Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

Mexico is famous for its cultural and linguistic diversity. Among the main reasons for the many different indigenous peoples and languages in Mexico today were the various migrations of the Aztecs, Maya, and other peoples to and fro in ancient Mexico. The main outlines of the Aztec migration from the semi-historical, semi-legendary homeland Aztlan to the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan are fairly well known, thanks to the extensive documentation we have for the Valley of Mexico. The migration patterns of the Maya are, however, complicated by the relative lack of outside documentary evidence and by the complex historical connections between the Maya and the Aztecs. Apart from archaeological and other evidence, such as language distribution, our main sources of information on the Maya migrations come from the native accounts themselves, such as the Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya and the Annals of the Cakchiquels.

How can we know what really happened in ancient times when often we cannot even be sure we are getting an accurate account of current events? The farther back we go in time, the more opportunity there is to speculate on what really happened, or is thought to have happened. Often the result is a revised history that bears little or no resemblance to the original source.

Mesoamerica presents special problems for the historian because of the interweaving of myth and history. Academic historians tend to dismiss  much of the native historical tradition because of its alleged mythological or legendary features. The inclusion of what we regard as myths in historical accounts are sometimes thought to lower the value of such documents for purposes of historical reconstruction.  However, if we set aside our own preconceptions of what history is, or should be, a very different picture emerges.