If You are Mexican or Central American, You are an Indian!!!! Back to the Texas Indians home page at WWW.TexasIndians.com This is just a short page now. It is going to get larger!!!
Yup, if you or your ancestors are from Mexico or Central America you are almost certainly an Indian!! Central America includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. When the European Spaniards first came to Mexico and Central America they came as explorers, solders or missionaries. They were all men and they wanted wives. The only women around were Indians. So the Spanish men married Indian women. Their children were Meztisos. A Meztiso is half Indian and half Spanish. The Meztiso men married other Indian women or Meztiso women. All the children had Spanish names, but they were half or more Indian. With the exception of a few Spanish families in Mexico city, almost all the people in Mexico are Meztiso or pure blooded Indian.
Many of the Mexican and central American tribes were very civilized. The Aztecs, Mayans and others built large beautiful cities. The Aztecs were also called the Mexica, which is where the word Mexico comes from. The Mexica or Aztecs came down from the north around 1215 and conquered the valley where Mexico city is now. They may have come from or through Texas on the was to Mexico. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in the middle of lake Texcoco. They built causeways with roads on them across the lake to the city. There were fine large buildings made from stone. There were wide roads and large plazas. The most spectacular building were the temples built on top of huge pyramids. When the first Spanish explorer Cortez saw Tenochtitlan, it was a larger city than London or Paris in Europe. Cortez said that Tenochtitlan was also cleaner than any European city. We need some good pictures of Aztec or Mayan temples and sites to post here. If you have some good ones please share them with us.
These Mexican and Central American people were very civilized. They Maya had writing . The Aztec and Maya had mathematics and science. The Maya invented the idea of zero, 0, before the Muslims did in the old world. This was a great intellectual accomplishment. They could predict eclipses and the positions of some of the planets in the sky hundreds of years in advance. They had very accurate calendars.
If you are from Mexico, your ancestors might have been Aztecs, Olmecs or Mayan. Or maybe they were Huichol, Yaqui or Mayo Indians. Try asking your parents or grandparents if they know what tribe you are from. Many times they can recall. If they can, be sure to ask them to tell you all they can remember, so you can remember and tell your grand kids.
We are going to add pages on the major Mexican tribes soon. Write us an tell us what Mexican or central American tribes you want most. If you have pictures and stories you could share with us please do.