Tenochtitlan - Mexico
What it really was that Tenochtitlan disclosed to the Spaniards
may perhaps be best conceived by the aid of a survey from the summit
of one of the so-called mosques.
The Central Valley of Mexico is a plateau some 7400 feet above
sea-level, about 60 miles long by 40 broad, and surrounded by
mountains. Here the waters, collected by drainage as in a basin,
spread themselves out in three shallow lakes or lagoons — of which
Chalco and Xochimilico are fresh, and Tezcoco is salt — covering in
all perhaps 442 square miles. Near the western side of Lake Tezcoco
are two marsh islands, and over them extends the community of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan with its adjunct Tlatelolco. This community,
which is not at all a "city" or municipality, is of about one-fourth
the extent of the Mexico City of the 19th Century, and harbors at
this early time a population of perhaps 70,000 souls. Connection
with the mainland is maintained by three long causeways — one to the
north, one to the west, and one to the south — each 20 or 25 feet
broad, and of a cement construction which is hard and smooth. These
causeways, provided as they are with sluice gates, serve also as
dikes for regulating the flow and depth of the water to the west of
the islands, where it discharges from Chalco and Xochimilico, which
are at a higher elevation than Tezcoco. For similar control to the
eastward of the islands, a long dike exists. Besides the three main
causeways there are certain tributary ones and a double aqueduct of
concrete bringing water from the mainland hill of Chapultepec.
Turning now our gaze more directly beneath, we perceive first that
the center of the main community, Tenochtitlan, is marked by a great
square 900 by 1050 feet, facing the cardinal points and surrounded
by a stone wall eight or nine feet high, embellished with carved
stone serpents. In this wall, on each side of the square, there is a
gate, and each gate is approached from without by a broad avenue,
those leading to the north, south, and west gates being
prolongations of the causeways. By the square and avenues the main
community is divided into four quarters, the adjunct Tlatelolco
constituting a fifth division; and each quarter is intersected by
canals spanned by bridges. The great square in Tenochtitlan forms
the place of trade and concourse, and in Tlatelolco a like square
subserves the same end.
So far as buildings are concerned, they are of four principal sorts:
first, huge communal dwellings; next, official edifices or tecpans;
then armories or "houses of darts," as they are called; and, lastly,
temple structures comprehending educational houses and quarters for
priests. The material of all is a reddish stone, for the most part
whitened to brilliance by stucco; and the foundations as a rule are
pyramidal in shape. The great square is filled with temples —
twenty, at least, without counting the chief temple; and Tlatelolco
also has its temples, a chief and lesser ones.
If the hour of observation from our mosque be sunset, the picture
will be charming. In the "pale blue water sheet of Tezcoco" will be
reflected not alone the white buildings of Mexico-Tenochtitlan but
those of other similar communities on the shores, the whole relieved
against a dark blue sierra crowned by the peaks, gigantic and
roseate, of Yztaccihuatl, "White Woman," and Popocatepetl, "Smoking
Mountain." On the other hand, if we look at night, charm will be
replaced by an aspect weirdly sinister. Spectral barks or canoes —
fifty thousand of them, it is said — will be darting athwart the
lake and through the brazier-lighted canals; while aloft the
darkness will everywhere be pierced by temple flames. A modern
smelting works, somewhat softened, might suggest the effect.
Open daylight, however, will best reveal Mexico-Tenochtitlan to the
high-placed observer. By it the communal dwellings will be seen to
be of wide extent, but of only one or at most two stories —in the
latter case receding or terraced and provided with low parapets. The
principal tecpans, of which there are two — one being in Tlatelolco
— are surmounted by observation towers, and the pyramids of the
temples are bulky structures of smooth stone, dented on one or more
sides by steps and culminating in wooden oratories.
Terrible, indeed, is the religion of the Aztec Nahua! Its leading
deity is Huitzilopochtli, god of war, and to him chiefly is
consecrated the greatest pyramid of all. It stands in the broad
square of Tenochtitlan; it is three hundred feet wide on each side
at the base, and with its oratories it rises to a height cf one
hundred and fifty feet. Here, under one's very nostrils, as one
gazes, reeks the blood of human sacrifices — blood-offerings
performed by filthy priests, who, in the curt phrase of Bernal Diaz,
"stink like sulphur and have another bad smell like carrion."
A second great deity shares with the war god his ensanguined abode —
Tezcatlipoca, god-of-thebreath-of-life, the racial god of the Nahua.
Near by are the temples of two other important gods: Tlaloc, god of
rain and fertility; and Quetzalcoatl, counterpart of the Maya
Kukulcan, god of order, enlightenment, and humaneness, the blond and
bearded god, the "Fair God" of romance.
