like cuajiote, copal, and cuachalalate. The fauna found across most of the state consists of leopard, wild-boar, wolf, porcupine, badger, squirrel and rattle-snake.
Climatic conditions also respond to the different regions and their particular characteristics : the high zones of the central “Neo-Volcanic Axis” and the low lands of the state report dry or semi-dry conditions, while the valleys of the south present a hot and sub-humid climate.
Economy
The state economy of Puebla contributes with a respectable 3,7% of the national Gross Domestic Product, making it the seventh largest contributor in Mexico. The state income is distributed into the Services sector with 22,6%; manufacturing industries with 22,5%; commerce, hotels and restaurants with 22%; and financial and real-estate services with 13,7%.
Puebla stands out nationally in the production of flowers in open uncovered environments, egg, coffee, beer and beans, and still keeps the traditional and ancestral production of onyx and marble.
Demography
In 2003 the estimated population was 5,377,800. It is the 5th most populated state in Mexico.
26% of the population lives in the state capital of Puebla de Zaragoza, and the rest is distributed across 216 municipalities, where 29% of the people live in rural settlements.
Other demographic particulars reveal that 92% of the population follows the catholic faith; 12% speak a native dialect, the most common of which is the nahuatl followed by the totonaca, a statistic that places Puebla as the eighth state with the highest percentage of inhabitants who speak an indigenous language.
Municipalities
Main article: Municipalities of Puebla
The state of Puebla is divided into seven regions (Huauchinango, Teziutlán, Ciudad Serdán, San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, Izúcar de Matamoros, and Tehuacán), which are in turn subdivided into municipalities (Spanish: municipios), 217 in all. Each municipality is headed by a municipal president (mayor).
Major communities
Education
For a state with a large and robust economy, Puebla is still lagging behind in terms of education, as average schooling for those over 15 years of age is of only 7,4 years, when the national average reaches 8,1 years of education. In addition, as much as 12% from the same fraction is illiterate, 17% did not finish primary school and only 8% has earned a professional degree.
Some of universities located in Puebla are: Universidad de las Américas, Universidad Iberoamericana, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, and Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education.
Transportation
Puebla is served by Hermanos Serdan International Airport cars and buses are also widely used as transportation.
External links
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Recent Mexico Travel News
Recent News December14, 2009
Mexico sees tourism recovering from 2009 flu blow
15 Dec 2009 00:18:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
MEXICO CITY, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Mexico is facing a $1.6 billion drop in tourism revenues for 2009, thanks to a deadly flu outbreak, but the fall is smaller than first feared and visitors should return in 2010, the government said on Monday. …
The Myth that No Place in Mexico is Safe
Monday, December 14, 2009
Source: mexidata.info
Thanks to the bloody drug battles being waged on a daily basis in so many Mexican cities and towns, the country has acquired a terrible reputation as a travel destination in the last few years. While some areas in Mexico definitely need to be avoided by tourists, there are several areas where this reputation is completely undeserved. …
Filmmaker Yolanda Cruz pays heed to the overlooked Mexican Indian
December 14, 2009
Source: latimes.com
Its indigenous people are an integral part of Mexican society, but you wouldn’t guess it from watching Mexican movies and television, glancing at billboards or perusing the ranks of the nation’s political and economic elites. …
World Travel Watch
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Source: sfgate.com
… 3 Mexico: Violent crime is increasing throughout the state of Chihuahua, according to the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez (across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas), who issued an alert Dec. 8 saying that drug violence has now spread to family members of rival cartel members. The consulate advised Americans to defer non-essential travel to the Guadalupe Bravo area southeast of the city (known locally as “Valle de Juarez”) and to the entire northwest quarter of the state. …
Destinations to watch in 2010
December 10, 2009
Source: usatoday.com
… Mexico
With the H1N1 virus and drug-related violence in its Northern cities, Mexico tourism had a rough 2009. But a big anniversary, a strong dollar, and some of the most affordable hotel rates in years promise a brighter 2010 for travelers to Acapulco, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and other popular spots in Mexico. …
Long-awaited opening of Anzalduas bridge set for Tuesday
December 12, 2009
Source: themonitor.com
NEAR GRANJENO — Everything is ready for the opening of the first new U.S.-Mexico bridge in the past 10 years.
The four lanes of the Anzalduas International Bridge are set to open 6 a.m. Tuesday to tourist vehicles and buses. The bridge connects to a ring road on the Mexican side that will link travelers to the Reynosa-Monterrey highway, allowing them to avoid the traffic of downtown Reynosa. …
Transat lends its support to four new sustainable tourism projects in Mexico, Peru, Morocco and Turkey
December 8, 2009
Source: cnw.ca
MONTREAL, Dec. 8 /CNW Telbec/ – Transat, one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada’s holiday travel leader, today announced its support for four new sustainable tourism initiatives in as many of its destination countries, namely Mexico, Peru, Morocco and Turkey. From the Maya Riviera to Machu Picchu, from the Saffron Region to the Aegean Sea, Transat’s financial support program for projects in travel destinations continues to broaden its international reach in favour of more sustainable tourism. Since the program was founded in 2007, Transat has supported 12 projects in 8 countries (the others are Canada, France, Cuba and Tunisia) and committed nearly $475,000 ((euro)300,000). …
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History of the Aztecs
The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexica. The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word “Mexica”.
The capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, built on raised island in Lake Texcoco. Mexico City is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish colonization of the Americas reached the mainland during the reign of Huey Tlatoani , Moctezuma II (Montezuma II). In 1521 Hernan Cortés and an allied army of American Indians that far outnumbered the defending Aztecs, conquered the Aztecs through germ warfare, siege warfare, psychological warfare, and direct combat.
Origins of the Aztecs
Main article: Aztlán
The Aztecs’ legendary home was Aztlan, a Nahuatl word likely meaning “place of the heron”. It is generally thought that Aztlan was somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it as far north as Northwestern Mexico and the US Southwest, while others suggest is a mythical place, since Aztlan can also be translated as “the place of the origin”.
Whatever caused them to leave Aztlan, the Mexica, as the Aztecs called themselves, came to the Valley of Mexico in the mid-13th century. The mythical story of these travels is recorded in a number of Aztec codices.
The Aztecs arrive in the Valley of Mexico
In the 13th century in the Valley of Mexico, there existed many city-states including Chalco, Xochimilco, Tlacopan, Culhuacan, and Atzcapotzalco. The most powerful were Culhuacan on the south shore of Lake Texcoco and Azcapotzalco on the west shore.
As a result, when the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico as a semi-nomadic tribe, they had nowhere to go. In roughly 1248, they first settled on Chapultepec, a hill on the west shore of Lake Texcoco, the site of numerous springs.
In time, the Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco ousted the Mexica from Chapultepec and the ruler of Culhuacan, Cocoxtli, gave the Mexica permission to settle in the empty barrens of Tizaapan in 1299. There they married and assimilated into Culhuacan culture.
In 1323, they asked the new ruler of Culhuacan, Achicometl, for his daughter, in order to make her the goddess Yaocihuatl. Unbeknownst to the king, the Mexica actually planned to sacrifice her. The Mexica believed that by doing this the princess would join the gods as a deity. As the story goes, during a festival dinner, a priest came out wearing her flayed skin as part of the ritual. Upon seeing this, the king and the people of Culhuacan were horrified and expelled the Mexica.
