Aztec pragmatism

LAA   Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:11 pm GMT
In nahuatl, something very interesting is said when a child is born. One's birthday, is often referred to as, "The day I began my dying".

Very pessimistic, but also very true. The day you are born, is the day you begin dying. You are one day closer to your death. Sad, but true, for this is every man's fate.

Nahuatl is full of little phrases like that.
Sigma   Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:17 pm GMT
Ejem, una pequeña observación:

Nahuatl y Azteca son dos cosas muy distintas.
LAA   Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:28 pm GMT
Yes, I know. Many different peoples of the Valley of Mexico spoke Nahuatl. It is just that Aztec is generally associated with the language of Nahuatl.

And if you want to get even more technical, "Aztec" is not even the proper word for the people we are referring to. Their name is "Mexica", hence the modern name for Mexico. The Mexica were sometimes called the Aztec due to their legend of having migrated from a legendary place in the far north, known as Atzlan.

According to legend, they abandoned their wondrous civilization in Aztlan, under the order of their patron god, who told them to leave their land, in search of a new place to settle, which would be more fertile. They were to keep migrating until they found a place with a golden eagle perched upon a cactus, with a reed or snake in its mouth. That was to be the divine sign for their place of permanent settlement.

So, these nomadic people migrated from a great distance, being harrassed along the way, until they came upon the Valley of Mexico, and Lake Texcoco. They were view as uncivilized and unwelcome tresspassers in the region, and were not allowed to settle in anyone's land. So, they were forced to settle where nobody else wanted to, and that was a swampy region in the middle of the great lake. The native people put a trade embargo on them, so they were forced to go without many necessities. Their only agricultural product from which to sustain themselves was a certain bitter weed, which is where the etymology of the Mexica derives its origin.

Once they eventually became masters of the great valley, they gave their name to the region, and it was then known as the Valley of Mexico.

Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, litterally means, "place of the cactus people". It was also often called the City of Mexico, because of the name of the people who inhabited it. When the Spaniards founded New Spain, they called their new conquered land "Mexico", and its major city, the "City of Mexico", "or Ciudad de Mexico" or in English, "Mexico City".