But it is not merely the exteriors of houses that daylight in
Tenochtitlan best reveals. Interiors respond to it even more. Here
will be seen courts supplied with ponds and fountains, the abode in
some instances of wild beasts and birds; chambers, with floors and
walls brought to a hard finish by cement and gypsum, and decked with
featherwork hangings, mats, and cushions, and provided with
low-canopied beds, low tables and stools, flint and copper
implements, and a varied pottery. Between many of the buildings,
too, are green garden plots; and in the lake floating vegetable
gardens; and in the squares, both of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco,
huge markets in full tide of activity.
Of much interest is all this, but obviously interest of a limited
sort. What of the inner self of the Aztec? What of his soul? As
disclosed by his religion, the soul of the Aztec is dark: war feeds
it and blood anoints it. But art is a second medium of soul
disclosure, and through it the soul of the Aztec is revealed as not
inhospitable to light and beauty. Of Aztec art, featherwork is the
most striking example; but metal work, flower culture, and poetry
are also striking examples — especially flower culture and poetry.
Cempoalla is a place of roses. Mexico-Tenochtitlan is even more such
a place. Roses peep above the parapets of the communal dwellings and
tecpans, bloom in the chinampas or floating gardens, depend in
garlands from the breasts of idols. No occasion is there that roses
do not grace, be it festival, baptism, wedding, or funeral; and
though the form of arrangement be oft that of the pyramid or the
sacrificial mound, beauty veils the tragedy of the suggestion.
When, therefore, the Aztec poet dreams and sings, it is flowers —
roses for the most part —and other things of a flower-like fragility
that he celebrates: humming-birds, butterflies, song-birds, and
precious stones. "I wonder where I may gather some pretty sweet
flowers. Whom shall I ask? Suppose that I ask the brilliant
hummingbird . . . suppose that I ask the yellow butterfly. They will
tell me." "I polished my noble new song like a shining emerald. I
arranged it like the voice of the Tzinitzcan bird. . . . I set it in
order like the chant of the Zacuan bird. I mingled it with the
beauty of the emerald, that I might make it appear like a rose
bursting its bud." "They led me within a valley to a fertile spot, a
flowery spot where the dew spread out in glittering splendor, where
I saw lovely fragrant flowers, lovely odorous flowers, clothed with
the dew." But even amid songs of rejoicing rarely is there wanting
the minor chord, the plaintive strain common to primitive man.
"Weeping, I the singer, weave my songs of flowers of sadness." "I
lift my voice in wailing, I am afflicted as I remember that we must
leave the beautiful flowers, the noble songs." "Only sad flowers and
songs are here in Mexico, in Tlatelolco, Ohuaya! Ohuaya!"
The Spaniard beholding Mexico-Tenochtitlan, with its adjunct
Tlatelolco, failed to comprehend it, and his failure, save lately
and in the case of a few persons, has been our own. The Mexico City
or municipality of the Spaniard was, in fact, an Indian pueblo. It
had been founded in 1325 by southward roving Indians, the Aztecs, a
tribe few in number and near starvation. Finding the rich Mexican
valley already occupied, the Aztecs took as their portion the two
neighboring islands in Lake Tezcoco, and devoted themselves to their
principal need, the production of food, chiefly maize and cacao. The
tribe in process of time became fierce, bloody, and prosperous; and
it was the struggle for food that made them so.
This struggle for subsistence is the key to Aztec life and
institutions. To this struggle was it due that the inhabitants of
Tenochtitlan planted gardens and invented the floating garden. To
this was it due primarily that, feeling the need of controlling
communication with the mainland, they built causeways which might be
utilized as dikes. To this was it due that, feeling the need of a
water supply and of an increased amount of food, they mustered
courage and conquered portions of the mainland nearest to them. To
this was it due that, growing in population and power and needing
yet more food, they forced into existence a tripartite confederacy
to levy contribution over an ever-widening area. To this was it due
that, discovering the value of terror as a means of rule, they
developed the ancient Maya-Nahua cult of human sacrifice — at first
practised infrequently —into proportions at once colossal and
revolting, and made Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, their local
deity in chief.
The Aztec tribe as an organism in embryo had but one head — a sachem
or cacique, a civil leader. In him, seemingly, were combined dual
elements —the Above or Masculine element, and the Below or Feminine.
With expansion and conflict came a need of differentiation of
attributes, and there arose the war leader or Chief-of-Men. The
distinctively Masculine element was now embodied in him; the
Feminine being reserved to his associate, who henceforth bore the
title — to many so puzzling — of "Snake Woman." In the days of the
Spanish Conquest the Snake Woman, though often alluded to, makes no
particular figure. The three overshadowing figures are Chiefs-of-Men
— Montezuma, Cuitlahuatzin, and
Quauhtemotzin. Of these Montezuma is reflective and weak; the other
two, his successors, decisive and strong.
Back to: The Spanish Conquerors
