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| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY, a History
of The Mexican people (Chapter 1) |
by Prof. German Estrada
February, 2004 |
THE FOREFATHERS continues
part 3
From Ciudad Juárez to the Guatemalan
border, Tlaloc, the ancient god of rain, ruled with
grim humor. He made the north a desert; rainfall
averaged seven and a half inches a year. On the southern
and coastal lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico-Veracruz,
Campeche, Tabasco, and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec-he
dumped four to ten feet of water annually. The rain
leached the land of its plant food and turned it
into a green desert. Only from Aguascalientes to
Mexico City did Tlaloc give his people the water
they craved. These were the facts of the water supply.
Two thirds of Mexico's arable land suffered from
scarce seasonal rainfall; crops survived only during
the rainy season. A bare 6 percent of the arable
land did not require irrigation. Navigable rivers
were conspicuous by their absence, and only a handful
of lakes dotted the landscape. Outside of the Mesa
Central, generally speaking, this land was niggardly
for human life.
Despite that, human beings
had made it their habitat. From remote antiquity,
maybe as many as four hundred varieties of maize,
or corn, made possible sedentary civilization, probably
from as early as 5000 B.C. The primitive system of
agriculture, of cutting down trees and burning them
and the grass underneath in order to plant corn,
known as slash and burn, originated some two thousand
years later, most likely among the Maya of Yucatán. The
inhabitants of the Mesa Central called their corn
patch a "milpa." In time, corn became the lifeblood
of society.
Beans and squash were other
staples of the diet. The people of Anáhuac
cultivated over fifty types of beans, cooking them
with chili peppers of multiple varieties and eating
them with tortillas, flat, round cakes made of ground
corn. Pumpkins, onions,
And tomatoes were grown, as well as the maguey,
from which pulque, an alcoholic drink, was fermented.
Eating sparingly, meat was largely game. Among the
fibers, cotton and henequen were cultivated.
III
From these advances derives
the ebb and flow of civilizations. Archaeologists
have gradually pieced together their story, but,
to quote one of them, "because
there are many controversial points in the ancient
history and culture of Mexico, and too little information,
all data must be interpreted." Naturally interpretations
abound, and some are diametrically opposed to others.
Traditionally, to complicate matters, most of us
have been taught that all European cultures stood
head and shoulders above the indigenous cultures
of pre-Hispanic America. That is an ethnocentric
view which stems from our European heritage and culture
preferences. Europe, undoubtedly had mechanical superiority,
but in the fine arts and practical crafts as well
as in social and ethical values the New World was
on a par with Europe. As one writer points out, millions
of Indians were killed "to prove that Europeans were
more civilized."
The first of these civilizations
was that of the Olmecs, who, living in western Tabasco
and Veracruz, flourished between 800 and 400 B.C
. One of the mother cultures of ancient Mexico, the
Olmecs made La Venta their principal city and opened
the stage for the drama of the Classic era, the years
from approximately 150 B.C . to
about A.D . 900, occasionally an
era of peace, when people devoted their talents to
creative pursuits. At the apogee of the Classic age,
the cultures of the inhabitants of ancient Anáhuac
were on a level with those of Europe. During these
centuries, the great cities of Teotihuacan, Palenque,
Yaxchilán, Monte Albán, Xochicalco,
and Tajín took form, off spring of the genius
of Maya, Totonac, Huaxtec, Zapotec, and Teotihuacano.
The cities, almost always religious shrines,
document the importance of religion, ceremony,
and ritual. An omnipotent theocracy ruled over each
of them, dictating dogma and behavior. The priests
were
the intelligentsia, the scientist, and cultural
standard--bearers, spokesmen for a pantheon of gods
Source: From the book Triumphs
and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his
author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization.
(W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
We'll continue with this fascinating
book.
estradanav@yahoo.com
Prof. Germán
Estrada is the author of the best selling book,
"México
Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know
About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto
Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books,
Books as well as directly from the author by internet.
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