Mexico of the Mexicans

Front matter

THE CASTLE, CHAPULTEPEC

Mexico of the Mexicans

By Lewis Spence

Chapter I

Mexico of the Mexicans

CHAPTER I

WHO ARE THE MEXICANS?

With the exception of Peru, Mexico is perhaps the only Latin-American Republic in which the native Indian race has not shrunk and retreated before the onset of European civilisation. This is owing to the circumstance that when first brought into contact with European influences the Mexican Indian was in full enjoyment of a civilisation of his own, which, if it was inferior to that of his conquerors as regards important essentials, was in some of its phases even superior, and as far removed from the nomadic habits and scanty culture of the savage tribes of North and South America as it is possible for the usages of the settled agriculturist to differ from those of the wandering hunter. If we would comprehend modern Mexico, we must perforce have some little acquaintance with the strange and bizarre civilisation which preceded it.

The earliest accounts of the natives of the Mexican plateau are those furnished by Hernan Cortés, and the soldiers and priests who either assisted in the conquest of Mexico or else arrived from Spain shortly after that event. Landing at Vera Cruz in 1519, Cortés first came into contact with the coastal tribes, gaining at length the plateau of Anahuac ("Place by the Water"), where he encountered more highly civilised native peoples. Subduing some and enrolling others under his banner, he advanced to the city of Mexico—Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecâ—by far the most powerful people in the land, who lived in houses of stone or marble, clothing themselves in fine cotton dyed in many colours or in wonderful feather cloaks made from the plumage of brilliant-hued birds. This people possessed a religion as picturesque as it was terrible in rite and sacrifice, and legal and political systems which in most of their provisions were, perhaps, equal in enlightenment to those of seventeenth-century Europe.

The Aztecs or Nahua had records of their national history painted in symbols upon deer-skins which told of successive migrationsof their stock from the north to Mexican plateau. Thus the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Tecpanecs, Acolhuans, and Tlascaltecs had successively poured their myriads upon the tableland of Anahuac, the latest immigration being that of the Aztecs themselves. Many of these tribes were of one and the same race—the Nahua—and used in common the Nahuatlatolli, or "speech of those who live by rule," the word "Nahua" meaning "the settled folk," the "law-abiding."

The Toltecs, the first of these successive swarms, were credited by native traditions with a higher culture than was possessed by those tribes who succeeded them in Anahuac. According to native lore, they were mighty builders, and so skilled in artistry and handicrafts that the name Toltecatl became a synonym for "artist" or "craftsman" among the less gifted peoples who inherited their culture. Their downfall was due to plague, famine, and drought no less than to the inroads of the savage if related Chichimec, who entered upon the heir-ship of their civilisation. Excavations at Tula, the modern name of the ancient Tollan, the Toltec capital, substantiate what legend has to say of the Toltec culture, the architectural and artistic remains unearthed there exhibiting a standard of excellence considerably higher than any arrived at by their successors.

There were other and relatively more aboriginal peoples in Mexico besides those of Nahua race—the Otomi, who still occupy Guanajuato and Queretaro; the Huastecâ, a people speaking the same language as the Maya of Central America; the Totonacs and Chontals, dwelling on the Mexican Gulf; and, to the south, the Mixtecâ and Zapotecâ, highly civilised folk, who nowadays furnish modern Mexico with most of her schoolmasters and lesser officials. To the west lay the Tarascans, famous craftsmen and jewellers.

A general impression seems to prevail that the Aztecs as a race are extinct. In what circumstances the belief arose it would be difficult to say; but it would seem to have emanated from the pages of writers of romance, who love to dwell upon the legends connected with the mysterious ruined cities of Yucatan, and who too often confound the Aztecs with the Maya of that country, who are also far from being exterminated. The Nahua race, of which the Aztecs were a division, is very much alive, and forms the basis of the greater part of the Indian populations of present-day Mexico. After the conquest of Mexico by Cortés, intermarriage between the Spanish hidalgos and Mexican women of rank was common, as bestowing on the Castilian a claim to his wife's estates. But, in subsequent generations, few alliances between Spaniards of the aristocracy and native women were entered into. The lower ranks of the Spanish soldiery, however, espoused many Mexican wives, and it is chiefly from these unions that the half-breeds of the present day have sprung. The Nahuatlatolli, or native Mexican tongue—the speech of the Aztecs—is still widely spoken in Mexico, and this alone should be sufficient to refute the statement that the race has become extinct.

