Mexica Movement

[Frances Karttunen]

I certainly agree with many points in your paper, but I also think your 
bibliography needs expansion, and the place to start would be with 
James Lockhart's big book, The Nahuas After the Conquest.

While the movement you describe has obvious appeal to many people of 
Mexican heritage in both the USA and Mexico, I have wondered about the 
single-minded focus on the Uto-Aztecan peoples and in particular the 
Aztecs.  Doesn't this disenfranchise (yet again) the many other 
indigenous peoples of Mexico?  How can the Mixtec farm workers up and 
down the west coast of the USA and those of various Mayan ethnic groups 
resident in Florida, to cite but two examples, relate to a Mexica 
movement?

As for the million or so Nahuatl-speaking people of today, isn't 
appropriating their name and aspects of their language-and-culture 
complex also an act of cultural imperialism imposed on them by people 
they don't recognize as fellow macehualtin/nahuatlatohqueh?

Also, it seems that you are equating "Mexican" and "Central American" 
in your paper, but most people use "Central America" to refer to the 
countries south of Mexico through Panama. The term 
"Meso-America"--while literally meaning the same thing--has been used 
for a long time to refer to the well-defined culture area ranging from 
northern Mexico through El Salvador and Nicaragua.  Within this ancient 
area, into which the Nahuah were late arrivals, there are many 
unrelated indigenous languages but many shared cultural features.

Frances Karttunen


On Apr 14, 2006, at 7:15 PM, David Becraft wrote:

> I just finished a research paper for my Anthropology 301 class with 
> Dr. Anne Chambers of Southern Oregon University.  Please review it and 
> critique it at:
> http://panchobecraft.blogspot.com/
>