Extract from Ancient Footprints of the Colorado River: author, Alfredo Acosta Figueroa
Editor’s Note: Figueroa is convenor of La Cuna De Aztlán Sacred Sites Protection Circle which has stopped two Solar Power Projects on the I-10 corridor in Eastern Riverside County that threatened sacred sites, but faces many other similar projects being proposed to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Chapter 2.3 Azteca/MexicaMigrations fromAztlán
Even though most Mexican historians, who have written about Aztlán, say that the Nahua nations migrated from Northwest Mexico and the Colorado River, a thorough investigation confirming this fact has never been conducted on the Colorado River. Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin, a descendant of the tlatoanis (spokespeople) of Tenochtitlan whose codex is among the most respected, wrote: “Aztlán has to be in California, in the vast region along the Colorado and Gila Rivers. There, they founded the great city of Aztlán.”
Dr. Alfonso Caso, former head of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and best-known scholar on this subject, said: “that through archaeological, linguistic and ethnological study, the claims of Chimalpahin could be proven.” Through four decades of research and numerous investigations, we have therefore followed Caso's mythology and our conclusions verify his assertions.
According to Caso’s research, nearly all of the different nations who lived west of the Mississippi River, including the Uto/Aztecan, Hokan/Yuman and Athabaskan/Apache linguistic families, extending as far as Alaska, migrated at one time or another from the Lower Colorado River Basin Valleys. Javier Clavijero’s writing’s about the Nahua migrations, quotes Torquemada, who is said to: “have seen old paintings in which the migration wave was represented by a branch of the sea or a big river.” Clavijero stated, “This was the Colorado River and that after passing to the north of the 35th latitude, the Nahua traveled southeast to Casa Grande, Arizona, on the Gila River, where they stayed for some time before continuing southeast to Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico.” (Clavijero 1982)
Anthropologist Eulalia Guzman states that there was an Italian document in which a missionary priest affirmed to Clavijero his conviction that the Azteca came from Nuevo Mexico, which included Arizona and New Mexico. (Organo, 1966) Other migrations that came from the Lower Colorado River Basin went northeast towards the four corners where the states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. In southern Utah, one can follow petroglyph footprints on trails such as the ones at the famous Newspaper Rock (north of Moab, Utah). The human footprints are the telltale signs that the Nahua nations left behind during their many migrations throughout the ages. (United States Department of Interior)
Petroglyph migration footprints can also be found at the Wenima Wild Life area near the Apache reservation in Eastern Arizona. At this site, bird claw prints are depicted alongside human footprints. (Wenima, 1995) Petroglyph footprints are also prominent around the St. George area and in the southwest part of Utah, but they can be found almost anywhere in the United States, and Mexico. Cristobal del Castillo, a Mexica historian wrote that during the Mexica migration they were guided by Tetzauhteotl-Tezcatlipoca who transformed into an eagle and the eagle flew ahead and led them. The Eagle was Huitzilopochtli and he communicated to them that: “I will go leading you where you are going. I will be in the form of an eagle. I will be calling you where to go. You must watch me.” (Castillo, 1991)
The bird claw prints represent Huitzilopochtli in his nagualli or his animal representation. For this reason, the Eagle claw prints and the human footprints are seen side by side along the migrations trails as seen in many petroglyphs. Major archaeological sites contain evidence that the migrations traveled through many sacred places which include Mesa Verde, Colorado and Chalco Canyon, New Mexico. The nations traveled south to Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, and on to Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, also known as the “The Turquoise City.”