The present-day population of Mexico may then be divided into (1) persons of pure European descent, the descendants of Spanish and other colonists, who form the bulk of the official and administrative classes, and whose numbers are very considerable; (2) half-breeds, the descendants of Europeans and Indians; (3) pure Indians, who mostly inhabit the rural districts; and (4) Zambos, a cross between Indian and negro, and other sub-types. In the South and in the State of Yucatan, there exists a population wholly different in origin from the Mexican. This is the Mayan, a race speaking about seventeen dialects of the same tongue, and divided into the three great sub-races of Maya, Quiché, and Cakchiquel. This ancient people it was who built the wonderful temples and palaces of Central America. The Maya had many customs and beliefs in common with the Nahua, but their art and racial characteristics mark them out as fundamentally a different people. At the present time their descendants are represented by the agricultural class in Yucatan and Guatemala. In many parts of Mexico, Indian life in its tribal aspect still exists; and, although several attempts have been made to collect facts concerning native customs in these districts, a large and rich field awaits the traveller who possesses the scientific attainments requisite for the proper and systematic observation of these obscure tribes.

Aztec history could not lay claim to any great antiquity prior to the arrival of Cortés. Coming from the North, probably from the region of British Columbia, with the inhabitants of which their speech, art and religion indicate a common origin, the Aztecs wandered over the Mexican plateau for generations, settling at length in the marshlands near Lake Tezcuco. For a space they were held in bondage by the Tecpanecs, but such truculent helots did they prove, that at length the Tecpanec rulers were fain to "let the people go"; and, once more their own masters, they founded the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan in 1325. For generations they failed to assimilate the civilisation which surrounded them, and which was at its best represented by the people of Tezcuco on the north-eastern borders of the lake of that name. In 1376 they elected a ruler. Tezcuco had been assailed by the Tecpanecs, and its rightful king, Nezahualcoyotl, forced to flee. But with the assistance of the Aztecs and the people of Tlascala, he regained his crown. The Tecpanecs, however, sent an expedition against Mexico, but were signally defeated by the Aztecs under their monarch Itzcoatl, who, in his turn, attacked their chief city and slew their king. These events raised the Aztecs to the position of the most powerful confederacy in the valley of Anahuac. Itzcoatl formed a strong alliance with Tezcuco and Tlacopan, a lesser city, and Mexico entered upon a long career of conquest. Its policy was not to enslave its neighbours, but merely to establish a suzerainty over them and to exact a tribute.

Under the able rule of Motecuhzoma (Montezuma) I, the Aztecs pushed their conquests farther afield. After subduing the more southerly districts, this able soldier-king turned his eyes eastwards, and in 1458 sent an expedition against the Huastecs of the Maya stock on the Mexican Gulf and the Totonacs. But he was also occupied in quelling disturbances in several of the conquered cities nearer his own capital. The Tlascalans, a folk of warlike and turbulent mood, were the hereditary and implacable enemies of the Aztecs, who relied upon constant strife with them for the larger proportion of their sacrificial victims, and, indeed, regarded Tlascala as a species of preserve to supply the altars of their war-god. On the other hand, did an Aztec fall into the hands of the Tlascalans, he became the prey of the military divinity of that people. This unnatural strife between related tribes was fostered by the belief that, unless the sun constantly partook of the steam arising from blood-sacrifice, he would wane and perish; and, because of this belief, thousands were annually immolated upon the pyramids of Huitzilopochtli of Mexico or his prototype Camaxtli of Tlascala. The hatred nourished between these people by this deplorable superstition proved the undoing of both when, at the advent of Cortés, that leader was enabled to employ the warriors of Tlascala against their ancient foes of Mexico.

