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Assessment 2: Writing Prompt: Do you believe La Melinche was a traitor, victim, or survivor?

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Assessment 2: Writing Prompt: Do you believe La Melinche was a traitor, victim, or survivor?

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Las Casas and Sepulveda from Racism a History

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Mexica Accounts of Moctezuma Meeting Cortés

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Mexica Accounts of Moctezuma Meeting Cortés

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Click on image to examine it in more detail
Malinche Interprets Moctezuma's Speech for the Spaniards

Image From Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, The Florentine Codex (Mexica)

Here it is recalled how Moctezuma went in peace and calm to meet the Spaniards at Xoloco, where the house of Alvarado now stands, or at the place they call Huitzillan.

And when the Spaniards had arrived at Xoloco, Moctezuma dressed and prepared himself to meet them with other great rulers and princes, his major men and nobles. They then went to meet him [Cortés]. They arranged beautiful flowers in gourds used for vases, in the midst of sunflowers and magnolias, they placed popcorn flowers, yellow magnolias, and cacao blooms, and they made these into wreaths for the head and for garlands. And they wore golden necklaces, necklaces with pendants, and necklaces with [precious] stones.

And when Moctezuma went to meet them at Huitzillan, he bestowed gifts on Cortés; he gave him flowers, he put necklaces on him; he hung garlands around him and put wreaths on his head. Then he laid out before him, the golden necklaces, all of his gifts [for the Spaniards]. He ended by putting some of the necklaces on him.

Then Cortés asked him: "Is it not you? Are you not he? Are you Moctezuma?"

And Moctezuma responded: "Yes, I am Moctezuma." Then he stood up to welcome Cortés, to meet him face to face. He bowed his head low, stretched as far as he could, and stood firm.

Then he addressed him in these words: "Our lord, you are very welcome in your arrival in this land. You have come to satisfy your curiosity about your noble city of Mexico. You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy, which I have kept for awhile for you. For the rulers and governors [of past times] have gone: Itzcoatl, Moctezuma I, Axayacatl, Tiçocic, and Ahuitzotl. [Since they are gone], your poor vassal has been in charge for you, to govern the city of Mexico. Will they come back to the the place of their absence? If even one came, he might witness the marvel that has taken place in my time, see what I am seeing, as the only descendent of our lords. For I am not just dreaming, not just sleepwalking, not seeing you in my dreams. I am not just dreaming that I have seen you and have looked at you face to face. I have been worried for a long time, looking toward the unknown from which you have come, the mysterious place. For our rulers departed, saying that you would come to your city and sit upon your throne. And now it has been fulfilled, you have returned. Go enjoy your palace, rest your body. Welcome our lords to this land."

When Moctezuma finished his speech, which he directed toward the Marquis, Marina explained and interpreted it for him. And when the Marquis heard what Moctezuma had said, he spoke to Marina in a babbling tongue: "Tell Moctezuma to not be afraid, for we greatly esteem him. Now we are satisfied because we have seen him in person and heard his voice. For until now, we have wanted to see him face to face. And now we have seen him, we have come to his home in Mexico, slowly he will hear our words."

Thereupon, Cortés took Moctezuma by the hand and led him by it. They walked with him, stroking his hair, showing their esteem. And the Spaniards looked at him, each examining him closely. They walked on foot, then mounted and dismounted in order to look at him.

There were nobles who accompanied him: Cacamatzin, ruler of Texcoco; Tetlepanquetzatzin, ruler of Tlatcopan; Topantemoctzin of Tlatilolco They walked with him with other noblemen of Tenochtitlan: Atlixcatzin, a commanding general; Tepcoatzin, a general; Totomochizin, commander of the army; Ecatenpatiltzin, and Quappiatzin. When Moctezuma was taken away, they abandoned him and hid.

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Click on image to examine it in more detail Malinche Interprets Moctezuma's Speech for the Spaniards Image From Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, The Florentine Codex (Mexica) Here it is recalled how Moctezuma went in peace and calm to meet the Spaniards at Xoloco, where the house of Alvarado now stands, or at the place they call Huitzillan.

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La Melinche Writing Prompt

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Teaching materials with primary sources, supporting resources, lesson plans for high school, and document-based questions.

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Ancient Cultures of Middle America -- University of Minnesota Duluth

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Assessment: Mini-Poster

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Spanish explorers include Juan Ponce de León, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Pizarro, Hernán Cortés and Hernando de Soto.