According to two missionaries who had visited Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, the Pima oral tradition relates that the Azteca migration south from Casa Grande, Arizona, were the people who built Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. (Clavijero, 1982) Many archeological sites in the southwest, including ruins of earlier great civilizations, seem to validate this oral history as well. Modern day Danza Azteca founder Florencio Yesca and Hopi Elder, Tomas Banyaca respected prominent Hopi elder, keeper of the Hopi prophecies, believed that the Nahua left Aztlán for political and traditional beliefs, timing their departures in accordance with the astronomical signs. They then traveled to the four directions, covering the continent. (Florencio Yesca, 1974)
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According to the late Hopi shaman, Thomas Banyaca, an ancient Azteca ruin site sits on the third mesa within the Hopi Reservation, located ten miles northwest of the old pueblo of Oraibi in northeast Arizona. Banyaca stated that according to their traditions, the Hopi migrated to and from, up and down the Colorado River. He stated they traveled from the areas of Spirit Mountain and the Grape Vine Canyon northwest of Laughlin, Nevada. Banyaca personally visited the site and was looking for the ancient petrified grape vines as told to him by the ancient oral traditions of the Hopi Creation Story. (Banyaca, 1996)
There, at Grape Vine Canyon, accompanied by the author and Phil Smith, Banyaca performed a ceremonial prayer that made a moss-filled pond flow with water right before their very eyes. (Smith, 1996)
Archaeologist Stephen Lekson, who has researched the Azteca Ruins and Chalco Canyon in New Mexico, and Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, says that the members of the same families going south at different intervals straight line. The different Nahua nations that migrated from the Colorado River at one time or another were not given that name until they settled at the different locations that bear their name along the migration route.
The Nahua migrations from the Colorado River took place during different epochs and each epoch was given a name. The Olmeca were the first to be recorded by historians around 3,000 years ago, followed by the Tolteca, Chichimeca, Culhua and finally the Azteca/Mexica. (Capillo, 1965) The general concept of the migrations is that most major archaeological ruins in the southwest were abandoned by the 14th century.
The Azteca/Mexica left Aztlán around 1160 A.D., not because of warfare, drought or epidemics, as suggested by the historians and other researchers. Our research reveals that they left based on the computation of the traditional cosmic 52-year New Fire Celebration which took place when the star constellation of the Seven Sisters “The Pleiades” rose to its zenith. The New Fire glyph is shown on top of the Teocalli of Aztlán in the Boturini Codex. The Seven Sisters geoglyph image is also among the Blythe Giant Intaglio geoglyph cluster.
Guided by a prophecy attributed to Huitzilopochtli, the Nahua followed the same migration path used by the herons and other migrating birds on their annual flight from the lakes of Central Canada down the Colorado River and south to Mexico. Most historians agree that all the Nahua families left from the same area at one time or another, each taking a different route. (Carpanta, Boturini Codices) One of the first codexes about the migration of the Tolteca was written by Hueman, a Tolteca traditional leader who reigned during the journey south from Aztlán. Hueman wrote the Tolteca, "Divine Book," in which he described the migration from the red region of Huehuetlapallan, above the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. (Perez, 1972)
Most of the Pre-Cuauhtémoc codexes were destroyed by the European conquerors and overzealous priests that viewed traditional indigenous images and beliefs as evil and viewed indigenous nations as worshipers of the devil. The European distortion and misinterpretation of the codexes cast confusion upon the world and mystified the identification of the place from where the Nahua left on their journey south to Mexico/Tenochtitlan. European writers were eager to destroy all indigenous thought and traditions to justify the genocide of the indigenous nations.
During their migration from the Colorado River, the Azteca/Mexica named many of the sites along their migration route and traditionally, they named these sites after the places of their origin on the Colorado River. This tradition has caused major confusion for researchers because consequently, numerous places along the migration route were named Aztlán.
To this day, researchers have concluded incorrectly, for example, that Aztlán, Sinaloa is the true Aztlán while others say it is San Pedro de Aztlán in Nayarit, near Lake Mexcaltitlan. There is even a place called Aztlán in the northern part of Lake Michigan. The name ‘Michigan’ means the same as the name, Michoacán, a state in Mexico. Both Michigan and Michoacán is a Nahuatl word meaning “place of the fish,” alluding to the fact that the Mexica went in all four directions from Aztlán.
