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Comment by yosito | Hacker News Reader

Tenochtitlan, the old Aztec capital that became Mexico City was absolutely fascinating. More impressive than Venice at the time. One of the top places I would love to see if I could time travel.

https://davisabong1982.blogspot.com/2021/08/tenochtitlan-azt...

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The podcast Fall of Civilizations does a great job of telling the astounding, heartbreaking story of how Tenochtitlan got conquered by the Spanish. What really blew my mind is that it was not at all inevitable. It always seemed to me growing up that the Europeans took over the Americas due to superior tech or something, but I don't think that's true at all. I also had to confront the complex reality that the Aztecs were certainly not some kind of benevolent empire, nonetheless, the conquest was an incredible humanitarian catastrophe.

yeah, 800 conquistadors and tens of thousands of locals looting the city kind of upsets the idyllic picture of living in harmony with each other and the nature.

At least a lot of Nahua and Maya are still around, making up 15% of the country. They went through some truly tragic events indeed but at least they managed to keep their culture to this day. I hope they double down on it and keep it for generations to come.

Anecdotal, but I was in the Yucatan Peninsula in 2019 doing Spanish classes. My teacher was Maya, and he said now it had become fashionable to be able to speak Yucatec Maya whereas growing up you didn't want to. Several other of the Maya teachers also confirmed, and stated they were (ré)learning when they might've forgotten or not been raised with it.

They were also very much 'Somos Maya first, it was the core part of their identity, over being Mexican.

The same is less true for the Chuj Maya I taught in the States, though since they immigrated there they're at much greater risk of assimilation and losing their culture. But a lot of work had to be done in teaching them to not be ashamed to be Maya. But, given they mostly were refugees from Guatemala, it makes sense.

That's really interesting, thanks! I find it really interesting to understand how different the pre- and post-Columbian experiences were/are across the Americas. In the Amazon, you still have people who were never directly impacted by colonization (although certainly everyone has been indirectly impacted at this point).

Aztecs were brutal to their vassal states, that's why the Tlaxcaltecs allied with the invaders in hope of improvement. To this day, there is still a, mostly tongue-in-cheek, grudge against the inhabitants of Tlaxcala, to the point of claiming that it is an imaginary place.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/13/mexico-tlaxcal...

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