Mexicayotl
Mexicayotl (Nahuatl word meaning “Essence of the Mexican”, “Mexicanity”; Spanish: Mexicanidad; ) is a movement reviving the indigenous religion, philosophy and traditions of ancient Mexico (Aztec religion and Aztec philosophy) among the Mexican people.
The movement came to light in the 1950s, led by Mexico City intellectuals, but has grown significantly on a grassroots level only in more recent times, also spreading to the Mexican immigrants to the United States. Their rituals involve the mitotiliztli (meaning “to be compelled by or said in dance; for a story to be told in an animated manner”). The followers, called Mexicatl (singular) and Mexicah (plural), or simply Mexica, are mostly urban and sub-urban dwellers.
A jaguar-shaped cuauhxicalli in the National Museum of Anthropology. This altar-like stone vessel was used to hold the hearts of sacrificial victims. See also chacmool.
History
Jorge Nopaltzin Guaderrama, a modern Aztec shaman. Aztec culture had a complex priesthood, not shamans, and the contemporary Aztec shamanism represents a form of neoshamanism, not an actual revival of tradititional religion.
The Mexicayotl movement started in the 1950s with the founding of the group Nueva Mexicanidad by Antonio Velasco Piña. In the same years Rodolfo Nieva López founded the Movimiento Confederado Restaurador de la Cultura del Anáhuac, the co-founder of which was Francisco Jimenez Sanchez who in later decades became a spiritual leader of the Mexicayotl movement, endowed with the honorific Tlacaelel. He had a deep influence in shaping the movement, founding the In Kaltonal (“House of the Sun”, also called Native Mexican Church) in the 1970s.
From the 1970s onwards Mexicayotl has grown developing in a web of local worship and community groups (called calpulli or kalpulli) and spreading to the Mexican Americans or Chicanos in the United States. It has also developed strong ties with Mexican national identity movements and Chicano nationalism. Sanchez’s Native Mexican Church (which is a confederation of calpullis) was officially recognised by the government of Mexico in 2007.
See also
Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia