To Save a City

The Desague of Mexico-Huehuetoca, 1607

Bibliographic Data

ID7519699
AuthorsW Michael Mathes (University of San Francisco, corresponding author)
Year1970
Volume26
Issue4
Pages419-438
Publication date1970-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Americas A Quarterly Review of Latin American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1615 • E-ISSN: 1533-6247
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/980184
OpenAlexW2316487750
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited10

The Mexica people, nomads forced southward by the bellicose Chichimecas of the north in the early fourteenth century, received revelation from their principal deity, Huitzilopochtli, which would terminate their wanderings. Appearing in dreams to the priest Cuauhtloquetzqui, Huitzilopochtli stated that on the spot where the heart of his slain nephew, Copil, was thrown, there would grow a great nopal cactus where an eagle would make his nest and dry his wings in the morning sun. This site he further stated would be named Tenochtitlan, place of the nopal, and there the people were to build a great city from which they would become the masters of the surrounding regions. The announcement of this revelation was made by Cuauhtloquetzqui, and, locating the great nopal on an island in the center of the Lake of Texcoco, a temple to Huitzilopochtli was constructed on the site in the year 1325

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Geography · Literature · Nephew and niece · Political science · Revelation · History · Latin American history and culture · Law · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics · Psychedelics and Drug Studies

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