The Defender of Tenochtitlan

(completed Mar. 9, 2006)

This is a drawing I did in one day in a matter of an hour and a half, yea I was inspired bigtime, lol. This is a drawing I did of an Aztec Warrior in the full regalia with he quetzal feathers, a shield, and a macana. A Macana, the spikey weapon he is holding, is made of a wooden club edged with Obsidian spikes, was a common weapon used with Mexican Indian cultures during the early 1500's, used by the Aztecs, Tlaxcalecas, Mayans, Incans, etc. Tenochtitlan was the captial city of the Aztec Empire during the early to mid 1500's by when Cortes and his conquistadors arrived. I wanted to draw an Aztec Warrior, who was the soul defender of their captial. The Aztec Warrior was known far and wide, even to the Spanish in Cuba before they came to Mexico, as the fiercest and bravest warriors you could have gone against during that time period. by the mid 1500;s when Cortes and his conquistadors were told Gold was hidden in the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish allied with the Tlaxcalaecas of the indian city-state Tlaxcala, who were enemies of the Aztec. The Spanish allied with many Mexican tribes who hated the Aztec, but the Tlaxcalecas were the indigenous people who stayed with the Spanish all the way to the surrender of the Aztecs and the taking of Tenochtitlan. Regardless of the power of the Spanish weapons as well as allies, the Aztec warriors kept their reputation, and fought bravely and of course, to the death, in ever battle, ever skirmish, and ever siege the Aztecs encountered with the Spanish and their Tlaxcalecas allies. Their fierceness, bravery, and determination to defend their people and way of life, truley inspired me as an artist to portray the once great warriors of the Aztec Empire.

All of this comes from my learnings from my Independent Study course at school on Native American Studies, I'm currently working on a unit now of the Culture Clash of Latin America. For one of the assignments, I had to read a book called The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Which vividly describes the daily life of the Aztec people, their capital city of Tenochtitlan, and their great Empire they had established in Mexico. Most of the book describes the perspective of the Aztec and indigenous people of Mexico with their first contacts with the Spanish, and Cortes with his conquistadors. 90% of the book is actual journalistic writings gathered from the Aztec informants who had lived to experience this turning point in Mexican history, and the entire experiences from beginning to end on both the first encounter of Spanish all the way to the fall of Tenochtitlan and the surrender of the Aztec people. I never ever thought I'd have an interest in these peoples, for they are more like the Egyptians than they are like Native Americans, when it comes to polytheistic beliefs, human sacrifices, and archetecture of their temples and buildings. But this novel, literally told by the Aztecs, really enriches the history and the people, and its not your same-old history novel told in the borning European way with just facts and dates and no life in the words. Truely if your at all interested in history, or even the Eqyptians, you will really have a great time reading this book and learning about them. Plus it also shows your basic greedy demands by Europeans and inhumane ways of slaughtering indigenous peoples. From the heart, I must say I do have a big interest in this culture more than I had before, its truley a great book, and you'll be suprised what you learn.