Forced to flee, in 1325 they went to a small island on the west side of Lake Texcoco, where they began to build their city Tenochtitlan, eventually creating a large artificial island. It is said that the Aztec god, Huitzlipochtli, instructed the Aztecs to found their city at the location where they saw an eagle, on a cactus, with a snake in its talons. The Aztecs, apparently, saw this vision on the small island where Tenochtitlan was founded.
Another Mexica group settled on the north side of this island: this would become the city of Tlatelolco. Originally, this was an independent Mexica kingdom, but eventually it was absorbed by Tenochtitlan, and treated as a “fifth” quadrant. The famous marketplace described by Hernan Cortés and Bernal Diaz del Castillo was actually located in Tlatelolco.
In 1376, the Mexica elected their first tlatoani, Acamapichtli, following customs learned from the Culhuacan.
Rise of the Aztecs
Initially, the Mexica hired themselves out as mercenaries in wars between the different Nahua states.
From 1376 until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco. The Aztec rulers Acamapichtli, Huitzilihuitl and Chimalpopoca were, in fact, vassals of Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler of Azcapotzalco.
When Tezozomoc died in 1426, his son Maxtla ascended to the throne of Azcapotzalco. Shortly thereafter, Maxtla assassinated Chimalpopoca, the Aztec ruler. In an effort to defeat Maxtla, Chimalpopoca’s successor, Itzcoatl, allied with Nezahualcoyotl, the exiled ruler of Texcoco. This coalition became the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance.
Itzcoatl and Nezahualcoyotl and their allies subsequently besieged Azcapotzalco, took Maxtla captive, and sacrificed him.
Aztec Triple Alliance
Main article: Aztec Triple Alliance
The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shores. From the beginning of the Triple Alliance, Tenochtitlan was mostly in charge of the military and conquest, whereas the other two cities had other responsibilities. This military dominance of Tenochtitlan gradually led to this city becoming the dominant power in the alliance.
The reign of Itzcoatl 1427-1440
The first Tlatoani of the Triple Alliance was Itzcoatl and he, along with his Texcocan co-ruler Nezahualcoyotl, began expanding the territory dominated by the alliance towards the south conquering Nahua speaking cities like Cuauhnahuac (now Cuernavaca) and towards Huexotla, Coatlinchan, and Tepoztlan in the modern-day state of Morelos which was then dominated by the Tlahuica. During this period the Nahuan cities immediately on the lakeside such as Xochimilco, Culhuacan and Mixquic were also subdued.
Moctezuma I and Tlacaelel 1440-1469
Two of the primary architects of the Aztec empire were the half-brothers Tlacaelel and Moctezuma I. They were sons of Huitzilíhuitl, the 3rd Hueyi Tlatoani, half-brothers to Chimalpopoca, the 4th Hueyi Tlatoani, and nephews of Itzcoatl, the 5th. Moctezuma I succeeded Itzcoatl as the 6th Hueyi Tlatoani in 1449. Tlacaelel became the power behind the throne and reformed both the Aztec state and the Aztec religion.
Moctezuma I began the expansion in earnest. First he had to reconquer towns which were first conquered by Itzcoatl, but had since rebelled. He asked a number of smaller cities to contribute to the construction of a new Great Temple, and only Chalco refused, which caused Moctezuma to start a war against them which lasted for several years. He then conquered Huastec territory under a pretext of securing Aztec merchants in that area, and then he went to war against the Mixtecs of Coixtlahuaca. Coixtlahuaca was successfully conquered although the Mixtec ruler Atonal received military assistance from the Nahua states of Tlaxcala and Huexotzinco, by now enemies of the Aztecs. After the defeat of Coixtlahuaca many Mixtec artisans were relocated to the Aztec capital. Later Moctezuma marched upon the Totonacan cities of Vera Cruz and conquered Xalapa, Cosamaloapan, Cotaxtla (modern day Cuetlachtlan), Ahuilizapan (Modern day Orizaba) and north into Huastec territory conquering Tuxpan and Xilotepec.
Tlacaelel
Tlacaelel was one of the primary architects of the Aztec empire. Rising to prominence during the war against the Tepanec in the late 1420s, Tlacaelel wielded power as something of a Grand Vizier during the reigns of four Hueyi Tlatoani, until his death in 1487.
Tlacaelel recast or strengthened the concept of the Aztecs as a chosen people and elevated the tribal god/hero Huitzilopochtli to the top of the pantheon of gods. In tandem with this, Tlacaelel increased the level and prevalence of human sacrifice, particularly during a period of natural disasters that started in 1446 (according to Durán). During the reign of Moctezuma I, he instigated the flower wars in which the Aztecs fought Tlaxcala and other Nahuan city-states.
To strengthen the Aztec nobility, he helped create and enforce sumptuary laws, prohibiting commoners from wearing certain adornments such as lip plugs, gold armbands, and cotton cloaks.
At the start of Tlacaelel’s tenure, the Mexica were vassals. By the end, they had become the Aztecs, rulers of a socially stratified and expansionistic empire.
The reigns of Axayacatl 1469-1481 and Tizoc 1481-1486
Moctezuma I’s son, Axayacatl, ascended to the throne in 1469. During his reign, Tenochtitlan absorbed the kingdom of Tlatelolco. Axayacatl’s sister was married to the tlatoani of Tlatelolco, and, as a pretext for war, Axayacatl declared that she was mistreated.
He went on to conquer the Matlatzinca and Mazahua cities of Tollocan, Ocuillan, and Malinalco west of the Valley of Mexico.
At this point Tenochtitlan experienced a brief “Civil war” when the small city of Tlatelolco, considered a part of Tenochtitlan by the Aztecs, rebelled under their Tlatoani Moquihuix, who sought to ally himself with the longstanding enemies of the Tenochca, the Chalca, Tlaxcalteca, Chololteca and Huexotzinca. The Tlatelolca were defeated and Axayacatl then ordered the execution of all the rulers who had aided him, including the ruler of Xochimilco.
Continuing campaigns in the west in 1479, he suffered an unprecedented defeat by the Tarascans at Tzintzuntzan. This was the Aztec’s first great defeat; once recovered he had to consolidate control of the Huasteca region which had already been conquered by his predecessor.
In 1481 Axayacatl’s son Tizoc ruled briefly, but his rule was marred by the humiliation he received in his coronation war: fighting the Otomies at Metztitlan he brought home only 40 prisoners for sacrifice at his coronation ceremony. After this defeat Tizoc had to fight principally to maintain control of the already conquered territories, and failing to subdue new towns he was replaced, possibly poisoned, by his younger brother Ahuitzotl.
Ahuitzotl’s reign 1486-1502
The expansionist policies of the empire culminated during Ahuitzotl’s reign. In his coronation war, he fought the Chontales in the territories west of Mexico defeating Toluca, Malinalco and Xilotepec. He invited the rulers of the still independent states of the Tarascans, Tlaxcaltecs and Huexotzinca to the dedication ceremony of the enlarged Great Temple, all of whom witnessed an unprecedented increase of human sacrifices and gift-givings. He then conducted punitive expeditions to rebellious cities on the Gulf Coast. He also conquered vast territories in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and as far south as Xoconosco in present day Chiapas. He constructed a series of fortifications and garrisons on the frontiers of the independent kingdoms of the Tlaxcaltecs and Tarascans. Some archaeological remains exist of these fortifications, for example at Oztuma in Guerrero, Quauhquechula in Puebla and the best preserved Aztec site, the one at Malinalco in the state of Mexico.
