A few trivial thoughts:

Cancun means ‘snakes nest’.

Akumal means ‘The Place of the Turtles’.

The original Mayan city where Merida now stands was called T’Ho,

The Mexican Federales were still fighting Mayan Chiefs in 1910.

Chichén Itzá means the Mouth of the Well of the Itzá. The original name for Chichén Itzá was Uucil Abnal, Seven Bushes.

Yucatan is not a Mayan word. Obviously, it is a place name now, but it really means nothing.

Mariachi is not Spanish. It is a corruption of the French word for marriage. In Colonial Mexico, people of wealth and property spoke French. They only spoke Spanish to their servants. When there was a wedding, they would hire a band to play at the Mariage (fr).

In Mexico, anti-clerical laws are still on the books forbidding convents, monasteries, Catholic Mass, etc. During the revolution mass was held secretly in private houses. Priests dressed as carpenters, plumbers, etc. to escape detection. The laws are, obviously, not enforced.

Despite four decades of strained relations between the US and Mexico, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Germany declared war on the US, Mexico almost immediately declared war on both Japan and Germany.

There is only one statue of Columbus in Mexico City and no statues or monuments to Hernán Cortez.

Today we hear a lot about insurgents. The longest street in Mexico is Insurgentes. It is in Mexico City.

The Aztecs claimed to have come from a place called Aztlán, the Place of the Herrons. They actually called themselves the Mexíca (may-SHEE-kah). It is where the word Mexico comes from. Their tribal deity was Huizilopochtli, the Left Handed Humming bird.

Aztec pyramids (temple bases) are unique in having two stairways (on the same side) and two temples on top, one to the tribal deity and one to Tlaloc (often referred to as the Rain God).

Teotihuacan was an ancient ruin to the Aztecs, who considered it a holy city. With all the sculptures, painted pottery, wall murals, etc. at Teotihuacan, none show a ruler, chief, or king. None of the monuments or images give a clue as to who ruled it. It was vast, flourished for seven or eight centuries, and influenced all of Mesoamerica. It was a powerful entity, but now one know who ruled it or how it was ruled. One of the major deities depicted is female, Chalchiutlique, She of the Jade Skirt, Goddess of the Waters.

Mesoamerican religion was monotheistic. The thousands of ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ are a misunderstanding—they are really manifestations of the one supreme omnipresent omnipotent being, Ometeotl, to whom no temples or monuments were built (except possibly one–-a ten-stage structure built by Nezahualcoyotl, the poet King of Texcoco.

Just a few thoughts.

Norm

Wow !!!!

Thanks for the info.

It was interesting reading

Percy

These are interesting.

I'm not aware, however, of the existence of the vowel sound "ay" as you've described in "May-she-kah". Would it not be pronounced "Meh-she-kah" ?

Rex,

That was just my shot at it. I suppose either could be close. It's like Aztec music, since none of us were there, we don't really know what it sounded like.

Norm

I spoke in my original post of the anti-clerical laws of the Revolution. Tourists might be surprised that few monasteries and convents are used as such. Technically, they all belong to the government, that is, the people of Mexico, as opposed to the church. Many are museums, such as the monastery of Churubusco. The Colonia of Churubusco used to be the Hollywood of Mexico, the capital of the movie industry. I don’t know if it still is. The monastery is now the Museum of the Intervention (by the Yankees–who else?). It is not too far from Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul.

A few blocks south of the Zocalo, as I recall on the street Isabella la Catolica, is the old colonial church, The Hospital de Jesus. Legend has it that the bones of Cortez are interred in the wall. Not sure this is true. If it were, mobs would probably break down the wall, drag out the bones, and burn them in the street. But more interesting is the barrel-vaulted ceiling painted in fresco by 20th century Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco, in my mind, the greatest of the 20th century muralists and one of the truly great painters of the century. When American muralists of the depression era wanted to know how to do it, they looked to Orozco and Rivera. Imagine painting a fresco on a barral vault, probably about the size of the Sistine Chapel, and doing it with only one arm! The theme is “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. It is a wild bunch. But not all are horsemen–one is a woman-- a bizarre, overweight blond, smashed, in a cocktail dress astride a horse holding out a martini. This is not his greatest mural–the best are in Guadalajara. It is a little comment Orozco made upon modern society. His murals are not known for being humorous, but when he wanted to, he could be riotous! I’m relatively sure the church fathers were not amused..

