Primary Source 9:15 - 10:45 am, March 15, 2013Guest Speaker, Chris Rodriguez

How has Mexico’s history and diversity shaped its traditions? 

1. Mexico’s Geography and Indigenous Roots -Many Mexicos

Mayan Popul Vuh

2. Spanish Conquest and Cultural mestizaje -Many Mexicos

Dias de los muertos Indigenous, European, and African mestizajeVirgin Mary of Guadalupe

3. Mexican Revolution and “Racial Homage”

Celebrating Many Mexicos

Many Mexicos

Mexico: 3 times the size of Texas

Mexico City population, 20 million

Working class neighborhood, Mexico City

Mexico City high rises

Mexico City middle class family

Market in southern Mexico

1. Mexico’s Population, including Indigenous speakers

Mexico’s population density, 2010

2. Indigenous Peoples, 2000

speak at least 1 indigenous language

7.7 million speak no Spanish

1.3 million Spanish and 1 indigenous language

5 million Indigenous languages:

88

Ethnolinguistic Map of Mexico

Where do Mexicans come from?

Scientific Story: first American migrants

10,000-40,000 years ago

By 1492

approximately

25 millionFirst

Mexicans

Earth: 500 Million

Americas: 60 Million

X

Maya Pyramid, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, 600 AD

3. Creation Story from Popul Vuh of Quiché Maya

“Book of the Community”

“Discovered” 1702

Middle Americans (Maya, Aztec, etc.) had 10,000s books

Why did Christian Priests burn most books in early 1500s?

“Burning the books of the gods.” Codex Tlaxcala.

Tepeu, the MakerGucumatz, Feathered Spirit

Perfect Beings must

Worship properly,Keep days/calendar,Give gods offerings,Walk upright, Reproduce,Care for each other,Work, Speak properly

Devine-Social Contract

1. Mud/clay2. animals3. wood4…

4th try, creatures helped, used white and yellow corn

Kept calendar,Gave gods offerings,Walked upright,Reproduced,Cared for each other,Worked,Spoke properly,Worshiped properly leader sacrificed own blood

Too perfect:“Breadth on a mirror”

When Popol Vuh performed - mirror wiped clean

Maya priests performing Popul Vuh,

2001 and 1930s

Section of oldest Maya mural yet found, 100 BC.

Whatstrikes youabout the Popul Vuh story?

1490s

Christian Europeans Arrive to

Colonize and Convert

Native Americans

Maya Sacred World Tree connected Spirit and Human worlds

Christian Europeans told story of the sacrificeof their God’s son on cross

Maya and others, “we can relate.”

Origin Story

of the Aztecs(people from

Aztlan)

Emerged from Chicomoztoc

“Place of Seven caves”

Chichimecs

Groups of northern Mexican peoples begin migrating south in1000s.

Deer skin drawing, ca 1530s

Historical Migration to Valley of Mexico: 1000-1300Aztlan

Tenochtitlan

1324 founded

Tenochtitlan

“place of the cactus”

Image: The Founding of Tenochtitlan, Codex Mendoza, 1530s.

Mexican Flag

1491: Aztec capital of empire, Tenochichtlan

250,000 in Tenochichtlan1 Million in surrounding basin

Extreme makeover: nomads to city dwellers

100 miles of artificial lakes Miles of aqueducts

Aztec Market: jade, Queztal feathers

Section of Diego Rivera mural, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City, 1930s