The reign of Motecuhzoma was marked by a public work of great importance to the city of Mexico. A great dam or dyke was constructed across the lake of Tezcuco from a point on the northern side of the lake to one upon its southern shore. The purpose of this ten-mile barrier, which also did service as a causeway, was to guard the growing city against the inundations which frequently threatened it and had on more than one occasion submerged it. Motecuhzoma was followed on the throne by Axayacatl, a monarch of equal ability, who succeeded in annexing the city of Tlatelolco, which shared the same island with Mexico, and dispatched an expedition to the wealthy and enlightened Zapotec country, even as far south as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, thus opening the way to the fertile district of Soconusco with its cocoa plantations, its mines of precious stones and great natural resources. Other regions equally desirable fell before the Aztec advance. Axayacatl died in 1469 (? 1477) and Tizoc in 1482 (? 1486), and Auitzotl came to the throne. He continued the Aztec career of conquest, and even penetrated to Chiapas and Guatemala, although he did not occupy these regions. He completed the great temple of Huitzilopochtli in the city of Mexico, commenced by his predecessor, and constructed an aqueduct which supplied water from Coyoacan on the southern shores of Lake Tezcuco. He was accidentally killed in an inundation by striking his head against the lintel of a flooded building from which he was trying to escape.

He was succeeded in 1502 by Motecuhzoma II, the king whose name has been rendered famous by reason of the coming of Cortés in his time. This monarch had been trained both as a soldier and a priest, but the sacerdotal part of his education had perhaps been amplified at the expense of the military. Intensely superstitious, he was yet enough of a soldier to suppress nascent rebellions in the Mixtec and Zapotec countries, and energetically attack the Tlascalans, who, however, eventually beat him off after a strenuous invasion of their territory. He cultivated a truly Oriental magnificence in the city of Mexico, and employed the inexhaustible tributes which flowed into his coffers to render the capital city worthy of its position of eminence.

But the end of this teeming and picturesque civilisation was at hand. Cortés sailed from Santiago, in Cuba, on a November morning in 1518, when Motecuhzoma's reign was some sixteen years old. The Spanish leader had a following of about six hundred men, thirteen of whom were armed with fire-locks and sixteen of whom were mounted. On arriving at the mainland, he was met by the emissaries of the Aztec monarch, who received him courteously but coldly, and tendered him presents of gold and gems, which merely excited his cupidity. To the chagrin of Cortés, the Aztec emperor refused an interview. Destroying his ships, the intrepid Spaniard left a small detachment at Vera Cruz, and set forth with 450 men and numerous Indian "friendlies" for Mexico. He desired passage through the country of the Tlascalans; but its inhabitants, fearful of his approach, instigated the Otomi tribes on their frontier to attack him: 30,000 of them gave him battle. He succeeded in routing them, but 50,000 Tlascalans advanced to attack him in a temple-pyramid where he had fortified himself. Charging down upon the enemy, he found himself in a most precarious position until, the Otomi deserting the Tlascalans, the latter were forced to retire. Overtures of peace were sent to the Tlascalans, and these were accepted. The alliance between his enemies greatly alarmed Motecuhzoma, who attempted to placate the Spaniards with a tribute of gold and gems, but to no purpose. Cortés entered Tlascala in triumph; and Motecuhzoma, now in real consternation, at last sent him a friendly invitation to visit him in Mexico. Cortés set out from Tlascala accompanied by 5,000 Tlascalans. Halting at Cholula, the sacred city of Mexico, he was informed by his native allies that treachery was intended by its people, whom he attacked and slaughtered in thousands ere their conspiracy to destroy him had reached fruition.

It was October ere the Spaniards arrived at the capital, where they were met by the Emperor in person, surrounded by all the exotic grandeur of an Aztec monarch. The streets were thronged with spectators as the Teules, or "gods" as the natives styled them, entered the city. The fated ruler conducted Cortés to a spacious palace, where he seated him on a gilded daïs decked with gems, and feasted him royally, saying, "All that we possess is at your disposal." The Spaniards feared treachery and, at a later stage, seized upon the person of the unhappy emperor as a hostage for their safety.

Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, not content with Cortés's conduct of affairs, which he believed to be governed by selfish motives, fitted out an expedition to Mexico, the purpose of which was to wrest the power he had achieved from the adventurous leader. This armada of 18 vessels and 900 soldiers was commanded by one Panfilo de Narvaez; but on Narvaez's arrival at Vera Cruz, Cortés, who had made a forced march to the coast with but 280 men, attacked him by night and signally defeated him. Cortés had left Pedro de Alvarado in command at Mexico, and this captain committed the barbarous indiscretion of attacking and slaying the Mexican chiefs whilst celebrating a religious festival within the bounds of the great temple. He was at once closely besieged by the Aztecs, and on the return of Cortés with Narvaez's men, the whole party was beleaguered; Motecuhzoma, in attempting to conciliate his own subjects, was wounded, and survived but a few days.