The reign of Moctezuma II Xocoyotzin
Moctezuma II was, although many sources depict him otherwise, a notable warrior who extended the tributary system, and consolidated the conquests made by his predecessors as well as conquering new territories. His campaigns reached as far south as Tapachula in the Soconusco region and the Chontal Maya states of Xicallanco in Tabasco. Only the Aztec archenemies of Tlaxcala, Huexotzinco and the Tarascans remained undefeated, as well as the Mixtec kingdoms of Tututepec and Yopitzinco which didn’t interest the Aztecs. Thus the Aztec empire had its largest geographical extent when the Spaniards arrived in 1519. In some sources, it claims that Moctezuma II, and the Aztecs, believed the arriving Spanish to linked to the supposed return of an exiled god, Quetzlcoatl, who was supposed to return pale and bearded.
Fall of the Aztec Empire
The Aztecs were conquered by Spain in 1521 after a long siege of the capital, Tenochtitlan, where much of the population died from hunger and smallpox. Cortés, with 508 Spaniards, did not fight alone but with as many as 150,000 or 200,000 allies from Tlaxcala, and eventually other Aztec tributary states. It was not difficult for Cortes to find allies to fight with him, the Aztecs were not generally liked by the neighbouring city-states. Cuauhtémoc, the last Hueyi Tlatoani surrendered to Cortés on August 13, 1521.
It took nearly another 60 years of war before the Spaniards completed the conquest of Mesoamerica (the Chichimeca wars), a process that could have taken longer were it not for three separate epidemics that took a heavy toll on the Native American population. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán took almost 170 years.
After the fall of Tenochtitlan, most of the other Mesoamerican cultures remained intact. In fact, the conquest of the Aztec empire did not have an immediate impact on other Mesoamerican cultures. If anything, the freedom from Aztec domination was probably considered a positive development by most of the other cultures.
As allies of the Spaniards, the Tlaxcalans gained the most. The Spaniards would eventually break the alliance, but not until decades later.
The fate of the Aztec empire under Spanish rule
Cortés stated intention was to maintain the structure of the Aztec empire. Initially, it seemed that the Aztec empire could survive under Spanish rule. The upper classes of the Aztec empire were initially considered as noblemen (to this day, the title of Duke of Moctezuma is held by a Spanish noble family). The upper classes learned Spanish, and several learned to write in Roman characters. Some of their surviving writings are crucial to our knowledge of the Aztecs. In addition, the first missionaries tried to learn Nahuatl and some, like Bernardino de Sahagún, set out to learn as much as they could of the Aztec culture.
All that changed rapidly. Eventually, the indigenous peoples were not only forbidden to learn of their cultures, but were also forbidden to learn to read and write in Spanish, and, under the law, they were reduced to the status of minors.
The impact of epidemics on the Aztec Empire
The first epidemic, an outbreak of smallpox occurring from 1520-1521, decimated the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city. The other two epidemics, of smallpox (1545-1548) and typhus (1576-1581) killed up to 75% of the population of Mesoamerica.
Whole towns disappeared, lands were deserted, roads were closed and armies were destroyed. The Spaniards, trying to make more of the diminishing population, merged the survivors from small towns into the bigger ones. This broke the power of the upper classes and dissolved the coherence of the indigenous society. In addition, the indigenous peoples collected in the larger towns were more susceptible to epidemics due to the higher population density.
The population before the time of the conquest is estimated at 15 million; by 1550, the estimated population was 4 million and less than two million by 1581. Thus, the “New Spain” of the 17th century was a depopulated country and many Mesoamerican cultures were wiped out.
In order to have an adequate supply of labor, the Spaniards began to import black slaves, although most of them eventually merged with the population.
Notable rulers
References
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Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.
Often the term “Aztec” refers exclusively to the people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who called themselves Mexica Tenochca or Colhua-Mexica.
Sometimes the term also includes the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan’s two principal allied city-states, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which has also become known as the “Aztec Empire”. In other contexts it may refer to all the various city states and their peoples, who shared large parts of their ethnic history as well as many important cultural traits with the Mexica, Acolhua and Tepanecs, and who like them, also spoke the Nahuatl language. In this meaning it is possible to talk about an Aztec civilization including all the particular cultural patterns common for the Nahuatl speaking peoples of the late postclassic period in Mesoamerica.
From the 13th century Valley of Mexico was the core of Aztec civilization: here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the city of Tenochtitlan, was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. The Triple Alliance formed its tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica.
At its pinnacle Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as reaching remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments.
In 1521, in what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernán Cortés, along with a large number of Nahuatl speaking indigenous allies, conquered Tenochtitlan and defeated the Aztec Triple Alliance under the leadership of Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II; In the series of events often referred to as “The Fall of the Aztec Empire“. Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital.
Aztec culture and history is primarily known:
Nomenclature
The name Aztec comes from Nahuatl: aztecah, plural of aztecatl ‘person from Aztlan (Aztlán).
According to the mythico-historical Aubin codex, seven Nahua tribes lived in Aztlán under the rule of a powerful elite. The seven tribes fled Aztlán, to seek new lands. The Mexicas were the last group to leave. The Aubin Codex relates that after leaving Aztlán, their god Huitzilopochtli ordered his people to never identify themselves as Azteca, the name of their former masters. Instead they should henceforth call themselves Mexìcâ.
The word “Aztec” was not originally an endonym for any ethnic group, but achieved wide use as an exonym first in the English language and later in Castilian from the 19th century on. Some modern day scholars use the word “Aztec” to refer to the Nahuatl speaking peoples of Mexico before the Spanish conquest in 1519 and the word “Nahua” to refer to the same peoples after the conquest. Because no people ever referred to itself as “Aztecs”, and because the peoples to whom the word is popularly used to refer never saw themselves as a unified ethnic group, many scholars now prefer to refer to particular ethnic groups individually e.g. the “Mexica”, “Acolhua” or “Tepaneca” rather than subsuming them under a solitary term such as “Aztec”.
The Spanish conquistadores referred to them as “Mexicas” or “Culua-Mexicas”. In Mexico, archaeologists and museums use the term Mexicas. The wider population in and outside Mexico generally speaks of Aztecs. In this article, the term “Mexica” is used to refer to the Mexica people up until the time of the formation of the Triple Alliance. After this, the term “Aztecs” is used to refer to the three peoples who made up the Triple Alliance, or in the wider context to all the Nahuatl speaking peoples as bearers of “Aztec culture”.
Mexica
Main article: Mexica
See also: Name of Mexico
Mexica or Mexìcâ (Nahuatl) is a term of uncertain origin. Various proposed etymologies include the old Nahuatl word for the moon, the name of their leader Mexitli, or mexixin, a type of weed that grows in Lake Texcoco. Mexican scholar Miguel León-Portilla suggests that it is derived from mexictli, “navel of the moon”, from Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel). Alternatively, mexictli could mean “navel of the maguey” using the Nahuatl metl and the locative “co”.
According to a aztec legend, it was Huitzilopochtli, the war deity and patron of the Mexica, who gave them their name. The most probable interpretation is that the name comes from Mexitl (or Mexi), a secret name for the deity.
Aztec
In Nahuatl, Aztecatl means “someone who comes from Aztlán“. In 1810 Alexander von Humboldt originated the modern usage of “Aztec” as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to the Mexica state and the Triple Alliance. In 1843, with the publication of the work of William H. Prescott, it was adopted by most of the world, including 19th century Mexican scholars who saw it as a way to distinguish present-day Mexicans from pre-conquest Mexicans. This usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term “Aztec” is still more common.