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Unit 1: Mexican American Heritage Flashcards | Quizlet

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Start studying Unit 1: Mexican American Heritage. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.

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Assessment: Complete map in notes and SPICE Chart

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Assessment: Complete map in notes and SPICE Chart

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The Olmec Faces are Black African? Debunked! (11:40 min.) Los Olmecas, parte 1 (20:04 min.) Los Olmecas, parte 2 (20 min.) Digging for the Truth: The Olmecs [Hunter Ellis, Hostory Channel, 2007] (43:09 min.) Los Olmecas: Reyes de la Edad de Piedra [History Channel, 2007] (44:50 min.)

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Use the following map to label the map in your notes.

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FAMSI - Map of Mesoamerica - Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.

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FAMSI map of Mesoamerica. This map includes the ancient culture areas of the Maya, and the Oaxaca, Gulf Coast, Central Plateau, and Northwest areas of México. Besides México, this Mesoamerican map encompasses the countries of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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The mysterious Olmec civilization, located in ancient Mexico, prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures including the Maya and Aztecs. With their heartlands in the Gulf of Mexico (now the states of Veracruz and Tabasco), Olmec influence and trade activity spread from 1200 BCE, even reaching as far south as present-day Nicaragua. Monumental sacred complexes, massive stone sculptures, ball games, the drinking of chocolate, and animal gods were all features of Olmec culture which would be passed on to those peoples who followed this first great Mesoamerican civilization.

The Olmec Enigma

The Olmec civilization presents something of a mystery, indeed, we do not even know what they called themselves, as Olmec was their Aztec name and meant 'rubber people'. Due to a lack of archaeological evidence their ethnic origins and the location and extent of many of their settlements are not known. The Olmecs did, however, codify and record their gods and religious practices using symbols. The precise significance of this record is much debated but, at the very least, its complexity does suggest some sort of organised religion involving a priesthood. The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, ball-courts, pyramids and a seeming awe of mirrors, was also passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century CE.

Around 900 BCE La Venta flourished as the new capital & eventually boasted a population of around 18,000.

Olmec prosperity was initially based on exploiting the fertile and well-watered coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico to grow such crops as corn and beans (often twice-yearly) which allowed for an agricultural surplus. They also, no doubt, gathered the plentiful local supply of plant food, palm nuts and sea-life, including turtles and clams. By c. 1200 BCE significant urban centres developed at San Lorenzo (the earliest), La Venta, Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes and Las Limas. San Lorenzo reached its peak of prosperity and influence between 1200 and 900 BCE when its strategic position safe from flooding allowed it to control local trade. Typical Olmec trade goods included obsidian, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers and polished mirrors of ilmenite and magnetite.

Evidence of San Lorenzo's high culture includes the presence of mound structures, possibly an early ball court, carved basalt drains through one of the man-made mounds and the Red Palace structure with painted red floors and workshops. Around 900 BCE the site of San Lorenzo displays evidence of systematic destruction whilst La Venta, conversely, began to flourish, and becoming the new capital, it eventually supported a population of some 18,000.

The three sites of San Lorenzo, La Venta and Laguna de los Cerros all had a bilateral symmetry in their planning and at La Venta the first pyramid in Mesoamerica was constructed. It is the pre-meditated architectural layout of the religious centres of these settlements that is most striking, for example, at La Venta the buildings are placed symmetrically along a north-south axis with four colossal heads facing outwards at key points, seemingly acting as guardians to the complex. A huge ceremonial step pyramid (now a shapeless mound), sunken plaza once lined with 2-metre high basalt columns, and two smaller pyramids/mounds provide features that would be copied time and again at the major sites of later Mesoamerican cultures with whom equal attention was paid to the precise alignment of buildings. La Venta, as with San Lorenzo, suffered systematic and deliberate destruction of its monuments sometime between 400 and 300 BCE.

Religious Beliefs

As with other areas of Olmec culture, details of their religion are sketchy. Nevertheless, with an ever-increasing body of archaeological evidence it is possible to piece together some of the most important features of Olmec religion. The Olmecs seem to have had a particular reverence for natural places which connected with the important junctions of sky, earth and the underworld. For example, caves could lead to the underworld and mountains which had both springs and caves could offer access to all three planes. Important Olmec mountain sites were El Manatί, Chalcatzingo and Oxtotitlan.

