First Steps From Aztlan

This is the story of how the Aztecs began as a small band of wild Chichimec nomads and left their original home under the guidance of Huitzilopochtli, searching for their own promised land.  In the epic saga focusing specifically on the rise of the Mexica and Huitzilopochtli, this legend comes after the Battle of Coatepec and before the rebellion of Malinalxochitl.

First Steps From Aztlan

As told by Cehualli

Long ago, after the seven tribes had parted ways at Chicomoztoc, the Place of Seven Caves, the Mexica lived as simple nomads in their homeland of Aztlan.  They were a wild and hardy clan, not yet educated in the sophisticated ways of the Toltecs, but brave and adventurous.  They lived by hunting the wilderness, always on the move in search of new game.  In short, they were Chichimecs, barbarian nomads.

One day, in a year of the Flint Knife, one of the teomama, or priests who carried the sacred bundles, received a vision.  It was the priest who carried Huitzilopochtli’s bundle (tlaquimilloli), the Teotl who was the special protector of the tribe.  Huitzilopochtli told him that He had big plans for them.  “Be bold!  You will travel south to the unknown lands of Anahuac, to a place where your people will found a great empire.  You will be numerous and powerful, feared in war.  You will gather rich tribute, land, slaves, and sacrifices in My name.”

“How can this be?” replied the priest in awe.  “We’re just a small clan of simple nomads, nothing like the mighty Toltecs of wondrous Tollan where Quetzalcoatl once ruled.”

Huitzilopochtli scoffed at his fear with all the bravado of a daring young warrior eager to test his skills.  “Now you are small and weak, but if you follow Me, I will guard and guide you, destroying those who would harm you and leading you to victory.  I promise you a sign when you have reached the right place — you will see an eagle perched on a nopal cactus, eating a heart.  When you find this spot, build My temple there.  Now, take heart and tell My wishes to the chieftains!  I am impatient and long to start the journey!”

As the vision faded and the presence of the god left him, the priest went to tell His charge to the chiefs.  They consulted among themselves and decided to trust Huitzilopochtli, the Protector of Men.  “He’s never led us wrong before,” they said.  “Even though these things seem impossible, we will trust Him and migrate south.  Perhaps we will die, perhaps we will be a glorious empire after all.  We will see!”

They gathered their poor possessions and set out from Aztlan, the White Place, a land to the northwest of the place they would eventually call home, Tenochtitlan.  They were the seventh and youngest tribe to leave, but they would one day become the greatest of all, the Mexica-Tenochca, Aztecs.

Footprints Indicating a Journey, Plate 34 of the Codex Borbonicus