The Aztecs flourished in the last two centuries before the conquest. Before that they were Chichimecs, like the Toltecs before them, that is, nomadic hunters and gatherers who lived in the northern desert, wore animal skins and hunted with bow and arrow, considered barbaric and uncultured by the people of central Mexico. They were very fierce and treacherous. Two centuries later, as one writer put it, they were “poetry writing, flower smelling connoisseurs”. When they first migrated into the Valley of Mexico, everyone hated them and tried to get rid of them. They settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, Tenochtitlan. They grew, gained in strength, and power, and by the mid-fifteenth century, had become the power to reckon with. It was a remarkable transformation in a short time. In maturity, they were much like the Romans in that they were very good administrators and rulers of a great empire. When the Spaniards came in 1519, they were amazed at the size and beauty of this city on the lake, with gleaming temples, fine houses and palaces, causeways to the mainland with draw bridges, and huge markets, the likes of which the Spaniards had never seen. There were even government officials we would call today ‘consumer advocates’. There was the royal zoo and the royal aviary. They had fine clothes, were very style-conscious, had unique ways of wearing their hair, had tattoos and body ornaments of gold and precious stones. Tribute form all over the empire poured in, copper, obsidian, cotton, textiles, paper (each city responsible for contributing paper had its own watermark), and many more.

Aztec law is interesting. There were not too many, perhaps so that everyone would know them. There were two levels of courts, one for the aristocracy and one for the common man. Sounds like ‘the old double standard’. Not exactly. Penalties for people of wealth and power who broke the law were more severe, not less. They were expected to set an example. If a man was brought before the court accused of a crime and swore his innocence in the name of one of the chief “gods”, he was automatically set free–-the idea, to use the name of a god in a lie would be unthinkable. The judges would just naturally assume he was innocent. A traveler could help himself to four ears of corn from a farmer’s field from any of the first four rows. It was his right. But to exceed that meant the death penalty if caught. When a male child was born, his father would immediately give him a long lecture on his duties and responsibilities as an Aztec citizen. No matter, that a one-day old child couldn’t understand a word. The Aztecs had great respect for education. Every child went to school, boy and girls. They may have been the only culture in the world in the 16th century with universal state education.

The Aztec army never lived off the land on expeditions. They always took everything they would need with them. In battle, the aim was not to kill the enemy, but to take prisoners for sacrifice. The souls of sacrifices were thought always to go to paradise. Slavery existed. Slaves had rights and could buy their freedom. Slaves could have slaves. All children of slaves were automatically free.

The ruins of the Templo Mayor near the Cathedral show the foundations of the Great Temple of the Aztecs. It is worth a visit. It has a good museum just behind it.

Just a few more thoughts.

Norm

A few more come to mind.

With all the pottery made in the Americas, before the comeing of the Spaniards, there was not a single pottery wheel in the Americas. All were coil-made.

Before the Spaniards, all Indians were pedestrians. Thre were no horses. When the Indians first saw horses, they did not know what they were.

The Spaniards wore metal armor. The Indians called them the men who wear stone clothes.

The Indians had grenades--gourds filled with bees.

The Maya used Cocoa beans for money.

The greatest of the civilizations of Mesoamerica until the end of the Classic Period (c. 900 AD) had no metals, did not use the wheel, and had no beast of burden.

The Spaniards brought small pox to the Americas--and got syphilus in return.

The maya Long Count Calendar was derived from the Olmecs and has a mythical beginning of 3114 B.C and ends seven years from now--2012. At that time humankind will be destroyed by earthquakes.

The largest pyramid in Mesoamerica is not the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, or even the one at Cholula which has a base of 45 acres--three times the size of the base of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The largest is the Danta Comlex at El Mirador in northern Guatemala. The tallest is Temple #4 at Tikal in Peten, Guatemala.

Norm

Cozumel means 'Place of the Swallows'.

Uxmal means 'Thrice Built".

Dzibilchaltun (large ruin just north of Merida) means 'Where there is writing over the rocks'.

Mayapan means 'The Standard of the Maya'.

