30 May 2025 / 10 House
Who were the Mexica?
Aztecs migrating (Codex Boturini)
The Aztecs never called themselves ‘Aztecs’, but rather ‘Mexica’ (the origin of the name Mexico). (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Others called them ‘Aztecs’, referring to the legendary home of the Aztecs in the far north of Mexico, ‘Aztlan’ (Image from the Codex Boturini). Note, incidentally, that ‘Aztlan’ should be pronounced with emphasis on the FIRST syllable, NOT the second as is commonly the practice today.
Aztlan, incidentally, means ‘Place of the Herons’ - a white aquatic bird: so white was a symbolic colour for them. And there’s an expression in Náhuatl, Noyollo iztaya, ‘my heart becomes white’, which means being happy because a longed-for desire has come true (‘A Scattering of Jades’, ed. Timothy J. Knab).
Comments (1)
Tashina
24th Feb 2017
I was recently approached by someone who critizised me for using the term ‘Aztec’ in the description of a drawing I’d done of Quetzalcoatl. They said I was wrong to use the term ‘aztec’ because that’s not what they called themselfes, saying they used the term ‘mexica’.
How shouls I react when confronted with people who identify themselfes with the ancient mexica people? It’s sometimes a bit scary, since I wasn’t aware of such an ongoing belief in being part of an ancient ancestry in Mesoamerica. I don’t want to offend anyone, but using the term ‘mexica’ would in my eyes confuse the themes I work with with modern people, but I am usually referring only to the ancient Aztec empire.
Mexicolore
The key here, surely, is respect, on both sides. We must be aware that the term ‘Aztec’ is a bit of a misnomer, popularized by the historian William H Prescott in his classic work ‘History of the Conquest of Mexico’ in 1843. It’s a vague term that tends to cover all the peoples who began migrating from the mythical Aztlan to the Basin of Mexico in the 12th century, including the Mexica who later founded Tenochtitlan. To that extent we should all try to be more precise, and use the name Mexica as often as possible to educate people generally who may not have heard the term.
Equally, purists must accept that, especially teaching about these peoples in far-away Europe (or wherever), the term ‘Aztec’ is still a very useful and simple term, and the general public relates to it immediately where they don’t on hearing the term Mexica.
To us it seems too heavy-handed to dismiss the term Aztecs altogether, but we must take on board where it came from and its built-in weaknesses.
Aztecs migrating (Codex Boturini)
Hot Tip
Bioluminescence
Visible in the waters off Acapulco (April 2020) - the same natural phenomenon the Aztecs saw as the ihiyotl in corpse lights*
More Aztefacts
- WelcomeJade - bogies of the earth monster