Nahuatl (nahuatl/nawatlahtolli) Classical Nahuatl (also known as Aztec, and simply Nahuatl) is a term used to describe the variants of the Nahuatl language. The majority of the speakers live in Central Mexico in the states of Estado de Mexico, Distrito Federal, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Guerrero, Veracruz, Michoacán and Hidalgo. Other variants of the language “Nahuatl” were spoken by many of the central Mexican city-states under the domination of the Aztec Empire. Nahuatl was originally written with a pictographic script which was not a full writing system but instead served as a mnemonic to remind readers of texts they had learned orally.
History
Main article: History of the Aztecs
Migrational period
The Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their political influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the complex civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices the foundation for later Aztec culture was laid. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, Hidalgo. In the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico. Around this time the Mexica tribe arrived in central Mexico.
Rise of the Triple Alliance
The true origin of the Mexicas is uncertain. According to their legends, the Mexica tribe place of origin was Aztlán. It is generally thought that Aztlán was somewhere to the north of the Valley of Mexico; some experts have placed it as far north as Southwestern United States.
Based on these codices as well as other histories, it appears that the Mexicas arrived at Chapultepec in or around the year 1248.
At the time of their arrival, the Valley of Mexico had many city-states, the most powerful of which were Culhuacan to the south and Azcapotzalco to the west. The Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco soon expelled the Mexicas from Chapultepec. In 1299, Culhuacan ruler Cocoxtli gave them permission to settle in the empty barrens of Tizapan, where they were eventually assimilated into Culhuacan culture.
In 1323, the Mexicas were shown a vision of an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, eating a snake. This vision indicated that this was the location where they were to build their home. In any event, the Mexicas eventually arrived on a small swampy island in Lake Texcoco where they founded the town of Tenochtitlan in 1325. In 1376, the Mexicas elected their first Huey Tlatoani, Acamapichtli, who was living in Texcoco at the time.
For the next 50 years, until 1427, the Mexica were a tributary of Azcapotzalco, which had become a regional power, perhaps the most powerful since the Toltecs, centuries earlier. Maxtla, son of Tezozomoc, assassinated Chimalpopoca, the Mexica ruler. In an effort to defeat Maxtla, Chimalpopoca’s successor, Itzcoatl, allied with the exiled ruler of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl. This coalition was the foundation of the Aztec Triple Alliance, which defeated Azcapotzalco in 1428.
The Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan would, in the next 100 years, come to dominate the Valley of Mexico and extend its power to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific shore. Over this period, Tenochtitlan gradually became the dominant power in the alliance.
Two of the primary architects of the Aztec empire were the half-brothers Tlacaelel and Montezuma I, nephews of Itzcoatl. Moctezuma I succeeded Itzcoatl as Hueyi Tlatoani in 1440. Although he was also offered the opportunity to be tlatoani, Tlacaelel preferred to operate as the power behind the throne. Tlacaelel reformed the Aztec state and religion. According to some sources, he ordered the burning of most of the extant Aztec books claiming that they contained lies. He thereupon rewrote the history of the Aztec people, thus creating a common awareness of history for the Aztecs. This rewriting led directly to the curriculum taught to scholars and promoted the belief that the Aztecs were always a powerful and mythic nation; forgetting forever a possible true history of modest origins. One component of this reform was the institution of ritual war (the flower wars) as a way to have trained warriors, and created the necessity of constant sacrifices to keep the Sun moving.
Spanish conquest
Main article: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
The empire reached its height during Ahuitzotl’s reign in 1486–1502. His successor, Motehcuzoma Xocoyotzin (better known as Moctezuma II or Moctezuma), had been Hueyi Tlatoani for 17 years when the Spaniards, led by Hernado Cortéz, landed on the Gulf Coast in the spring of 1519.
Despite some early battles between the two, Cortés allied himself with the Aztecs’ long-time enemy, the Confederacy of Tlaxcala, and arrived at the gates of Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519.
The Spaniards and their Tlaxcallan allies became increasingly dangerous and unwelcome guests in the capital city. In June, 1520, hostilities broke out, culminating in the massacre in the Main Temple and the death of Moctezuma II. The Spaniards fled the town on July 1, an episode later characterized as La Noche Triste (the Sad Night). They and their native allies returned in the spring of 1521 to lay siege to Tenochtitlan, a battle that ended on August 13 with the destruction of the city. During this period the now crumbling empire went through a rapid line of ruler succession. After the death of Moctezuma II, the empire fell into the hands of severely weakened emperors, such as Cuitláhuac, before eventually being ruled by puppet rulers, such as Andrés de Tapia Motelchiuh, installed by the Spanish.
Despite the decline of the Aztec empire, most of the Mesoamerican cultures were intact after the fall of Tenochtitlan. Indeed, the freedom from Aztec domination may have been considered a positive development by most of the other cultures. The upper classes of the Aztec empire were considered noblemen by the Spaniards and generally treated as such initially. All this changed rapidly and the native population were soon forbidden to study by law, and had the status of minors.
The Tlaxcalans remained loyal to their Spanish friends and were allowed to come on other conquests with Cortés and his men.
Colonial period population decline
Main article: Population history of American indigenous peoples
In 1520–1521, an outbreak of smallpox swept through the population of Tenochtitlan and was decisive in the fall of the city. It is estimated that between 10% and 50% of the population fell victim to this epidemic.
Subsequently, the Valley of Mexico was hit with two more epidemics, smallpox (1545–1548) and typhus (1576–1581). The Spaniards, to consolidate the diminishing population, merged the survivors from small towns in the Valley of Mexico into bigger ones. This broke the power of the upper classes, but did not dissolve the coherence of the indigenous society in greater Mexico.
The population before the time of the conquest is unknown and hotly contested, but disease is known to have ravaged the region; thus, the indigenous population of the Valley of Mexico is estimated to have declined by more than 80% in the course of about 60 years.
Cultural patterns
Government
The Aztec Empire was an example of an empire that ruled by indirect means. Like most European empires, it was ethnically very diverse, but unlike most European empires, it was more of a system of tribute than a single system of government. In the theoretical framework of imperial systems posited by Alexander J. Motyl the Aztec empire was an informal or hegemonic empire because it did not exert supreme authority over the conquered lands, it merely expected tributes to be paid. It was also a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected, for example the southern peripheral zones of Xoconochco were not in direct contact with the center. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire can be seen in the fact that generally local rulers were restored to their positions once their city-state was conquered and the Aztecs did not interfere in local affairs as long as the tribute payments were made.
Although the form of government is often referred to as an empire, in fact most areas within the empire were organized as city-states, known as altepetl in Nahuatl. These were small polities ruled by a king (tlatoani) from a legitimate dynasty. The Early Aztec period was a time of growth and competition among altepetl. Even after the empire was formed (1428) and began its program of expansion through conquest, the altepetl remained the dominant form of organization at the local level. The efficient role of the altepetl as a regional political unit was largely responsible for the success of the empire’s hegemonic form of control.
Tribute and trade
Several pages from the Codex Mendoza list tributary towns along with the goods they supplied, which included not only luxuries such as feathers, adorned suits, and greenstone beads, but more practical goods such as cloth, firewood, and food. Tribute was usually paid twice or four times a year at differing times.
Archaeological excavations in the Aztec-ruled provinces show that incorporation into the empire had both costs and benefits for provincial peoples. On the positive side, the empire promoted commerce and trade, and exotic goods from obsidian to bronze managed to reach the houses of both commoners and nobles. Trade partners included the enemy Tarascan, a source of bronze tools and jewelry. On the negative side, imperial tribute imposed a burden on commoner households, who had to increase their work to pay their share of tribute. Nobles, on the other hand, often made out well under imperial rule because of the indirect nature of imperial organization. The empire had to rely on local kings and nobles and offered them privileges for their help in maintaining order and keeping the tribute flowing.