During their journeys south, the nations were assisted in some unexpected ways. In his book “Los Aztecas o Mexica, Fundacion de Mexico/Tenochtitlan,” Alfredo Chavero, quotes Fray Torquemada saying that the Azteca/Mexica were led on their migrations by a bird that often appeared in a tree and repeatedly uttered a shrill cry (chillido) that sounded like "Mexica Tihui-tihui Tamoanchan,” meaning “Adelante Mexica, encuentra tu Casa,” Mexica go forward, seek your house. Hearing the cry, the Mexica wise men, Hitziton and Tecpatzan, were compelled to follow the bird's command. Clavero adds that in Mexico there is a bird known as Tihuitochan, whose chillido translates clearly as, "Vamos a nuestra casa," or "Let's go to our house." (Clavero 1984)
Professor Carmen G. Basurto's book, “Mexico y sus Simbolos,” contains a play depicting the Mexica being led all the way from Aztlán to Tenochtitlan by a bird that shrilled “Tihui-tihui” meaning ‘forward, forward.’ (Basurto 1983) Mojave oral history includes songs about a bird leading the nations, thousands of years ago, coming from a place called Yucatan. (Van Fleet) From a nearby tree, the bird would call out “Thee-yem, Thee-yem Aha-Makhav" (Mojave, go and find your destiny), shrilling the same song daily until they settled on the Colorado River at the base of Avi Kwame known as Spirit Mountain. (Steve Lopez, 1994)
The same bird that guided and led the Hokan families up to Spirit Mountain led the Uto-Aztecan families down from the Colorado River to the Valley of Anahuac. This bird is depicted in the Siguenza and the Mexicanus Codex’ and is calling the Mexica to follow him across the Colorado River. The bird is called “tildillo” in Nahua and in English; it is called the black necked stilt. The scientific name is Himantopus Mexicanus. The bird is very common in the Lower Colorado River Valleys and breeds locally. Most of the time, it is seen out in the agricultural fields during irrigation. When they are in groups in a certain area all you can hear is their loud shrilling that resembles “tihui, tihui,” which means go forward or follow me, in Nahuatl. (Bert Anderson, 2002)
According to former Bower Museum curator, Paul Apodaca, traditional bird songs are part of the Lower Colorado River Basin oral history. Recounting the migrations to the four directions, they are possibly the oldest cultural songs in the hemisphere, hailing back thousands of years. According to Apodaca, other native songs, such as those celebrating deer, fox, mountain sheep, and salt songs, also have migration themes. These traditional songs are still sung in most of the traditional ceremonies throughout the Colorado River Basin and Mexico. Thus, the bird songs are connected with the migrations to the four directions.
Petroglyph evidence indicates that many of the Lower Colorado River nations that went south followed the Gila River from its junction with the Colorado River in Yuma, Arizona. Along the southward migration trail, the heron petroglyph is first found near the town of Gila Bend, Arizona. The migrating nations reached this area either by following the Gila River from Yuma or by using the old Halchidoma trail, which begins in the Palo Verde/Parker Valley and ends in Gila Bend, Arizona. The nations then continued to Casa Grande, where, according to Pima oral history, they constructed the large adobe structures, which today are known as the Casa Grande National Monument. (Shaw, 1993)
On their migration journey, the families continued south to the area of the Tohono O'odham (Papagos), near Caborca and Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico, twenty-five miles west of Caborca, at La Sierra Del Alamo. There is compelling evidence found confirming the migrations from the north. On a bank of a wash called El Mural del Arroyo, there is a series of petroglyphs. One of the petroglyphs shows seven arrows depicting seven families. They are accompanied by the characteristic migration image of human footprints. In a separate petroglyph there is the explanation of the centuries-old mystery of the world-wide flood, and how the tilt of the earth's axis brought about magnetic north.
According to the late Benjamin Celaya Crespo, a Sonoran indigenous historian and amateur archaeologist, this petroglyph, El Mural del Arroyo, is thousands of years old and clearly shows the earth's axis tilted at an angle as it is skewed by the force of a passing comet, thus tilting the planet and bringing about the worldwide flood. The comet petroglyph at the Mural del Arroyo substantiates indigenous oral history that recounts how the migrating families traveled full circle in the northern and southern hemispheres after the flood. It also indicates that the nations here in the southwest had this knowledge before they went south to central Mexico.
Mayan Shaman traditionalist Hunbatz Men, states that the Mayan Dresden Codex depicts the comet affecting the earth in the same way as shown in the Mural del Arroyo. The Dresden Codex is one of only three pre-Cuauhtémoc Mayan codexes that were not destroyed by Spanish zealots and are more accurate than the post-Cuauhtémoc documents. Their descriptions of the scientific and traditional belief of the continent's indigenous people were written before the codexes of the Hispanicized writers (tlacuilos). (Hunbatz Men, 1985)
Supporting the Dresden Codex and Benjamin Celaya's investigation is the research by H.S. Bellamy and P. Allan in their book "The Calendar of Tiahuanaca." The Tiahuanaca ruins are located at Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains of Peru and built before the flood. They refer to Hans Hoerbiger's cosmological theory regarding the satellite flight that passed earth, causing the earth to pull the oceans and tilted the earth off of its axis.
