The reign of the imperial Aztecs in central Mexico was brief, violent, and magnificent. Fatefully, they were to defend their empire in 1519 against a band of marauding Spaniards and their Indian allies, who were led by an ambitious renegade named Hernan Cortes. To this day, the Aztecs' imprint on the nation forged from that encounter -- Mexico -- is felt widely. Yes, Mexico is a collection of thousands of years of history made by many nations, but in the contemporary lens the Aztecs remain the most mythologized group, the most identified with post-colonial Mexico.
Right now the Field Museum in Chicago has a big exhibit on the Aztec Empire that is apparently very solid, by the looks of the online version. Many of these artifacts are on loan from the national anthropology museum in Mexico City and others, but to see them gathered in a U.S. context, from a curatorial perspective, should be interesting. Museum-goers in Chicago are getting into it. A local Aztec dance troupe welcomed the exhibit with a performance. And Chicago restaurants organized an accompanying food fair. If you go, let us know how it is.
* Image above, an obsidian mask from the Museo Nacional de Antropologia.