Economy
The Aztec economy can be divided into a political sector, under the control of nobles and kings, and a commercial sector that operated independently of the political sector. The political sector of the economy centered on the control of land and labor by kings and nobles. Nobles owned all land, and commoners got access to farmland and other fields through a variety of arrangements, from rental through sharecropping to serf-like labor and slavery. These payments from commoners to nobles supported both the lavish lifestyles of the high nobility and the finances of city-states. Many luxury goods were produced for consumption by nobles. The producers of featherwork, sculptures, jewelry, and other luxury items were full-time commoner specialists who worked for noble patrons.
In the commercial sector of the economy several types of money were in regular use. Small purchases were made with cacao beans, which had to be imported from lowland areas. In Aztec marketplaces, a small rabbit was worth 30 beans, a turkey egg cost 3 beans, and a tamal cost a single bean. For larger purchases, standardized lengths of cotton cloth called quachtli were used. There were different grades of quachtli, ranging in value from 65 to 300 cacao beans. One source stated that 20 quachtli could support a commoner for one year in Tenochtitlan. A man could also sell his own daughter as a sexual slave or future religious sacrifice, generally for around 500 to 700 beans. A small gold statue (approximately 0.62 kg / 1.37 lb) cost 250 beans. Money was used primarily in the many periodic markets that were held in each town. A typical town would have a weekly market (every 5 days), while larger cities held markets every day. Cortés reported that the central market of Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlan’s sister city, was visited by 60,000 people daily. Some sellers in the markets were petty vendors; farmers might sell some of their produce, potters sold their vessels, and so on. Other vendors were professional merchants who traveled from market to market seeking profits. The pochteca were specialized merchants organized into exclusive guilds. They made long expeditions to all parts of Mesoamerica, and they served as the judges and supervisors of the Tlatelolco market. Although the economy of Aztec Mexico was commercialized (in its use of money, markets, and merchants), it was not “a capitalist economy because land and labor were not commodities for sale.”
Transportation
The main contribution of the Aztec rule was a system of communications between the conquered cities. In Mesoamerica, without draft animals for transport (nor, as a result, wheeled vehicles), the roads were designed for travel on foot. Usually these roads were maintained through tribute, and travelers had places to rest and eat and even latrines to use at regular intervals, roughly every 10 or 15 km. Couriers (paynani) were constantly travelling along those ways, keeping the Aztecs informed of events, and helping to monitor the integrity of the roads. Due to the steady surveillance, even women could travel alone, a fact that amazed the Spaniards, as that was not at all possible in Europe since the time of the Romans.
After the conquest those roads were no longer subject to maintenance and were lost.
Mythology and religion
Main articles: Aztec religion and Aztec mythology
The Mexica made reference to at least two manifestations of the supernatural: teotl and teixiptla. Teotl, which the Spaniards and European scholars routinely mistranslated as “god” or “demon”, referred rather to an impersonal force that permeated the world. Teixiptla, by contrast, denoted the physical representations (”idols”, statues and figurines) of the teotl as well as the human cultic activity surrounding this physical representation. The Mexica “gods” themselves had no existence as distinct entities apart from these teixiptla representations of teotl (Boone 1989).
Veneration of Huitzilopochtli, the personification of the sun and of war, was central to the religious, social and political practices of the Mexicas. Huitzilopochtli attained this central position after the founding of Tenochtitlan and the formation of the Mexica city-state society in the 14th century. Prior to this, Huitzilopochtli was associated primarily with hunting, presumably one of the important subsistence activities of the itinerant bands that would eventually become the Mexica.
According to myth, Huitzilopochtli directed the wanderers to found a city on the site where they would see an eagle devouring a snake perched on a fruit-bearing nopal cactus. (It was said that Huitzilopochtli killed his nephew, Cópil, and threw his heart on the lake. Huitzilopochtli honoured Cópil by causing a cactus to grow over Cópil’s heart.) Legend has it that this is the site on which the Mexicas built their capital city of Tenochtitlan. This legendary vision is pictured on the Coat of arms of Mexico.
According to their own history, when the Mexicas arrived in the Anahuac valley (Valley of Mexico) around Lake Texcoco, the groups living there considered them uncivilized. The Mexicas borrowed much of their culture from the ancient Toltec whom they seem to have at least partially confused with the more ancient civilization of Teotihuacan. To the Mexicas, the Toltecs were the originators of all culture; “Toltecayotl” was a synonym for culture. Mexica legends identify the Toltecs and the cult of Quetzalcoatl with the mythical city of Tollan, which they also identified with the more ancient Teotihuacan.
Human sacrifice
Main article: Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
For most people today, and for the European Catholics who first met the Aztecs, human sacrifice was the most striking feature of Aztec civilization. While human sacrifice was practiced throughout Mesoamerica, the Aztecs, if their own accounts are to be believed, brought this practice to an unprecedented level. For example, for the reconsecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days, reportedly by Ahuitzotl, the Great Speaker himself.
However, most experts consider these numbers to be overstated. For example, the sheer logistics associated with sacrificing 84,000 victims would be overwhelming, though Historians and Archaeologists agree that 2,000 is a more likely figure. A similar consensus has developed on reports of cannibalism among the Aztecs.
Accounts by the Tlaxcaltecas, the primary enemy of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest, show that at least some of them considered it an honor to be sacrificed. In one legend, the warrior Tlahuicole was freed by the Aztecs but eventually returned of his own volition to die in ritual sacrifice. Tlaxcala also practiced the human sacrifice of captured Aztec Citizens.
Social structures
Main articles: Aztec society and Aztec slavery
Class structure
The highest class were the pipiltin or nobility. Originally this status was not hereditary, although the sons of pillis had access to better resources and education, so it was easier for them to become pillis. Later the class system took on hereditary aspects.
The second class were the macehualtin, originally peasants. Eduardo Noguera estimates that in later stages only 20% of the population was dedicated to agriculture and food production. The other 80% of society were warriors, artisans and traders. Eventually, most of the macehuallis were dedicated to arts and crafts. Their works were an important source of income for the city.
Slaves or tlacotin also constituted an important class. Aztecs could become slaves because of debts, as a criminal punishment or as war captives. A slave could have possessions and even own other slaves. However, upon becoming a slave, all of the slave’s animals and excess money would go to his purchaser. Slaves could buy their liberty, and slaves could be set free if they had children with or were married to their masters. Typically, upon the death of the master, slaves who had performed outstanding services were freed. The rest of the slaves were passed on as part of an inheritance.
Traveling merchants called pochtecah were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders. They were often employed as spies.
Recreation
As with all Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs played a variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame, named tlachtli or ollamaliztli in Nahuatl. The game was played with a ball of solid rubber , called an olli, whence derives the Spanish word for rubber, hule. The players hit the ball with their hips, knees, and elbows and had to pass the ball through a stone ring to automatically win. Getting the ball through the hoop was so hard, if a player actually scored a goal, they were given some jewelry. No one knows the exact rules of the game, as the rules have never been recorded, and thus, only speculations exist. The Aztec variant of the Mesoamerican ballgame is the only one to be described in postcolonial sources, and not much is known about how other Mesoamerican people played the game.
The Aztecs also enjoyed board games, like patolli and totoloque. Bernal Diaz records that Cortés and Moctezuma II played totoloque together.