This cosmic event created the magnetic north latitude and true north latitude on Earth. At first, Hoerbiger's cosmological theory was not recognized as plausible, but through further studies and with information cited here, his cosmological interpretations are validated and his observations will gain considerable credence. (Bellamy, 1956) Other evidence left behind on the migration routes are the heron and tortoise petroglyphs found along the Southward migration route in the Provedora Mountains, five miles southwest of Caborca, Mexico.
In the old Papago language, “Caborca” actually means “tortoise shell,” and it is represented by a small hill that resembles a turtle in the outskirts of Caborca. In combination with the heron symbol for Aztlán, the petroglyph depicts “where the people of Aztlán meet the people of Caborca.” Another important petroglyph symbol representing the connection between mother earth and the cosmic bodies is also found among the petroglyphs. It is the same hourglass petroglyph found in the area of Spirit Mountain along the Colorado River.
The hourglass “X” symbol petroglyph represents Tamoanchan. In the Codex, Mexico is deciphered as the umbilical of the world and is represented as the center that connects both the top and bottom triangles of the hourglass. The top part of the hourglass represents the cosmos and connects in the center with the bottom triangle representing earth. The Mojave meaning of the hourglass is similar to that of the Mexica.
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Kokopilli, which represents the creator, Quetzalcoatl, is shown in this geoglyph playing a flute, moving to the four directions from the center of the earth in the Big Maria Mountains (Riverside County, California).
According to Boma Johnson in the Hopi culture the top triangle is called Mountain of Sky and the bottom triangle is called Mountain of Earth. The Trincheras Mountains, southwest of Caborca, are one of six Sonoran archaeological zones. The others are Rio Bavispe, Bacadehuachi, Nacori Chico, Moctezuma and Sahuaripa, and they all show evidence of Nahua migrations. (Berkowitz, 1990) At Trincheras Mountain, there are seventeen eight-foot, terrace-like layers that begin at the base of the mountain and continue nearly all the way to the top forming a rudimentary pyramid (teocalli).
Contrary to what is known about the Nahua customs and practices, some archaeologists have erroneously classified the terraces as being built for military defense or agricultural purposes. It is, in fact, a ceremonial place where the nations would perform their rituals. Located at the top of the mountain is a stone construction with a “G” or spiral design representing the Milky Way “Mixcoatl,” the Cloud of Serpents. Close to the Trincheras Mountain is a smaller hill called “La Nana,” (grandmother) and the large hill is called "El Tata," (the grandfather) representing the cosmological duality. There at La Nana, among the hundreds of petroglyphs, was a large round stone with a primitive rendering of the Azteca Sun Stone Calendar.
As the Tlamantinimi (knowledge keepers) traveled south, they brought with them the knowledge of the Azteca Sun Stone Calendar from the Palo Verde/Parker Valleys. In Trincheras and at the nearby La Playa Ruins, a large number of historically irreplaceable indigenous structures and petroglyphs have been destroyed or stolen. Treasure seekers, collectors, are responsible for the vandalism. Furthermore, some of the terrace stones of the Trincheras Mountain were hauled away by the Baja California and Sonora Railroad Lines to build bridges and other structures.
Finally, in 1947, the Mayor of Trincheras, Edmundo Sierra, put an end to this practice. Likewise in 1990, the International Association of Descendants of Joaquin Murrieta was instrumental in urging the Mexican Government to protect and fence off these sacred sites, thus protecting them from further vandalizing. The Trincheras Mountain Culture site, as identified by archeologists, can be classified as one of the major stops on the great Nahua Migration on its southward journey. Remains of the Nahua presence can be also seen in Cucurpe, southeast of Trincheras, home of the Opatas-Eudeves. There we can see more of the petroglyph footprints called “Las Huellas del Viejo,” the footprints of the ancient one.
The region of Cucurpe shares a similar duality with the Colorado River Omeyocan Diamond of Infinity and is shaped by similar geographical surrounding mountain ranges, 3-peaks and a cave. The Nahua migration continued to the center of Sonora, in an area occupied by the Sonoran nations belonging to the Opata/Pima/Cahita group which is part of the larger Uto-Aztecan linguistic families. Many nations, like the Opatas, opted to remain in what is now called “Ojo de Agua”, close to the Pueblo of Huepec on the Rio de Sonora, which they named “Sonota,” (Land of the Corn Cob), hence the name Sonora originated.