The Maya did not have wheeled vehicles, but they had roads, called 'Sacbe', many of them. The longest, 60 miles, connects Cobá and Yaxuná.

Norm

The US tragically had its Indian Wars in the later part of the 19th century--Yucatan had its version, called 'The Caste Wars' about the same time...Europeans against the Maya. It was very bloody.

'Criollos' are Spaniards born in the Americas (or more widely, Europeans born in the Americas).

It was the 'Criollos' and their children, not the Indians, who revolted against Spain and brought about Mexico's independence.

I'll throw n a fed more. Things keep popping up in my mind.

Tulum means Walled City

Cobá means Ruffled Waters (If you have been there, you may know that there are several large reedy lakes at the site.)

Mexico has 12,000 archaeological sites.

You will probably never see a bow and arrow represented in Aztec (Mexica) or Toltec art. Even though the Aztecs were very proud of their Chichimec heritage, the bow and arrow were symbolic of “the barbarian” (northern nomadic hunters). They wanted to be associated with the cultured peoples of the Valley of Mexico. The word ‘valley’ might confuse some people who have not been to Mexico. It is the center of Mexico (The Navel of the World). Where Mexico City is. The altitude of the floor of the valley is 7,200 feet and the mountains around it are much higher, the two famous volcanos being nearly 18,000 feet.

The Aztec, the Toltecs before them, and very likely the much earlier Teotihuacanos, spoke Nahuatl. Aztec culture is also referred to as The Nahua Culture. Our word ocelot was originally the nahuatl word ocelotl, tomato was jitomate, etc.

BTW, we have all heard of ‘Montezuma’, the Aztec Emperor that Cortez encountered. It as actually Motecuhzoma II. He died during the Spanish clumsy semi-occupation of Tenochtitlan (stories differ as to how), was succeeded by his relative Cuitlahuac, who only reigned for four months, to be succeeded by the last Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc--prophetically meaning Falling Eagle, the eagle being for them, as for us in the US, the national symbol.

I am surprised that more people do not go to the ruins of El Tajin in northern Vera Cruz. If you want to feel like you are in the Far East without a 19-hour plane ride, go to El Tajin. It is a large ruin and unique in almost every way. There are temples in Cambodia that are nearly twins of several of the main temples at El Tajin. Much restoration has been done in recent years at this very fascinating site. Everything about it looks oriental. There are relief murals, ceramics, and sculptures that you would swear come from the Far East. The famous “Wind and Water” motifs of ancient Chinese bronzes seem to occur everywhere in Tajin art. It is a classic period site that stretches into the post-classic. Locals claim that the Totonacs built it, but no archaeologists will commit themselves to that theory.

Another site of interest, at least, to me, is Cacaxtla (means backrack–sort of a backpack, but made on a wood frame) not far from Puebla in Central Mexico. This hilltop site was discovered in 1974. It is a series of buildings. They contain murals–painted frescos. Remarkably, they are Mayan! Everyone knows this is not the Mayan area, so what going on here? The largest mural, very impressive, is often called the “Battle Scene”. But it is not a battle. It is a slaughter. It commemorates a military victory. There are two groups, one, the bird men (eagles?) with spears killing members of the other group, apparently the captives in a gruesome ceremony. Other figures are dressed and decorated as jaguars recalling the military orders of the eagle and jaguar knights. There are many images including a scorpion, thought by historians to represent the constellation Scorpio. The style is suggestive of 9th century Seibal in the Río Pasíon area of the Maya lowlands. Mayan elements also occur at Xochicalo south of Cuernavaca. These are the most important Mayan murals, second only to Bonampak. Not all are gruesome. All are colorful and beautifully painted. It appears that the Maya, perhaps the Putun Maya, a group mostly of merchants, but, I think, with a military arm perhaps to ‘encourage’ trade and settle conflicts, intruded into Central Mexico probably in the 9, 10, and 11 centuries–and possibly later–and established several commercial outposts/garrisons, thus the presence of the Maya in Central Mexico. No more bizarre than the Toltecs occupying northern Yucatan for two centuries.

Hasta luego,
Norm

Ooops! Make that Xochicalco. I am usually a better speller of Nahuatl names/words, but stumbled on this one.

norm