[Aztlan] Aztlan

[Jorge Pérez de Lara]

Listeros,

Henry Avila wrote:

> If Aztlan was an imaginary place, this were not even known by the 
> Aztecs,
> and proof of that is, that the emperor himself Moctezuma II (correct 
> me if
> Im wrong) sent an expedition to locate such place.

These subjects are always slippery, mainly because one man's fantasy is 
another's absolute reality. In this case, one people's history/religion 
becomes "mythology" in the eyes of modern-day researchers. Of course 
the Mexica would never consider Aztlan to be "imaginary" (and let me 
stress that I did not use this word: I don't think it describes the 
concept of Aztlan accurately): to them it was completely real. To draw 
a parallel, the Judeo-Christian tradition would never think of the 
Garden of Eden or of Heaven to be anything but absolutely real. But can 
anyone objectively point to the place where they can be found?

Researching religion/mythology is always difficult: add a gap of 
several centuries and a culturally foreign view and you got a good 
recipe for "tricky."

My two cents.

Jorge