The desperate expedient of evacuating the city in the face of a hostile and deeply irritated population was risked. This resulted in what is known as the "Noche Triste," the night of woe, in which, in making their escape by one of the great stone causeways leading to the mainland, the Spaniards were almost decimated. - Cortés now found it necessary to rest and refresh his sorely tried troops after their dread experience, and withdrew to Tlascala. Reinforcements arrived from Cuba, swelling the Spanish numbers to about 900 Castilians, and some 50,000 Tlascalan allies. Building numerous brigantines, which he transported in parts on the shoulders of native carriers to Lake Tezcuco, Cortés laid siege to the Aztec capital in May, 1521. At first the Spaniards were driven back, but, reinforced by tribes hostile to the Aztecs to the number of nearly 200,000 warriors, they pressed the investment, which dragged along for seventy-five days. At length, Cortés resolved upon the demolition of the city, building by building, and by this barbarous method at last broke down the stubborn Aztec defence. The great pyramid-temple of Huitzilopochtli was overthrown, and only a single quarter of the city, commanded by Guatamotzin ("chief Guatamo"), the nephew of Motecuhzoma, remained in Aztec hands. Guatamo was eventually captured; and Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the city of the most warlike people in Anahuac, became the prey and spoil of the conquering Spaniards. A portion of the city was rebuilt for the occupancy of the Spaniards, but, needless to say, its architectural character was substantially altered.

This sketch of Aztec history, brief as it is, would not be complete without some reference to the interesting indigenous civilisation of the peoples of Anahuac. Dwelling, as we have seen, in stone houses usually of one story in height, they were slowly evolving an architectural type of their own. These houses, which were built of red stone found in the vicinity of Mexico city, were flat-roofed, the roofs or azoteas being laid out with parterres of flowers, which gave the city, when viewed from the summit of a temple, the appearance of an immense garden. The royal palaces, especially those of King Axayca and Motecuhzoma, were stately and spacious, and covered so much ground that the Spanish conquerors aver that often they had wandered through their apartments for a whole day and had not then inspected all of them. The rooms, as a rule, were spacious if not very lofty, and were frequently hung with native tapestries or with cunningly devised arras manufactured from the feathers of the brilliant-hued birds of the tropical regions of Mexico, an art in which the Mexicans excelled. Furniture bore a resemblance to that in use in Oriental countries, where the habit of squatting dispenses with the necessity of chairs; but thrones and couches were not unknown, and all beds were laid on the floor without supports.

The costume of the upper classes was the tilmatli or cloak, woven of fine cotton and, sometimes, in the case of ceremonial dresses, of feathers. Beneath this was worn the maxtli or loin-cloth, the only usual wear of the lower classes. The several ranks of chieftains and nobles wore the hair in divers manners to denote the grade to which they belonged, as did the orders of knighthood (of which there were several degrees). Jewellery was lavishly in use among the higher ranks, and huge panaches, or head-dresses of feather plumes, were worn by chiefs and nobles. Footwear consisted of sandals. Great proficiency had been reached in the jeweller's art, the Spanish artificers who witnessed the work of the Aztec and Tezcucan craftsmen stating that they could not equal it. Gold was extracted by rather laborious means from mountain lodes, and entered largely into the adornment of a warrior. Aztec ladies wore a species of skirt, and a body-dress of jewels and gold.

The government was an elective monarchy, the emperor or tlatoani being elected from the royal family. This obviated

PART OF ANCIENT FAÇADE, MITLA

the perils of a minority and, as the throne was invariably filled by a brother or nephew of the lately deceased monarch the continuance of the royal line was assured. The emperor was usually selected because of his military prowess and sacerdotal experience, a knowledge of matters warlike and religious being regarded as essential in a ruler. Thus the ill-fated Motecuhzoma, besides being an experienced soldier, had been trained exhaustively in the tenets of the priesthood, which perhaps accounts for the superstitious and fatalistic attitude he adopted upon the arrival of the Spaniards in Anahuac. Justice was dealt with an even hand by varying grades of tribunals, which sat constantly and were answerable to none, the emperor not excepted, for their verdict. Corruption on the part of a legal official was punishable by death. The moral code was high, and such crimes against social decency as drunkenness and immorality were rigorously punished.