Education
Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpolli. Part of this education involved learning a collection of sayings, called huehuetlàtolli (”sayings of the old”), that embodied the Aztecs’ ideals. Judged by their language, most of the huehuetlatolli seemed to have evolved over several centuries, predating the Aztecs and most likely adopted from other Nahua cultures.
There were two types of schools: the telpochcalli, for practical and military studies, and the calmecac, for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, and other areas. The two institutions seem to be common to the Nahua people, leading some experts to suggest that they are older than the Aztec culture.
Aztec teachers (tlatimine) propounded a spartan regime of education with the purpose of forming a stoical people.
Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child raising. They were not taught to read or write. All women were taught to be involved in religion; there are paintings of women presiding over religious ceremonies, but there are no references to female priests.
Arts
Song and poetry were highly regarded; there were presentations and poetry contests at most of the Aztec festivals. There were also dramatic presentations that included players, musicians and acrobats.
Poetry was the only occupation worthy of an Aztec warrior in times of peace. A remarkable amount of this poetry survives, having been collected during the era of the conquest. In some cases poetry is attributed to individual authors, such as Nezahualcoyotl, tlatoani of Texcoco, and Cuacuauhtzin, Lord of Tepechpan, but whether these attributions reflect actual authorship is a matter of opinion. Miguel León-Portilla, a well-respected Aztec scholar of Mexico, has stated that it is in this poetry where we can find the real thought of the Aztecs, independent of “official” Aztec ideology.
It is also important to note that the Spanish classified many aspects of the Aztec/Nahuatl culture according to the lexicon and organizational categories with which they would distinguish in Europe. In the same way that the second letter of Cortez made a mention of “mesquitas”, or in English, “mosques”, when trying to convey his impression of Aztec architecture, early colonists and missionaries divided the principal bodies of nahuatl literature as “poetry” and “prose”. “Poetry” was in xochitl in cuicatl a dual term meaning “the flower and the song” and was divided into different genres. Yaocuicatl was devoted to war and the god(s) of war, Teocuicatl to the gods and creation myths and to adoration of said figures, xochicuicatl to flowers (a symbol of poetry itself and indicative of the highly metaphorical nature of a poetry that often utilized duality to convey multiple layers of meaning). “Prose” was tlahtolli, also with its different categories and divisions (Garganigo et al.).
The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, collected (Tezcoco 1582), probably by Juan Bautista de Pomar. Bautista de Pomar was the great-grandson of Netzahualcoyotl. He spoke Nahuatl, but was raised a Christian and wrote in Latin characters. (See also: “Is It You?”, a short poem attributed to Netzahualcoyotl, and “Lament on the Fall of Tenochtitlan”, a short poem contained within the “Anales de Tlatelolco” manuscript.)
The Aztec people also enjoyed a type of dramatic presentation, a kind of theatre. Some plays were comical with music and acrobats, others were staged dramas of their gods. After the conquest, the first Christian churches had open chapels reserved for these kinds of representations. Plays in Nahuatl, written by converted Indians, were an important instrument for the conversion to Christianity, and are still found today in the form of traditional pastorelas, which are played during Christmas to show the Adoration of Baby Jesus, and other Biblical passages.
Music and dance formed an essential part of the indigenous rites and ceremonies. Research about music of the Aztec people dates back to the writings of Bernal del Castillo, who was appalled by the music of these people because he viewed it during their ritualistic sacrifices, which were very different from rituals of Christian worship. Others, such as the Franciscan monk Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and the Dominican monk Diego Durán, were able to look at the music from different viewpoints, noting the unique instruments and the qualities of pitch and harmony that were achieved with these instruments—new sounds to their ears. Some musical instruments used are Tetzilacatl, Teponaztli, Tecomapiloa, Omichicahuaztli, Huehuetl, Coyolli, Chililitli, Caililiztli, Chicahuaztli, Cacalachtli, Áyotl, Ayacahtli.
City-building and architecture
The capital city of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, now the site of modern-day Mexico City. Built on a series of islets in Lake Texcoco, the city plan was based on a symmetrical layout that was divided into four city sections called campans. The city was interlaced with canals which were useful for transportation.
Tenochtitlan was built according to a fixed plan and centered on the ritual precinct, where the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan rose 50 m above the city. Houses were made of wood and loam, roofs were made of reed, although pyramids, temples and palaces were generally made of stone.
Around the island, chinampa beds were used to grow foods as well as, over time, to increase the size of the island. Chinampas, misnamed “floating gardens”, were long raised plant beds set upon the shallow lake bottom. They were a very efficient agricultural system and could provide up to seven crops a year. On the basis of current chinampa yields, it has been estimated that 1 hectare of chinampa would feed 20 individuals and 9,000 hectares of chinampas could feed 180,000.
Anthropologist Eduardo Noguera estimates the population at 200,000 based in the house count and merging the population of Tlatelolco (once an independent city, but later became a suburb of Tenochtitlan). If one includes the surrounding islets and shores surrounding Lake Texcoco, estimates range from 300,000 to 700,000 inhabitants.
Agriculture
The pre-conquest Aztecs were a society that had four main methods of agriculture. The earliest, most basic form of agriculture implemented by the Aztecs is known as “rainfall cultivation.” The Aztecs also implemented terrace agriculture in hilly areas, or areas that could not be used for level ground farming. In the valleys irrigation farming was used. Dams diverted water from natural springs to the fields. This allowed for harvests on a regular basis. The Aztecs built canal systems that were longer and much more elaborate than previous irrigation systems. They managed to divert a large portion of the Cuauhtitlan River to provide irrigation to large areas of fields. The network of canals was a very complex and intricate system.
In the swampy regions along Lake Xochimilco, the Aztecs implemented yet another method of crop cultivation. They built what are called chinampas. Chinampas are areas of raised land, created from alternating layers of mud from the bottom of the lake, and plant matter/other vegetation. These “raised beds” were separated by narrow canals, which allowed farmers to move between them by canoe. The chinampas were extremely fertile pieces of land, and yielded, on average, seven crops annually. In order to plant on them, farmers first created “seedbeds,” or reed rafts, where they planted seeds and allowed them to germinate. Once they had, they were re-planted in the chinampas. This cut the growing time down considerably.
The Aztecs are credited with domestication of the subspecies of Wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, which is native to this region.
While most of the farming occurred outside the densely populated areas, within the cities there was another method of (small scale) farming. Each family had their own garden plot where they grew maize, fruits, herbs, medicines and other important plants.
Of the various crops grown by the Aztecs, maize was the most important. Aztec diets centered around it. Maize was grown across the entire empire, in the highland terraces, valley farms and also on the chinampas. Women ground maize into a coarse meal by rubbing it with a grinding stone called a mano against a flat stone called a metate. The Aztecs made tortillas from the corn meal. Other crops that the Aztecs relied upon were avocados, beans, squashes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chia, amaranth and chilies. These crops were also grown everywhere. Crops that were specific to the lowland regions were cotton, fruits, cacao beans and rubber trees.
Relationship to other Mesoamerican cultures
Aztecs admired Mixtec craftsmanship so much that they imported artisans to Tenochtitlan and requested work to be done in certain Mixtec styles. The Aztecs also admired the Mixtec codices, so some of them were made to order by Mixteca for the Aztecs. In the later days, high society Aztec women started to wear Mixtec clothing, specifically the quexquemetl. It was worn over their traditional huipil, and much coveted by the women who could not afford such imported goods.
The situation was analogous in many ways to the Phoenician culture which imported and duplicated art from other cultures that they encountered.
