Lessons from Mesoamerica (Robby Buck)

 Lessons from Mesoamerica


In the not-so-distant past, there was a vast technologically advanced empire in Central America. This Empire excelled in ways that Europe was centuries behind on. This Empire was known as the Aztec Empire. You may be familiar with Cortez’s crusade against the repressive Aztec Empire and how he rallied disgruntled tribes from what is modern-day Mexico to attack the New World's Venice, Tenochtitlán. Well, this is an interpretation from the Aztec point of view, since in the Western world, their story isn’t as well talked about as the Conquistadors' pillaging and raping of the land. 

Unlike most Western civilizations, there is a myth behind the founding of Tenochtitlan. The story goes that wherever an eagle sits upon a cactus, eating a snake, a great city will be founded. This cactus just so happened to be next to a lake bed. So Tenochtitlan was founded on the muddy soil of the lake in a similar way to how Venice was created. Most of the ground for the city was created by driving posts into the soft sediment to create a stable foundation for stones and other building materials. Around the city, a network of small chinamps, agricultural plots composed of wooden pillars and mud, was inside the lake. This system of creating farming plots inside the lake provided a feedback loop for the animals that lived in the lake, fertilizing the crops. While the crops feed the people of Tenochtitlan, they also feed the animals residing inside the lake. Thus, it created a vast, fertile farming zone that was accessible to boats.

As for Aztec mythology, there are 5 worlds, the first was destroyed by jaguars, the next by winds, the next by rains of fire (possibly meteors), and the fourth by floods and the greed of humanity. Nanahualt founded the fifth world after he jumped into the great bonfire to become the fifth lord of the sun. He was given this task by Qeutzalcoatl, and the lord of Sustanence, to create a new land for the fifth generation of people to inhabit. This land is a land of harmony where the beauty of nature and humanity can live in peace. However, this balance was upset once the Conquistadors conquered Central America, sending the world back into a greedy, polluted place that destroyed the 4th world. Hopefully, humanity as a whole will learn from these mistakes and begin to live in harmony with the planet as its stewards instead of destroying it. That is a thought for the future; for the moment, we can only lay the foundation for future generations to become stewards of our home.

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