The religion which instigated this stern moral code was of a highly composite character, mingling as it did the tenets of a peaceful and idealistic cult with the sacerdotal practices and sanguinary ritual of a people who were still in a condition of mental barbarism. This faith probably drew its high ideals from that of the older Toltec race, who may have fused with the Nahua immigrants to the Mexican plateau. The influence of this cultivated people was seen in the worship of Quetzalcoatl, a god possessing solar and atmospheric attributes, whose cult, if in later times it became stained with the abominations of human sacrifice, showed many signs of an earlier repugnance to ceremonial cannibalism. Not so the other cults of Anahuac, whose gods were tutelar genii of the Aztec people, and who were supposed to have guided them to their possessions in the Valley of Mexico. These deities, the most important of whom were Tezcatlipoca, a god of the air (who afterwards developed into the chief divinity of the Aztec pantheon), and Tlaloc, god of waters, delighted in human sacrifice; and at their altars, hundreds, if not thousands, of hopeless war-captives and innocent children were annually devoted to slaughter in the belief that, unless the gods were nourished and rejuvenated with the blood of human beings, they would droop into senility and perish, with the result that the world would be wrapped in darkness and the human race become extinct. The festivals in connection with the cults of the numerous Aztec gods were many, and involved the practice of an imposing and bewildering ritual, the climax to which was only too often an orgy of cannibalism, which was rendered none the less abhorrent in that it was surrounded by the circumstances of a degree of civilisation by no means despicable.

A great deal of speculation has been indulged in regarding the belief of the Nahua in a Supreme Being, a "god behind the gods." There is some slight ground for the belief that shortly before the Spanish invasion of Mexico the cultured classes of the various Nahua States commenced a movement towards Monotheism, or the worship of a single god. Behind this movement, states a chronicler of most doubtful veracity, was Nezahualcoyotl, King of Tezcuco; but concerning this theological novelty and its sponsors, our data is so slender and dubious of origin, that it cannot be pronounced upon with any degree of certainty. As with the deities of other people, those of the Mexicans were alluded to by their priests as "endless," "omnipotent," "invincible," "the Maker and Moulder of all," and "the One God, complete in Perfection and Unity." It was natural that the priesthoods of the several great deities of Mexico should have regarded their especial god as the god par excellence, and thus exalt him above the other members of the Mexican pantheon.

When a race forsakes a nomadic existence and begins to rely upon agricultural labour as a means of subsistence, it inevitably creates in its own conscience a class of divine beings whom it regards as the source and origin of the crops and produce it raises. These deities of grain and the fruits of the earth and the allied gods of the elements quickly overshadow and surpass the older gods in the popular imagination—these beings who are worshipped by a people in the state of the nomadic hunter, and which now sink to a minor position in the tribal pantheon. This worship of the food-gods will be found to lie at the root of Mexican mythology. The elemental gods of wind and sun have undoubtedly first place in that system, but it is chiefly so because of their paramount importance in the phenomena of growth and fructification. Even Huitzilopochtli, the war-god of Mexico, had an agricultural significance.

Enough has been said to exhibit the Mexican mythology as a religious system which had advanced to a stage typical of a people whose chief business in life was the tilling of the earth. It does not exhibit those figures of a suaver cultus, such as that of Greece, where, side by side with deities of the soil, other gods had arisen who symbolised higher national ideals in love and art, such as Aphrodite or Apollo. Although Mexico had its goddess of Sexual Indulgence and its craft gods, it is very questionable whether the latter would ever have evolved into higher types. The artistic consciousness of the Mexican, although virile and original—much more so than the lack-lustre artistry of Hellas, with its passionless and unhuman types—was yet lacking in the Hellenic quality of idealty (unless its symbolism might be said to partake of that quality) and in the Hellenic sense of beauty. But it possessed a grotesque sense of beauty peculiarly its own, which is by no means to be regarded as ugliness run mad.