In this area, the Opata emerged, settling along the rivers and valleys of central Sonora. (Calvo, 1958) Sonora's original state symbol was an indigenous person standing with its arms extended outward and with the Nahui-Ollin “four cardinal directions” design on the torso, and with a triangle on each side depicting the mountain peaks. These twin peaks and Nahui-Ollin are similar to the geoglyphs found in the Lower Colorado River Valleys. The Nahui-Ollin also symbolizes the four directions of the sun, beginning with the sunrise, high noon, sunset and midnight.
In addition, humans are represented by the man of fire, located in the center of the Nahui-Ollin, symbolized by Xiutecuhtli, “The Fire Energy.” Along the Rio San Miguel north of Cucurpe is one of the most revealing images supporting Sonora’s state symbol. At the edge of a canyon wall is a human shaped face, which the locals call “La Cabeza del Apache,” and on top of the face is another face in the image of a skull. In addition, across an arroyo on a canyon wall there is a large petroglyph image of the Nahui Ollin, the symbol of the four directions. The Ópatas who lived in the Moctezuma/Sahuaripa area of Sonora had a traditional New Year ceremonial dance called “Jojo” which commemorated the Azteca/Mexica migration through their land as they waited for Moctezuma to return. (Calvo, 1958) A document in the Yaqui Museum in Vican, Sonora states that as the Nahua migration continued south. The Cahitas (Yaqui/Mayos) branched out from the Tolteca nation around the fifth century and settled permanently in the Yaqui River area, south of Guaymas, Sonora. (Fabila 1940)
When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century the natives were organized in eight pueblos. Author Laureano Calvo, in his book "Nociones de Historia de Sonora," suggests that the eight pueblos may have symbolized the eight nations depicted in the Boturini codices of the Azteca Migration as they left the Lower Colorado River Valleys. (Calvo 1958)
Near the end of the 12th century, the Azteca/Mexica came and settled among the Cahitas (Yaqui/Mayos). This visitation has been called the "Cuarta Morada de la Migracion Azteca," the fourth sojourn of the Azteca. The powerful Azteca established their new territory from Guaymas, Sonora covering all of the Yaqui Valley and dominated the Cahitas. Some of them, however, left the area to escape the Azteca rule.
Francisco Ahumada says that: “We now have Nahuatl geography names in the Sierra Madre mountain range among the Tarahumara, a Uto-Aztecan nation living in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua.” (Ahumada 1990) After spending time in the Yaqui Valley, the Azteca resumed their migration, passing through the Chametla/Aztlán area below Huatabampo, Sonora and Guasave, Sinaloa, passing through Culhuacan, Sinaloa, and to Piaztla, Sinaloa, originally called Piaztlan. (Buelna 1887)
In Frejes’ book entitled "Historia Breve de la Conquista de Los Estados Independientes del Imperio Mexicano,” he writes: “Authentic information with respect to Aztlán and the Nahua migration was preserved by being passed down from generation to generation stating that further north was a province called Aztlán. Various families from the province of Aztlán had left at different intervals and had come to settle in places such as Sonora, Sinaloa, Acaponeta, Santispac, Jalisco, Ahuatlan, Tonalan and Colima.
They continued on past the mountains of Michoacán and finally established their capital in Texcoco.” Frejes also said that a second wave of migrating nations left Aztlán and invaded the Sierra Madre, coming through the territories of Guadiana, Zacatecas, Comaja, and Queretaro, and finally settling in Lake Texcoco. The journey south then brought the Mexica to a place of many lakes such as Mexcaltitlan, Nayarit. From Mexcaltitlan they traveled through Jalisco down to Michoacán where the Tarascos had settled after branching off from the larger Mexica group. According to the Boturini Codex glyph some of the other Nahua families went from Mexcaltitlan to Chalchihuites and La Quemada, Zacatecas, and down to the Valley of Anahuac. (Bonilla, 1942)
The importance of this archaeological area, which today is known as Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, is three-fold. First, it is the place where some of the nations that left Aztlán were unified. It's from here that the legend of the nations' search for fulfillment of the prophecy of the eagle and serpent has now gained historical credence as demonstrated by the petroglyphs and engraved images among the Chalchihuites ruins. It shows the heron, a man, an eagle and the serpent together, duplicating those found in Aztlán.
