What is the correct way to call the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan

Without a doubt, one of the Mesoamerican cultures that had the most prestige during the pre-Hispanic era was the Mexica culture. Los Mexicas was one of the cultures that settled in central Mexico, more specifically, on an islet located in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

They managed to dominate much of the Valley of Mexico, subjugating villages that were around where they had their city, Tenochtitlan. , in what is now Mexico City. The myth tells that Mexico City-Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325, after a group of people found the sign of their God Huitzilopochtli, who told them to find the place where they would find an eagle perched on a prickly pear devouring a snake, would be the place where they should settle.

This fact was of great importance to Mexicans, because to date, this image is in the center of the national flag, on Mexican coins and even, in official documents, including the passport.

This is the representation of a pre-Hispanic allegory told to Mexicans for generations: that of a people who went on a pilgrimage for years and years, and found that eagle on an islet and there established their new empire. However, there is a doubt about the people who dominated these lands and this geographical part of America: Was this people of the Mexica or the Aztecs?

People often confuse and think that they are the same thing, however, the reality is very different. And it is that, although both are used as synonyms, they were not the same people. The first, the Aztecs, were the inhabitants of Aztlán, the place where it is believed, went out in search of the place promised by their god Huitzilopochtli. Aztlán means place of whiteness, or place of the herons, and it is believed, was a place similar to Tenochtitlan, that is, surrounded by water, and which was supposedly found in northern Mexico, however, the exact location of its location is not known. The Mexicas, on the other hand, are a group that broke away from them.

In reference to Aztlán, there is even doubt that it actually existed. Its inhabitants were called Aztecs, which means “those who come from Aztlan”. According to the consensus of multiple sources, in year 1-Téctapl, equivalent to 1064 of the current calendar, a fraction of the Aztec people heard the call of the god Huitzilopochtli, who promised them a new land to live in.

They had to leave Aztlán and search for her until they found her. There they would have riches and would be powerful. In this way, they decided to embark on the pilgrimage, which had several intermediate stages, because throughout their journey they stopped in several places, one of them was Coatepec, which means Cerro de la Serpiente, where they settled for a long period, and it is believed, it is in what is now known as the state of Hidalgo.

Finally, they arrived at Lake Texcoco, where the Mexican capital is today, and where they founded Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, although this did not happen immediately upon their arrival. This is believed to have happened in the year of 1325.

There they created their own identity and, although they came from Aztlán, they no longer identified themselves as Aztecs, but as Mexica, which in Nahuatl means “those from Mexico”.

As far as is known, the history of Aztlán was first mentioned by the Mexicas themselves, when they had already settled in their new city. Much cited chronicles from the time of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, such as the True History of the Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, never mention the Aztec gentile.

And the fact is that the Spaniards called the indigenous people of Mexico City mexicas, or even, Mexicans. Historiography shows that the Aztec people actually began to be disseminated by Anglo-Saxon historians from the 18th century, almost 300 years after the Spanish conquest. Experts such as William Robertson and William H. Prescot, for example, began to refer to the Mexica as “Aztecs” to distinguish them from Mexicans in general.

Over time, the gentile was taken up by several Spanish-speaking historians, and finally, it permeated even among the Mexicans themselves. In the world, and even in the popular culture of Mexico, there is talk of the Aztec Empire, when the most accurate thing would be to call it the Mexica Empire, since the latter were the ones who founded and expanded it.

And it is that Aztecs were all those who came from Aztlán, and the Mexicas were part of that group, but there were many more. It wasn't the only town that lived there. Chalcas, Colhuas, Tepanecas, Tlahuicas, Tlaxcaltecas, Xochimilcas are among the peoples that migrated from Aztlán, according to “History of the Indies of New Spain”.

For this reason, calling the people who settled in Tenochtitlan Aztecs is not inaccurate, but it does deny the fact that they deliberately abandoned that identity, and does not take into account the historical change that their name had.

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