Aztlan is the mythological home for the Nahua people. These people trace their originality back to Mesoamerica, the Aztec people’s legendary home. Aztec is the word that was used to refer to the people who came from Aztlan. When literally translated, Aztlan refers to a “Place of the Herons” or “Place of Whiteness” which meant that it was a wholesome and sanctified place. According the Chicano, Aztec and Nahua people, Aztlan was likened to the Garden of Eden. It was deemed to be a location where all originated from. According to them, Aztlan meant ‘home’ since a majority of the natives accepted having originated from Aztlan.
In about 1113 AD, the Mexica had drifted together with the Nahua people and came to the Mexican valley by around the 13th century. Numerous colonial sources have forded various versions of narrations about the Aztecs’ migration. It has been debated for a long time whether the place is imaginary or it actually existed. However, the Mexica believe that their forefathers after departure from their native land, aztlan arrived at the Mexican valley approximately 300 years ago.
For a period of between forty and forty seven years ago, the Chicanos among other indigenous Americans had reached the western hemisphere in clusters, (Chavier, 17). This was a ‘Virgin Land’ as they called because they believed to have discovered the new world. The descendants then gradually spread southwards over the millennia hence reaching the southern American tip. There were several other clusters of people who disjointed themselves from the larger group and established residences along the way.
The chicanos’ ancestry can be traced owing to their skin colour. It is beyond reasonable doubt that their ancestors had endeavoured crossing over Siberia whilst moving southwards. Others opted going south-westwards while the rest continued to the present day mexico
In the mid-seventeeth century, the northern Edenic portrayal vanished from the Mexican city dwellers’ minds. During this period, the area was perceived as a place where a number of frontier garrisons established themselves in the quest to offer defence to their emergent Spain from the intruders emanating from the North. The Spanish evangelists from another perspective saw this as a golden chance to extrapolate their spiritual influence among the people enclosed in the borders as well as their agricultural development.
Even the pioneer settlers’ descendants had a strong belief that that was their homeland up to the 18th century. The fact that the earliest settlers were mostly mestizos and Indians who had intermarried with natives from the north made it too obvious that the ancestors perceived the borderlines as their home whereas the traditional ancestors regarded the tribal lands in the northern region.
There is a very old evidence of the presence of these natives’ which traces back to almost 35,000 B.C (Chavier, 19). The most ancient evidence of distinguishable culture has been discovered in south Arizona that are said to date back to around 8,000 B.C. studies show that social organization, linguistics, origin mythology and materiel culture belong to the most ancient people, the likes of the Valley of Mexico’s Aztec and the Ute of Colorado, (Chavier, 19). The language spoken by the Cochise was actually a derivation from the Uto-Aztecan. More other tribes also have some degree of Uto-Aztecan derivation e.g. the Californian Gabrielino, the ute, the Pima of Arizona and even a few of the New Mexican Pueblo people.
The Aztlan ancestors were living in the location of seven caves referred to as Chicomoztoc where every café corresponds to one of the tribes of Nahuatl which moments later dispersed in subsequent waves to the Mexican valley. These include; chalca, Colhua, Tepaneca, Xochililica, Tlaxcala, Tlahuica and lot that later became the Mexica. Other narrations both written and oral also affirm that the other Nahuatl groups were succeeded by other another one known as Chichimecas who later dispersed from the north to the heart of Mexico in the earlier moments and were perceive by the Nahua as being less civilised.
During the 1960s, there unfolded a lot events as much as Aztlan is concerned. A proportion of scholars with the Chicano origin say that the Tenochtitlan defence was the start of the Chicano activist movement, (Rodriguez, 2007). This 1521 movement pockmarked the ancient Mexican people against Spanish attackers. Others say that it marked the closure of the Mexican-American warfare in the year 1848, a period when Mexico recorded a loss of half of its land to the Mexican residents in the United States.
The Chicano movement coincided with the Black Civil rights movement in the mid-1960s. The movement’s major concern was to push for human and civil rights that emphasised multiplied entry relevance and presence in the American higher education positions that barred people in accordance to their ethnicities. This actually led to institutions of higher learning being the major protest areas hence the emergence of Chicano studies.
The 1960s Chicano movement was characterised of various protestant actions; boycotts aimed at making the lives of those of those who tilled on the farms better, demonstrations whose focus was to bring to an end Jim Crow-style separation and police subjugation; land-award equity demands; educational opportunities improvement protests; and organization of dogmatic representation and personal-determination. Later on, some areas of interest were also identified i.e. gender equality, immigrant and higher education rights accessibility. There was a proclamation of cultural rebirth that was influenced by a renaissance and appreciation of the ancient roots and a positive self-description. This was renowned as the Brown Power movement.
According to many Chicanos, Aztlan is their homeland hence the reason behind the movement. However, several others thought that this was a notion to reclaim the lost tract of land. The Chicano societal integrity movement during the 1960s would give rise to two perilous contributions to the Chicano life conversation, culture and politics. Aztlan was a conception that the whole of the south west United States portion was the divine home to the Chicano fraternity. However, this was a conclusion whose basis was the Aztec historical allusions, and also the long, antique Mexican-Americans in the land that dates back to the period before the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty in 1848.
During the Denver Youth Conference that took place in 1969, there was an El Plan Aspiritual de Aztlan draft that was deemed to be important. The document served the purpose of notifying the earliest Chicano movement. One of the movement’s goals was to to implement a revolutionary and renowned art as a way of enhancing the cultural individuality among the Chicano community. As much as the domineering was to assume a wide of forms, the two distinct incarnations were the start of cultural art hubs and public paintings in the visual arts
References
"Chicano Playwright Explores Social Role of Theater." Monterey County Herald. N.p., 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.
Jackson, Carlos Francisco. Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte. Tucson: University of Arizona, 2009. Print.
Dunning, Linda. Lost Landscapes: Utah's Ghosts, Mysterious Creatures, Aliens. Springville, UT: Council, 2007. Print.
Jackson, Carlos Francisco. Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte. Tucson: University of Arizona, 2009. Print.
Finsterbusch, Kurt. Sociology 11/12. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. Print.