The temples where the dreadful rites which stained the Mexican religion were celebrated were known as teocallis or "houses of god," and had evidently been evolved from the idea of the open-air altar. They were pyramidal in shape and consisted of several platforms, one superimposed upon the other, reaching a considerable height, usually 80 or 100ft. A staircase wound around the pile and led to the summit where the god or gods was enshrined in a building of stone or wood. Here, also, stood the stone of sacrifice, a convex block, upon which the struggling victims of fanaticism were immolated by having their hearts torn out, these being placed in a large vase, along with a quantity of gum copal, the steam arising to titillate the nostrils of the ever-hungry god.

The warfare which secured this never-failing supply of victims was scarcely of a higher type scientifically than that waged by most North American Indian tribes. The Aztec warriors greatly favoured the ambush—quick retreats followed by speedy rallies and such barbaric stratagems. The weapons most in use were the maquahuitl, a wooden club-sword, into the side of which were inserted sharp pieces of iztli or flint; and the Spanish conquerors speak of this as a really formidable weapon, a blow from which was capable of killing horse or man outright. Bows and arrows were employed, and a spear-thrower, known as atlatl, was much used to launch darts and javelins. Armour consisted of thick, quilted cotton jackets for the rank and file, and occasionally of light gold or silver plates in the case of chiefs. Discipline was severe, and acts of cowardice in the field were almost unknown.

Enough has been said to show that the race which preceded the Spaniards in Mexico was at the epoch of their arrival emerging from a condition of savagery into one of comparative civilisation. In all probability, its material achievements and equipment were more advanced than its mental outlook, and this was probably due to the circumstance that only some three centuries prior to the Conquest it had fallen to the heirship of a civilisation it comprehended incompletely, the outward conditions of which it speedily accepted and absorbed, without possessing the capability to embrace the more valuable social code of the people whom it had partially dispossessed of the soil.

The history of Mexico from the time of its surrender to the Conquistadores to the day when it threw off the yoke of Spain in 1821, after a struggle of more than twelve years, is merely a dull record of Castilian tyranny and native peonage. The immediate occasion of the first revolutionary movement in what was then a Castilian colony, was the invasion of Spain by Napoleon. Indignation against the French was universal. All the attempts of the Napoleonic emissaries to arouse disloyalty to the person of the Spanish monarch proved fruitless, and indeed the first military rising was dictated by a desire to hold the country for him whom they regarded as their rightful king. But the European Spaniards in Mexico viewed the junta of native statesmen which had been hastily summoned with considerable suspicion, and seizing the Viceroy who headed it, they sent him a prisoner to Spain on 15th September, 1808, themselves assuming the reins of government. This high-handed act excited universal indignation from all classes of Mexicans; but as it met with approbation from the Spanish Government, the people grew deeply incensed, and a popular rising followed, marked by terrible excesses. On the night of 10th September, the tocsin of revolt was sounded. City after city fell before the Indians, who were led by a priest named Hidalgo. But their first successes were rapidly checked, and a guerilla warfare of painful duration commenced. The entire country, with the exception of the cities, ultimately fell into the hands of the revolutionists, led by Rayon and Morelos. Hostilities proceeded slowly until the arrival, in 1817, of Mina, a Mexican student, who had been absent in Spain. For a year he harried the Spanish regulars with a chosen band, but at length was captured and shot; and in 1819 the Revolution had reached a lower ebb than at any previous period during the struggle.

About the middle of 1820, however, accounts were received in Mexico of the Revolution in Spain which followed the revolt of the Spanish army in the Isle of Leon, and this added fresh fuel to the movement in Mexico. The famous Don Augustin Iturbide was appointed to the command of the Spanish troops. He almost at once renounced his allegiance, and proposed to the Viceroy that a new form of government should be instituted independently of Spain. His election by the military to the dignity of Emperor was not long delayed, but he was not destined to remain in tranquility for more than a short space. In 1823 revolution succeeded revolution, and in May of that year he was deported to Europe with the solatium of a pension. A new Republic was then formed. An attempt upon the part of Iturbide to recover his kingdom ended in his being shot at Padilla on 19th July, 1824. Later, the financial status of the country necessitated large loans, which were raised chiefly in England.