Archaeologists usually do not have a problem differentiating between Mixtec and Aztec artifacts. However, the Mixtec made some products for “export” and that makes classification more problematic. In addition, the production of craft was an important part of the Mexica economy, and they also made pieces for “export”.
Legacy
Most modern day Mexicans (and people of Mexican descent in other countries) are mestizos, of mixed indigenous and European Spanish ancestry. During the 16th century the racial composition of Mexico began to change from one that featured distinct indigenous (Mexicas and members of the many other Mexican indigenous groups) and immigrant (mostly Spanish) populations, to the population composed primarily of mestizos that is found in modern day Mexico.
The Nahuatl language is today spoken by 1.5 million people, mostly in mountainous areas in the states of central Mexico. Local dialects of Spanish, Mexican Spanish generally, and the Spanish language worldwide have all been influenced, in varying degrees, by Nahuatl. Some Nahuatl words (most notably chocolate and tomato) have been borrowed through Spanish into other languages around the world.
Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, making it one of the oldest living cities of the Americas. Many of its districts and natural landmarks retain their original Nahuatl names. Many other cities and towns in Mexico and Central America have also retained their Nahuatl names (whether or not they were originally Mexica or even Nahuatl-speaking towns). A number of town names are hybrids of Nahuatl and Spanish.
Mexican cuisine continues to be based on and flavored by agricultural products contributed by the Mexicas/Aztecs and Mesoamerica, most of which retain some form of their original Nahuatl names. The cuisine has also become a popular part of the cuisine of the United States and other countries around the world, typically altered to suit various national tastes.
The modern Mexican flag bears the emblem of the Mexica migration story.
Mexico’s premier religious icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe has certain similarities to the Mexica earth mother goddess Tonantzin.
For the 1986 FIFA World Cup Adidas designed the official match ball to show in its “triades” Aztec architectural and mural designs.
Historiography
Before the development of archaeology in Mexico in the 19th century, the historians mainly interpreted the ancient written sources to reconstitute aztec history. Archaeology allowed to reconsider and criticise some of those interpretations and contradictions between the primary sources. Now, the scholar study of aztec civilization is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies.
Ancient sources
Aztec codices
There are few extant Aztec codices created before the conquest and these are largely ritual texts. Post-conquest codices, like Codex Mendoza or Codex Ríos, were painted by Aztec tlacuilos (codex creators), but under the control of Spanish authorities. The possibility of Spanish influence poses potential problems for those studying the post-conquest codices. Itzcoatl had the oldest hieroglyphics destroyed for political-religious reasons and Bishop Zumarraga of Mexico (1528–48) had all available texts burned for missionary reasons.
The conquistadors
The accounts of the conquistadors are those of men confronted with a new civilization, which they tried to interpret according to their own culture. Cortés was the most educated, and his letters to Charles V are a valuable firsthand account. Unfortunately, one of his letters is lost and replaced by a posterior text and the others were censored prior to their publication. In any case, Cortés was not writing a dispassionate account, but letters justifying his actions and to some extent exaggerating his successes and downplaying his failures.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo accompanied Cortes, but he wrote decades after the fact, he never learned the native languages, and he did not take notes. His account is colorful, but his work is considered erratic and exaggerated.
Although Francisco López de Gómara was Cortes’ chaplain, friend, and confidant, he never visited the New World so his account is based on hearsay.
Priests and scholars
The accounts of the first priests and scholars, while reflecting their faith and their culture, are important sources. Fathers Diego Durán, Motolinia, and Mendieta wrote with their own religion in mind, Father Duran wrote trying to prove that the Aztec were one of the lost tribes of Israel. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote instead from an apologetic point of view. There are also authors that tried to make a synthesis of the pre-Hispanic cultures, like “Oviedo y Herrera”, Jose de Acosta, and Pedro Mártir de Anghera.
Perhaps the most significant source about the Aztec are the manuscripts of Bernardino de Sahagún, who worked with the surviving Aztec wise men. He taught Aztec tlacuilos to write the original Nahuatl accounts using the Latin alphabet. Because of fear of the Spanish authorities, he maintained the anonymity of his informants, and wrote a heavily censored version in Spanish. Unfortunately the Nahuatl original was not fully translated until the 20th century, thus realising the extent of the censorship of the Spanish version. The original Nahuatl manuscript is known as the Florentine Codex.
Native authors
Other important sources are the work of native and mestizo authors, descendants of the upper classes. These authors include Don Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc, Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, Juan Bautista de Pomar, and Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl. Ixtlixochitl, for example, wrote a history of Texcoco from a Christian point of view. His account of Netzahualcoyotl, an ancestor of Ixtlilxochitl’s, has a strong resemblance to the story of King Solomon and portrays Netzahualcoyotl as a monotheist and a critic of human sacrifice.
Diego Muñoz Camargo (1521 – c. 1612), a Tlaxcalan mestizo, wrote the History of Tlaxcala six decades after the Spanish conquest. Some parts of his work have a strong Tlaxcala bias.
The mexicanista movement
Laurette Séjourné, a French anthropologist, wrote about Aztec and Mesoamerican spirituality. Her depiction of the Aztecs as a spiritual people was so compelling that new religions have been formed based on her writings. Some parts of her work have been adopted by esoteric groups, searching for occult teachings of the pre-Columbian religions. Séjourné never endorsed any of these groups.
Miguel León-Portilla also idealizes the Aztec culture, especially in his early writings.
Others, such as Antonio Velazco, have transformed the writings by Sejourné and León-Portilla into a religious movement. Antonio Velasco Piña has written three books, Tlacaelel, El Azteca entre los Aztecas, La mujer dormida debe dar a luz, and Regina. When mixed with the currents of Neopaganism, these books resulted in a new religious movement called “Mexicanista”. This movement called for a return to the spirituality of the Aztecs. It is argued that, with this return, Mexico will become the next center of power. This religious movement mixes Mesoamerican cults with Hindu esoterism. The Mexicanista movement reached the peak of its popularity in the 1990s.
See also
References
Modern works, available in English
Primary sources, available in English
External links
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Pochteca
A pochtecatl (plural pochteca) was a professional long-distance traveling merchant in the Aztec Empire. They were a small, but important class as they not only facilitated commerce, but also communicated vital information across the empire and beyond its borders. The pochteca also traveled outside the empire to trade with neighboring lands throughout Mesoamerica. Because of their extensive travel and knowledge of the empire, they were often employed as spies.
Status in Aztec Society
Pochteca occupied a high status in Aztec society, below the noble class. The pochteca were responsible for providing the materials that the noble class used to display their wealth. These materials were often obtained from foreign sources. The pochteca also acted as agents for the nobility by selling the surplus tribute that had been bestowed on the noble and warrior elite. The pochteca traded the excess tribute (food, garments, feathers and slaves) in the marketplace or carried it to other areas to exchange for trade goods.
Due to the success of the pochteca, many of these merchants became as wealthy as the noble class, but were obligated to hide this wealth from the public. Trading expeditions often left their districts late in the evening, and their wealth was only revealed within their private guildhalls. Although politically and economically powerful the pochteca strove to avoid undue attention. The merchants followed their own laws in their own calpulli, venerating their god, Yacatecuhtli, “The Lord Who Guides”, an aspect of Quetzalcóatl. Eventually the merchants were elevated to the rank of the warriors of the military orders.
Organization
The pochteca were organised into twelve guilds, each based in one of the urban centers of the Valley of México:
The markets were part of a complex interlocking system. In the Valley there were four levels of market:
Some of the cities were famous for specialized markets:
The highest official of the pochteca in Tenochtitlán was the Pochtecatlailotlac, the Merchant-Arbiter who also sat as one of the judges in the Tlacxitlan, the highest court of law.
