Teaming up with the experts

Model of Tenochtitlan in the Templo Mayor

Following a meeting in Mexico City in November 2005, we’re thrilled to be able to announce that Mexicolore will be collaborating with the Education Service of the Templo Mayor in an exciting and pioneering range of collaborative ventures in the future - all aimed at bringing Aztec society to life for teachers and students of all ages, on both sides of the Atlantic. Here we give a glimpse of what lies ahead... (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

The Head of Education Services of the Templo Mayor, Professor Gabriela Buenrostro, has generously agreed to work with Mexicolore on a number of collaborative projects, ranging from simple exchanges of information, resources and contacts to ambitious initiatives that have enormous potential. Professor Buenrostro showed immediate enthusiasm for our Ask The Experts service - she has kindly accepted to be on our Panel! - and the possibilities of bringing together questions on the Aztecs raised by children in both countries. She will be sharing with us the fruits of the Museum's ongoing schools programmes through their regular 'Mural Newspaper'. The example shown here (November 2005) tells of the importance of the 'cempoalxochitl' flower (marigold) in both modern Mexico (it plays a key role in the Day of the Dead festival) and also in pre-Columbian times (We will be uploading a feature on the Day of the Dead shortly...)

For the Aztecs the cempoalxochitl was a flower sent by the Sun god to help them remember their dead ancestors; its use was ritual and decorative, and it grows in a range of colours associated with the sun - yellow, orange and red. Its very name means (in Nahuatl) ‘20 Flowers’.

We plan to produce (and share) new bilingual educational resources for schools, to publicise to wider audiences the latest educational developments at the Museum (they're planning a schools workshop on chocolate in Spring 2006, and a CD-Rom guide to the Museum specially designed for children is currently being developed...)

We will be approaching the British Council, and education authorities in both countries with a view to organising an exhibition of the best school displays on the Aztecs (again from both countries) at the annual Festival del Centro Histórico in the heart of the capital...

There are great possibilities of working together with the Templo Mayor Museum's artists-in-residence group Amoxpoani ('We Who Read the Books...'), who have years of experience of bringing Aztec Music to life in Mexican schools and museums...

And in the longer term future, imagine what we can achieve through new technologies such as videoconferencing with the Templo Mayor's Education Service as partners...

One of the fascinating exhibits in the Templo Mayor Museum is this model of modern Mexico City, where markers have been placed to show the exact spots where key Aztec artefacts have been found. Behind and to the right of the Cathedral is the excavated site of the Templo Mayor; the large building with a white roof on the right of the picture is the National Palace; in the bottom right hand corner of the picture (and of the main square or Zócalo) is a small indicator showing where the famous Aztec Sunstone (‘Calendar Stone’) was found...

Aztecs

Maya

Teaming up with the experts

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