HISTORY

What is mestizo?

Just below the surface, Mexican history fascinates
By Guillermo Méndez

The Mexican is unique. He is special in that he owes his very existence to a sudden, violent collision of two cultures. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire has been compared to an extraterrestrial invasion and subjugation of Earth’s peoples. It was a cultural shock so great, the analogy is perhaps an understatement.

The Mexican is mestizo, signifying a mingling of indigenous and Spanish blood. The first mestizo generation was fifty-fifty; Spanish father, Indian mother. In the second generation the mating options were once again Spanish/indigenous, but also mestizo/mestizo, Spanish/mestizo and indigenous/mestizo. After this, the percentages become a bit more difficult to calculate. Subsequent generations further compound the options, but in practically all cases the race grows with a mixture of two genetic strains: indigenous and Spanish, that is, mestizo.

Modern Mexico identifies with its Aztec ancestry, at least at the symbolic level. The national banner is dominated by the legendary Aztec eagle perched on a cactus, a writhing serpent in its beak. The same image appears on all federal government buildings and most coins. The one-hundred peso note is all Aztec. On one side is an idealized portrait of Cuahtemoc, the last Aztec emperor. On the other side is Xochipilli, the Aztec god of poetry, music, flowers and love. “Mexico” derives from “mexica,” (pronounced may-SHE-ka) one of the words the Aztecs used to refer to themselves. They never called themselves “Aztecs.”

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Aztecs existed as the last link in a long chain of native Mesoamerican cultures that began with the Olmec, almost two millenia before the birth of Christ—in the other hemisphere.

Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Mixtec and Aztec, they were the major civilizations evolving in this hemisphere for more than three thousand years. All of them were totally ignorant of the civilizations evolving in the other half of the world: Mesopotamian, Chinese, ancient Egyptian and Greek, Roman, Medieval European, etc. Of course, the Old World cultures were equally ignorant of the existence of those of the New World. In reality, the planet existed as two mutually exclusive worlds. The inhabitants of the North and South American continents were unaware of their brothers in Europe, Africa and Asia, and vice versa. They were brothers in that all so-called “native Americans” were originally Asians, or Mongolians who had crossed the Bering Straits during an ice age so distant there 
was no collective memory of that ancestry, not even in myth.

This all changed after the voyages of Columbus. Yes, the Vikings were here before Columbus, as the voyages of Lief Erickson dated from around AD1000. But there was absolutely no cultural impact as a result of those voyages. Mutual hemispheric ignorance persisted until after the voyages of Columbus 500 years later. The Genoese mariner’s search for a sea route to the “Indies” led him to a Bahaman island, and 29 years later the world of the Aztecs, as they had known it, ceased to exist—and the Mexican was born.

Columbus had petitioned the Spanish monarchs for several years without success and was on the verge of taking his “Enterprise of the Indies” to the French King. Had France financed the expedition, gotten a foothold in the Caribbean and later, discovered Mexico, the hemisphere would have a completely different look. For one, a “Guillermo Méndez” would not be writing this article because his Spanish Caribbean ancestors would not have existed. The Spanish complexion of Mexico, Central and South America would never have happened.

Hernán Cortés was Spanish, and with the help of thousands of native allies, European disease and a lot of luck, he conquered an empire (the Aztecs ruled over most of central Mexico) and started a new people: the mestizo, the Mexican. The final assault on the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, lasted several weeks. In the end, the Aztec warriors were defeated, the city destroyed and the Spanish and their native allies victorious. Cortés wrote to his Spanish king, Charles V, “We have destroyed their temples and idols and have begun to build on the rubble.” What Cortés was starting to build was Mexico City. The Mexican capital’s center was literally built on top of Tenochtitlan’s ceremonial precinct.

So in a sense, Cortés founded a city and a people. The city would grow to become the nation’s capital where Cortés’tomb is located. Several years ago my wife and I decided to visit his tomb. We inquired at the Templo Mayor Museum located on the zócalo; no one seemed to know where it was. We hired a hotel taxi driver to help us find it. He took us to a cemetery where we read names on tombstones: no luck. Eventually, we gave up. Years later we read in a tourist’s guide book that Cortés’ tomb was in a building that had once been a hospital he founded. The building is actually a church that once served as the chapel of the hospital. Today it is called La Iglesia de Jesús Nazareno. It is located just a few blocks from the zócalo.

Cortés’ tomb is on the altar, to the left. A large simple bronze plaque bears the inscription, “Hernán Cortés 1485-1547.” His crest is all that adorns the plaque. The altar steps were blocked to prevent the visitor from getting a close look at the tomb. No one else was in the church so I stepped over the obstacle on the steps and took a quick photograph. On the way out a priest appeared and I asked him if Cortés’ tomb was here. He said it was, but that I couldn’t go up to see it.

On the outside of the church there is a fairly large inscription engraved in stones tiles. Two tiles in the upper left corner had fallen off and never been replaced. They had contained a few words of the inscription.With the help of a Mexican friend I later learned the missing words. The inscription read, “At this site called Huitzilan occurred the meeting of ‘el señor’ of Mexico, Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, and the Spanish conquerer, Hernán Cortés, on the day 8 November 1519.” Apparently Cortés had the hospital built on the spot where he first met the Aztec Emperor. It is three blocks off the zócalo, and yet no one knows where it is. Obviously the Mexican has an uneasy relationship with Cortés.

Today, at one end of the Zocalo is the city’s great cathedral, La Catedral Metropolitana. Current archaeological excavations under the cathedral have revealed what was known for some time, that the cathedral rests on the remains of Tenochtitlan. Recently, thick glass viewing plates have been placed in the stone floor in front of the cathedral. They’re huge, measuring several square meters in size. The visitor can stand before them and look down at the archaeologists’ discoveries. Aztec architectural structures are clearly visible. It can be a very moving experience. It certainly dramatizes the dry dates and facts of the tourist’s guide book.

Mexican history fascinates because it is so close to the surface. Standing in the Zocalo, in front of the great cathedral, looking down through the glass at the remnants of Tenochtitlan, the story of the Mexican’s origin is poignantly visible, just below the surface.

Professor Guillermo Méndez, a San Miguel resident, is a regular Biblioteca lecturer on the ancient cultures of Mesoamerica. His next lecture on October 12 will focus on Columbus, “Hero or Villain?”