The Olmecs also liked to mix animals to create weird & wonderful creatures such as the were-jaguar, a cross between a human & a jaguar.

The names of the gods of the Olmec are not known other than that they often represented phenomena such as rain, the earth and especially maize. For this reason, identifiable gods from Olmec art have been given numbers instead of names (e.g. God VI). The Olmecs gave special significance to the animals present in their environment, especially those at the top of the food chain such as jaguars, eagles, caimans, snakes and even sharks, identifying them with divine beings and perhaps also believing that powerful rulers could transform themselves at will into such fearsome creatures. The Olmecs also liked to mix animals to create weird and wonderful creatures such as the were-jaguar, a cross between a human and a jaguar, which may have been their supreme deity. We also know that they worshipped a sky-dragon and that they believed four dwarves held up the sky, possibly representing the four cardinal directions which, along with other Olmec gods, became so important in later Mesoamerican religions.

Olmec Art

The most striking legacy of the Olmec civilization must be the colossal stone heads they produced. These were carved in basalt and all display unique facial features so that they may be considered portraits of actual rulers. The heads can be nearly 3 m high and 8 tons in weight and the stone from which they were worked was, in some cases, transported 80 km or more, presumably using huge balsa river rafts. 17 have been discovered, 10 of which are from San Lorenzo. The ruler often wears a protective helmet (from war or the ballgame) and sometimes show the subject with jaguar paws hanging over the forehead, perhaps representing a jaguar pelt worn as a symbol of political and religious power. The fact that these giant sculptures depict only the head may be explained by the belief in Mesoamerican culture that it was the head alone which bore the soul.

Another permanent record of the Olmecs is found in rock carvings and paintings. Often made around cave entrances they most typically depict seated rulers, as for example at Oxtotitlan, where a figure wears a green bird suit and at Chalcatzingo where another ruler sits on her throne surrounded by a maize landscape. At other sites there are also paintings of cave rituals, for example, at Cacahuazqui, Juxtlahuaca and Oxtotlan.

Intriguingly, the Olmecs often buried their sculptures, even larger pieces, perhaps in a ritual act of memory.

Jade and ceramic were other popular materials for sculpture and also wood, some examples of which were remarkably well preserved in the bogs of El Manati. One of the gods most commonly rendered in small sculpture was God IV, sometimes called the Rain Baby, who is a toothless human baby with an open-mouth, cleft head and headband, sometimes with the addition of strips of crinkled paper hanging at the side of his face (another feature seen in the gods of later cultures and representing the paper and rubber sap strips which were burnt during rites as the smoke was thought to propitiate rain).

Perhaps the most significant jade carving is the Kunz Axe, a ceremonial axe-head now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The jade has been worked to represent a were-jaguar creature using only jade tools and then polished, perhaps using a jade abrasive. Animals were a popular subject, especially those most powerful ones such as jaguars and eagles. Intriguingly, the Olmecs often buried their sculptures, even larger pieces, perhaps in a ritual act of memory.

Legacy in Mesoamerica

The Olmecs influenced the civilizations they came into contact with across Mesoamerica, particularly in sculpture in ceramic and jade and objects featuring Olmec imagery have been found at Teopantecuanitlan, 650 km distant from the Olmec heartland. In addition, many deities featured in Olmec art and religion such as the sky-dragon (a sort of caiman creature with flaming eyebrows) and the feathered-snake god, would reappear in similar form in later religions. The snake-god especially, would be transformed into the major gods Kukulcan for the Maya and Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs. This artistic and religious influence, along with the features of precisely aligned ceremonial precincts, monumental pyramids, sacrificial rituals and ball-courts, meant that all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures would owe a great deal to their mysterious forerunners, the Olmecs.

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The mysterious Olmec civilization, located in ancient Mexico, prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures including the Maya and Aztecs.

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Olmec mask (Olmec-style mask), c. 1200 - 400 B.C.E., jadeite, 4 x 3-3/8 x 1-1/4 inches found in offering 20 buried c. 1470 C.E. at the Aztec Templo Mayor (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City) Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker Items buried in offerings included ceramic vessels, stone sculptures, obsidian blades, seashells, greenstone, and objects gathered from earlier locales (like Olmec sites and the city of Teotihuacan).

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Lesson 2: The Mayas

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Aztec Empire | World History | Khan Academy