Then secondly, it is the only pre-Cuauhtémoc city in which the twenty-eight moons of the lunar calendar are represented by monolithic pillars, suggesting that the nations who migrated here from the north had advanced astronomically in knowledge. Third, its most amazing architectural characteristic is the spring equinox alignment of its structures. Certain buildings were constructed in such a way that the first rays of sunlight emerging from behind the mountains enter the structure through a passage, which perfectly align all the way up to the pyramid of the Sun. The descending Sun merges with Mother Earth by its rays, creating a Serpent (Quetzalcoatl) at the house of energy (Teocalli). (Avalos, 1991)
In Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, the same phenomenon occurs during the spring equinox, as the Sun's rays create a shadow image of the sacred plumed serpent. (Kulkulcan) in Mayan. During this phenomenon the serpent enters the pyramid, "El Castillo." At noon, the shadowed image of the plumed serpent emerges on the pyramid's seven levels. (Hunbatz Men, 1990) The spring equinox phenomenon that occurs at Chalchihuites and Chichen-Itza archaeological ruins are a duplication of the equinox alignment that occurs naturally in the Palo Verde/Parker Valley.
During the equinox, the sun rises in between two peaks that form the “u” in the Moon Mountains in the Colorado River Indian Tribe Reservation. The first sun ray shines on the face of the mountain image of the Huitzilopochtli, looking south. In the Aztec Sun Stone Calendar, this first sun ray is called Tonatiuh: to- meaning sun, na- meaning mother earth, -tiuh meaning shining path. The Nahua left evidence of their travels in countless places along the migration trail that eventually ended at the valley of Anahuac.
One wave of migrating nations from Aztlán who ended their journey in the Valley of Anahuac did so in the following manner: “the Acolhua intermingled and stayed with the Chichimeca, eventually forming the Nation of Texcoco; the Tecpaneca founded the Nation of Ascapotzalco; the Xochimilca settled in Xochimilco; and the Chalca settled on the banks of Lake Chalco. Not finding a suitable location in the Anahuac Valley, the Tlaxcalteca built and developed the Nation of Tlaxcala further to the east, while the Tlahuica occupied the region of Cuernavaca.” (Capillio, 1965)
The consensus and the general interpretation among the Nahua scholars has been that, at the end 160 years of migrating, they arrived at their destination. Accordingly they found the signs they had been searching for: “an eagle perched on a cactus on top of a rock outcropping located on an island in Lake Mexico.” During the excavation of the Plaza Mayor, El Zocalo, in downtown Mexico City, the remnants of the ruins of the Twin Teocallis of Huichitlipochtli and Tláloc were found during the construction of the tunneling of the underground metro-rail system of Mexico City. These remnants were actually dated prior to 1325. This is evidence that there were structures constructed hundreds of years before 1325 by the Teotihuacans and not the Mexica. (Acamapixtli, 1992) As more archaeological sites are excavated, new evidence of these early structures are substantiated.
This new evidence challenges the norms of the years-old interpretation of the origin of the Mexica upheld by the established government. By the time the Mexica arrived in the Anahuac Valley, the other major nations had already developed advanced civilizations. Therefore, taking advantage of their fortunate timing, they were able to absorb the advances made in the arts, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, and agricultural practices of nations such as the Olmeca, Chichimeca and Tolteca who had preceded them.
Under the leadership of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, the Mexica organized the Confederation of Anahuac, which extended north to the Rocky Mountains of Montana and south to Nicaragua, in Central America. The word Nicaragua is derived from "Nican" (up to here) and “Nahua,” representing the Nahua. Thus, Nicaragua means, “Up to here came the Nahua”. (Newman 1990) According to Mexican historian Francisco Navarette, the Mexica were attracted to the shallow, marshy freshwater lakes in the Valley of Anahuac because the surroundings were similar to those they had enjoyed in their homeland Aztlán. (Ortiz 1995)
Alfredo Acosta Figueroa, founder of La Cuna de Aztlán, lives in Blythe, California. The result of 55 years of research into the origins of the people of Aztlán, this book, Alfredo avers, shows that “we, the Xicanos, were not just making up stories but rather we knew that our sun would shine again and it is beginning to shine like Cuauhtémoc said, with the revealing of all these facts presented in the book.