Rudolfo Anaya's New Mexico

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Aztlán is a sacred place that holds multiple meanings. First and foremost, it is the homeland of the Aztecs. According to Anaya's Crispin in Heart of Aztlán, there are many versions to the Aztlan narrative. In chapter 13, Crispin narrates that "some say that the  people were a wandering tribeof the ancient world, spared during the drowning of the earth so that they might establish a civilization of peace in the new world." In other versions, Aztlán is a floating continent that eventually settles north of Mexico. In either version, the indigenous group prospered and lived in peace with their gods.

Some gods proved to be vengeful and angry and demanded human sacrifice, which the Aztecs refused to do. The gods punished the Aztecs with unending night, thereby casting them out of Aztlán.

The Aztecs were then visited by another god: a fiery plumed serpent (Quetzalcoatl) who told them to leave their home and to begin marching south where they would build a new civilization. Doing so would free the sun god and the people would be able to return to Aztlán.

Beginning between the 11th the 12th century, the Aztecs marched for two centuries until they saw an eagle sitting upon a cactus with a serpent in his mouth (a symbol for Quetzalcoatl). It was there where they founded their city, which would soon become an empire: Tenochtitlán (present-day Mexico City).  

The actual location of Aztlán is unknown. One particular map which dates back to 1807 and was used by Zebulon Pike places Aztlan near the Salt Lake in Utah while other theories have abounded.

Perhaps more importantly, the Chicano movement appropriated the Aztlán narrative to discuss the loss of land stemming from the Mexican-American war and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which they view as unjust. Claiming Aztlán allows the Chicano movement to connect to their indigeneity, their spiritual homeland (the U.S. Southwest) and foster their struggle for civil rights. Aztlan therefore represents the Chicano's right to be in the U.S. Southwest as they reclaim their land and ancestry.

For Anaya, New Mexico is the heart of Aztlán, as his title suggests. It is a state with a majority Hispanic population that has established a strong Hispanic identity and settlement for over four hundred years. Moreover, it has resisted mainstream American society: from farolitos to penitentes to chile to santos, New Mexican culture has maintained a unique identity. Given that Spanish conquistadors forcibly brought Aztecs to New Mexico to help settle it also speaks to this idea of a return, even if under strained conditions. To that end, New Mexico, found in the middle of the Chicano perception of Aztlán, holds relevance as a cultural bearer for Hispanos and Chicanos in the U.S. Southwest. It is the heart of Aztlán in both a spatial and metaphorical sense.

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The map below is meant to enhance a reading of Anaya's Heart of Aztlán. Users can use the controls on the upper-right part of the map to zoom in and out of the map. Alternatively, the map will zoom in if the user double-clicks. Within the map are the different locations mentioned in the novel. Click on the icons to receive more context about each place.