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.
While the migration stories differ in certain details, we can detect a general pattern in the narrative account, which usually begins with the divine ancestry of the legendary ancestors. After a description of the mythical origins of the people, probably based on preceding oral traditions, we are told of the exalted deeds of the actual historical descendants of the divine founders of the race or family. This takes the form of a series of dramatic tales tied roughly together into a sequence of historical events.
The Popol Vuh is the epic story of the Quiche Maya people of Guatemala. Notwithstanding the similarity between the opening Maya account of creation and that of the Biblical account, the Maya document is genuine. Written in the elegant Quiche style of the 16th century, it sets forth clearly the early migrations of their ancestors. The picture is confused somewhat by the complex interrelationship between the Quiche and the Yaqui or Mexicans, as the Aztecs were called then, during the migration period.
Quiche history begins with the first four created men, who became the leaders. The Popol Vuh tells us that all the tribes, including the Mexican people (Yaqui vinaq.), gathered together to await the rising sun. They then heard of a city and they went to it. The city was likely Tula (known by different names in Mayan and Nahuatl), the well-known Toltec site in the state of Hidalgo. At this point the Yaqui, Tolteca, or Mexican nation was united with the Quiche people. Later, they split up and went their separate ways. The exodus of the Maya people from Tula probably began in the 7th century A.D. But after the establishment of the tribes (Quiche, Cakchiquel, etc.) in Guatemala, they remembered the commandments given by their founding fathers to return to the sunrise (the east) whence they came in order to receive the lordship, i.e. confirmation of their legitimate right to rule. Ultimately, they arrived before the lord Nacxit, none other than the Toltec culture hero himself, Quetzalcoatl, who gave out the symbols of authority. The ambassadors received the symbols of their authority to govern and returned home to Guatemala.
The Annals of the Cakchiquels is the history of the Cakchiquel Indians, a Guatemalan tribe closely associated with the Quiche, although speaking a distinct dialect of the Mayan language. Written in Cakchiquel by members of the Xahil family clan, the Annals is based on earlier oral accounts of the migration of the Cakchiquels, again from mysterious Tulan, to their present location in Guatemala. Later annals were added, with entries down to the end of the 17th century. As in Homer's Iliad and other epic traditions, the Cakchiquel document contains many tales of the Heroic Age. But it is also an important source of Cakchiquel history from the beginning through the Spanish Conquest down to the early colonial period. As in the Popol Vuh and the Books of Chilam Balam, the Annals again refer to Tula as the common place of origin of many tribes.
The Annals names the main clans or families that came to Tula from four different places. The text reads "... from the west we came to Tulan, from across the sea." Thirteen clans of the seven tribes arrived at Tulan, the Cakchiquels being the last to arrive. During their journey they reached "the sea," which, after much anxiety, they crossed over on the sand using the red staffs they received at Tulan.
All written documents in Nahuatl or Mayan languages naturally presuppose a post-Conquest date of composition. Therefore, a certain amount of missionary influence could have crept into the accounts. However, apart from these obvious attempts to connect the migrations of the Maya with the "lost" tribes of Israel or other theoretical pre-Columbian trans-oceanic voyages, the documents are relatively free of Spanish influence. If you really want to understand the cultural and linguistic complexity of modern Mexico, you have to go back to the migration period of the Mesoamerican peoples.