Each of these cities included a merchant district and a market, the tianquiztli, though the greatest market was the tianquizco in Tlatelolco, the fifth campan of Tenochtitlán. Tlatelolco included seven calpulli inhabited by the pochteca: Pochtlan, Ahhuachtlan, Atlauhco, Acxotlan, Tepetitlan, Itztolco and Tzommolco. Each of the pochteca calpulli were governed by the Pochtecatlatoque – the Merchant Speakers or Leaders. Those of the Pochtlan and Acxotlan districts had special titles:
Each of the Pochtecatlatoque were aided by the pochtecatlatoque. The pochtecatlatoque were the elder of the pochteca, and were no longer travelers, but rather acted as administrators, overseeing young pochteca and administering the marketplace.
The volume of trade passing through the great tianquizco of Tlatelolco was unsurpassed in Mesoamerica. It served not merely to distribute goods but as the great clearing house of the Empire. Such was the organisation required to manage this massive entrepreneurial center that the Aztec state founded special institutions and officials to oversee it.
Types of Pochteca
The professional merchants were classified into the following roles:
The pochteca were divided into the following types:
Within these groups there were also:
Lesser Traders
The Tlanecuilo or Tlanecuiloani, the regional traders and pedlars were not part of the pochteca guilds but were an important part of market commerce. They traded in foodstuffs and utilitarian goods rather than the luxuries carried by the pochteca and frequently specialised in specific items, such as:
See also
Aztec society
References
The Aztecs of Mexico, George Clapp Vaillant (1901-1945), Penguin Books edition (1953), pp.122-23; also Plate 38 depicting portion of the Codex Florentino.
Aztec Warfare, Ross Hassig, University of Oklahoma Press (1995).
Daily Life of the Aztecs, Jacques Soustelle, Phoenix Press edition (1995), pp 60-65, 85-86.
Armies of the Aztec and Inca Empires, and other native peoples of the Americas, and the Conquistadores 1450-1608, Ian Heath, Foundry Books (1999), pp 50-51.
Mexico’s Indigenous Past, Alfredo Lopez Austin & Leonardo Lopez Lujan, University of Oklahoma Press (2001), pp 235-236.
The Aztecs, Michael E. Smith, Blackwell (2003), pp 112-114.
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Zinacantán
San Lorenzo Zinacantán is a municipio (municipality) in the southern part of the Central Chiapas highlands in the Mexican state of Chiapas. About 98% of its population are Tzotzil Maya, an indigenous people with linguistic and cultural ties to other highland Maya peoples.
Zinacantán literally means “land of bats” and comes from the Nahuatl language. People in Zinacantán speak Tzotzil (a Mayan language) and they call their own land “Sots’leb”, that is, “land of bats” in their own language.
Traditional charges and feasts in Zinacantán
Many feasts are celebrated during the year. In every feast men are in charge of the celebration — they are: martomoetik, alperesetik, and moletik. The first two of these three names are loan words from the Spanish mayordomos and alférez, respectively. They have to pay whatever is needed in order to celebrate the feasts. These three kinds of cargos (“charges”) are in fact a hierarchy. They constitute an ascending scale in the same order as they are described below. One can never become one of the moletik if he hasn’t been a martomo first and then an alperes. These charges are just for men, although their wives have important roles in their husbands’ charges. There are twelve martomoetik, twelve alperesetik and six moletik, who are chosen by the inhabitants of Zinacantan every year. Each one has a different feast assigned to him during the year, although they each have to assist in every feast throughout the year.
The martomoetik are those in charge to buy whatever is needed for the feast within the church (flowers, candles, pine leaves, etc.). The alperesetik are those who buy and prepare everything needed for the feast outside the church: fireworks, kameró (which is a sort of “bomb” or explosive that they use at certain moments of the feast in order to emphasize its importance), etc. The moletik are the elders who are in charge of teaching the youngsters how to organize the feast. Three days before of the very day of the feast they begin to celebrate by wearing their traditional clothes and performing the corresponding traditional rites.
The patron saint of Zinacantán is San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence) whose feast day is 10 August. This traditional feast lasts four days (from 8–10 August). The feast of Saint Sebastian, 20 January, is also important in Zinacantan. In fact, Saint Sebastian’s feast lasts from 18–22 January. There are also many other feasts which are less important: Epiphany on 6 January, Our Lady of the Candelaria on 2 February, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Pentecost, Saint Dominic on 4 August, Saint Matthiew on 22 September, Christmas, and many others.
History of Zinacantán
In pre-Columbian times before the Conquerors’ arrival, Zinacantán already had strong links with the Aztecs in the Central Zone of Mexico. Zinacantecans exchanged their products (especially salt, but by the 19th century also cacao, tobacco, and coffee) with Aztec traders.
The first missionaries who came to evangelize the native inhabitants in Zinacantán were the Dominican Friars. They settled in Zinacantan in the 16th century and built a wooden chapel to begin their mission. These missionaries left Zinacantán before they were expelled from Mexico by the government in the 17th century. They resumed their pastoral work in Zinacantan in 1976.
An important development in Zinacantán was the construction of the Pan American Highway, which significantly improved the mobility and prosperity of the Zinacanteco population, as it enabled them to easily transport goods to market such as maize and flowers.
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Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas
Chiapa de Corzo is a small city and municipio (municipality) situated in the west-central part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. Located in the Grijalva River valley of the Chiapas highlands, Chiapa de Corzo lies some 15 km (9.3 mi) to the east of the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. The city had a 2005 census population of 37,627 and serves as municipal seat of the municipality of the same name, which has an area of 906.7 km² (350.08 sq mi) and reported a population of 73,552 inhabitants.
It was originally inhabited by the Soctona ethnic group and its name at that time was Soctón Nandalumí. The Soctona were the only ones who didn’t surrender during the Spanish conquest, resisting several armed expeditions until the campaigns of Pedro de Alvarado when they were defeated and almost exterminated.
The first Spanish attempt to conquer the area was led by Luis Marin in 1524 and it ended in failure. Diego Mazariegos commanded a second invasion in 1528 and his force finally succeeded in overcoming fierce resistance. Facing defeat, many of the Indians chose death instead of surrender. As the Spanish closed in, many jumped to their deaths in the Canon del Sumidero.
History
The Chiapas highlands region has been inhabited since at least the Archaic period of Mesoamerican history. The nearby pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site, also known as Chiapa de Corzo, shows evidence of continual occupation since the Early Formative period ( ca. 1400 BCE). The mounds and plazas at the Chiapa de Corzo archaeological site date to approximately 700 BCE with the temple and palace constructed during the Late Formative, perhaps 400 BCE to 200 CE.
The oldest Mesoamerican Long Count calendar date yet discovered, December 36 BCE, was found on one of several monuments here. Chiapa de Corzo is also notable for a pottery sherd containing what is likely Epi-Olmec script – dated to as early as 300 BCE, this sherd would be the oldest instance of that writing system yet discovered.
In colonial times, Chiapa de Corzo was the indigenous capital of Chiapas, which is why it was called the Chiapa of the Indians, as opposed to the “Chiapa of the Spaniards”, San Cristóbal de las Casas, which was inhabited almost entirely by criollos. Over time, this apartheid system has been disappearing, and the city has a much greater mixture of ethnicities now.
Today, the city is visited by a large number of tourists who come to see the nearby Canon del Sumidero, the Pila (a fountain built by the Spanish in the 16th century) and other sites.
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