Mexcaltitan. My journey is almost over. I wanted to end with a visit to the Pacific Coast, because number one, I like to swim at the beach, and most importantly number two, because I wanted to visit Mexcaltitan.



Most folks have never heard of Mexcaltitan. It isn't on your usual tourist maps, and it certainly isn't the place to go if you are looking to have a good time. It is an isolated island village about 30 miles north of San Blas, where I was staying on the coast, about 150 miles from Tepic, the state capital of Nayarit, and almost 300 miles northwest of Guadalajara. To get here, you have to take a boat through a thick mangrove swamp.


When you arrive, you see an island with an ancient village on it. Anthropologists tells us that the island has been occupied for over 2500 years. It is a place where fish and plant life are abundant, as are birds. There is in particular a large population of egrets, a type of heron.


It is these specific characteristics- an island village, northwest of central Mexico, and full of egrets- that has fueled speculation amongst many an anthropologist and local alike that this is the mythical homeland of the Mexica people. It was these people who left the island almost 900 years ago on a vision quest to find a new home. They knew they would find that home because they were told they would see a sign of an eagle, perched on a cactus, devouring a serpent.

They saw this vision in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Anahuac. There they founded their capital city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, which with over 250,000 people would become one of the most powerful cities in the history of the Americas for almost 200 years until conquered and destroyed by an army of invading Spanish conquistadors and native allies from Tlaxcala and other cities to the east. To this day, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, present day Mexico City, is one of the largest and most important cities in the world with a population exceeding 18,000,000.

There is a museum in town which illustrates these linkages.


In Nahuatl, the ancient language of central Mexico still spoken by over 2,000,000 people, Aztlan means "Place of Herons" (azta = herons/white-plumed birds + tlan(tli) = rooted in (like a tooth)/the place of). The city's layout (for anyone who has seen the tattoo on my right forearm this should look familiar) is yet another commonality it has with Mexico City.


Many artifacts abound in the museum, and include ancient documents.




A famous codex is reprinted and replicated, which documents the history of the migration of the Mexica people, commonly known as the Aztecs.






Many questions remain unanswered after visiting this area. First, not all scholars are in agreement with the location of Aztlan. Some say it is Mexcaltitan. Others say that it is farther north, going as far as Arizona and Utah, the other prime candidate. In fact, Nahuatl is more closely related to the languages of the US Southwest than to many languages directly to the south. The language group that it belongs to is called Ute-Azteca. Ute is still spoken in Utah by indigenous tribes there.

Though the Aztecs were the most powerful indigenous tribe in the Americas at the time of conquest, they clearly were not the only ones, and in fact sought to connect their history with the longer histories of these other tribes of central Mexico, a lineage that traced its roots to the Toltecs and the Olmecs. To this day there are dozens of indigenous tribes throughout Mexico, with many languages spoken by millions of people.


As I waded into the waters of the Pacific I knew that my visit here, like every other place in Mexico, posed more questions than answers.


What a glorious place, though, to ponder the various histories and struggles of this land.


Next and final stop... Guadalajara.

Dolores Hidalgo. The heart of the struggle for independence. It was here in the early morning hours of September 16, 1810 that parish priest Father Miguel Hidalgo summoned his flock with church bells. When they arrived, he called them to arms against oppressive Spanish tyranny and towards an independent Mexico.

It was in this unassuming house that the plot was hatched hours before.




Miguel Hidalgo, outcast of the Catholic Church, found a home for his ideas amongst the people of the state of Guanajuato. It was here that he formed a alliance with Ignacio Allende. It would be this alliance that would become the catalyst for the movement towards Mexican Independence.

This is the church that 195 years ago Hidalgo made El Grito de Dolores, "¡Mexicanos, viva Mexico!"


Their first order of business was to arrest the Spanish representative and the Spanish tax collector, who lived in this house across the plaza from the church.


They marched under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe... the apparition of an indigenous Virgin Mary that appeared to the indigenous Juan Diego 300 years prior just outside of Mexico City and was the main catalyst for conversion amongst the many native tribes throughout Mexico.


A new flag was soon developed, a tri-color bandera symbolizing green for Hope, white for Life and red for the Blood of the Heroes, with the seal in the middle symbolizing the mythical story of the founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica-Azteca.


The independence leaders.


In Dolores Hidalgo, renamed for Father Hidalgo, the most revered figure in Mexican history, there is a statue in his honor in the middle of the zocalo.


There are museums and murals throughout the city in honor of these heroes of the struggle for independence.






History tells us the unhappy outcome of the War for Independence. Within a year, most of the early leaders of the war were either captured, killed, or like Hidalgo, both. The new leadership did not believe in the same egalitarian world that Hidalgo was fighting for... a world where Criollo (a Spaniard born in the Americas), Mestizo (of mixed blood), African, and Native could fight together to throw off the yoke of a common oppressor.



Soon the struggle was co-opted by individuals who were bent not on overthrowing oppression, but on replacing the oppressor. By the end of 1821 Mexico was an independent nation, but it would be another 35 years before it had a democratically elected government, and over 90 years before the cause of indigenous rights and recognition would even begin to permeate the halls of power.

The struggle for independence remained incomplete, just as the struggle for revolution a century later.

Guanajuato... a city built in an impossible place to build a city- right in the middle of a ravine. This must have posed problems for early city leaders who needed to deliver services to the people, but has left a visually amazing place in its wake.



This theater, like Bellas Artes in Mexico City, was commissioned and built by the dictator Porfirio Diaz.


It's also a nice place to grab a cup of joe in the morning...


Guanajuato is a city built upon itself, with dozens of tunnels throughout and within.




From the top of the hill on the the south side, you can see the whole of Guanajuato.

Why did they feel the need to build three HUGE cathedrals right next to each other???

On top of this hill is a monument to Juan José de los Reyes Martínez (El Pípila), the indigenous man who won the first battle for Mexican independence. While Spanish soldiers fortified themselves within the Alhóndigas, a huge fortress-like grain warehouse, El Pípila strapped a huge stone slab to his back, walked backwards to the front door of the building, and amid heavy gunfire from the Spanish, lit the place on fire. While the Spanish burned, the Mexican rebels led by Miguel Hidalgo stormed in and took control of their first military victory.


The Alhóndigas ...


Within it is a museum to the independance movement. It includes numerous murals depicting the revolutionary struggle. This scene refers to Hidalgo's call for the emancipation of slaves in Mexico.


Murals also spoke out against Spanish atrocities...






As a result of El Pípila's and Hidalgo's successful capture of Guanajuato, the Spanish never forgave them. After many initial victories the independence forces lost several major battles and leaders, including Hidalgo. After execution by torture and firing squad, many of these leaders had their heads exhibited in cages at the four corners of the Alhóndigas ....


This only served to stregthen the resolve of the Mexican people, who rode into battle with colores such as this one displayed inside the Alhóndigas ...


A scene depicting the storming of the Alhóndigas...


After independence Mexico fell into a civil war called the Liberal Wars. The liberals sought to implement a government based on secular ideas and democracy. Their leader, Benito Juarez, for a time centered his government in Guanajuato.




Within the Alhóndigas are memorial chambers to the revolutionary leaders who lost their lives in the war for independence.


Most of them, including Hidalgo, are now buried with honors in Mexico City....