Mexico, Multiculturalism and the Aztecs

The 20th century poet Robert Frost wrote that "good fences make good neighbors." We do not know if Frost meant that to be a comment on the evils of multiculturalism. We do know that in our time of multiculturalism the lack of good fences encourages cultural conflicts that should be noticed. Take as an example, the cultural similarities between the Aztecs of Mexico and the Nazis of Germany.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztecs built an empire in central Mexico by using oppressive military power. They ruled with cruelty and they practiced human sacrifice, so much human sacrifice that thousands were brutally killed in the course of a few days. The concentration camps in Europe set up by the Nazis were equally brutal. It is estimated that the population of central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest was about 25 million, with 250,000 sacrificed yearly. The population of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was about 300,000, with 15,000 sacrificed annually. That's an average of about 40 people a day, or about 2 an hour. Could the hungry ovens of Auschwitz measure up to that deadly standard? Bernal Diaz, a soldier-historian who accompanied Cortez, estimated there were at least 236,000 human skulls that decorated the skull racks of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Conquest. Besides these human sacrifices, the Aztecs also practiced ritual cannibalism. The anthropologist Marvin Harris maintains that the Aztec empire was the world's only state sponsored cannibal kingdom. If this disregard for human rights is not a type of Nazism, then what is?

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In many ways Aztec society was excessive and cruel beyond anything the Third Reich with their concentration camps could imagine. The story is told that when Hernan Cortez was greeted by ambassadors of the Aztec governing bureaucracy, he was offered a bowl of human hearts as a welcome gift. Yet, in spite of the cruelty and barbarism behind Aztec symbols, images, and rituals this barbarism and cruelty seems to go unnoticed these days, both in the U. S. and Mexico. At the Bocca Chica restaurant in Minneapolis, "You can relax and enjoy comfortable dining in the Aztec room," yet in Berlin there is no Nazi room in any restaurant, nor is their a Hitler Cafe, either, lit with a warm, vellum glow from lampshades made from tattooed, human skin. Some argue that a Nazi themed cafe, the SoldatenKaffee, has opened in Indonesia, but the owner denies that accusation. Most Americans would object to eating at a German restaurant decorated with barbed wire, pictures of gas chambers and the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" carved above the doorway, yet many think nothing of eating at a Mexican restaurant decorated with meso-American pyramids and images of blood thirsty Aztec gods and warriors painted on the walls. Images of Nazism along with the Nazi Party are outlawed in modern Germany, while in Mexico and at many places in the U. S. the Aztecs are still glorified and their gruesome art publicly displayed. Modern Germans have denounced their Nazi past while modern Mexicans proudly profess their Aztec heritage. Mexico's ex-President Vincente Fox claimed he wanted Mexico to be a modern, Western nation, however, he has yet to publicly condemned that country's Aztec past, nor has he apologized to the sacrificial victims or their families for the cruelties put on them by the indigenous Mexican people. Furthermore, Germany has removed the swastika from its flag, but Mexico still refers to the Aztecs on theirs. If it weren't for a corrupting multiculturalism, the Mexican flag would be as offensive a symbol to many Americans as a swastika painted on a synagogue door. In his article "A No-Fault Holocaust," from U. S. News and World Report, John Leo claims "...multiculturalism has played a role in spreading the vapors of nonjudgmentalism....students often think they are so locked into their own group perspectives of ethnicity, race, and gender that moral judgment is impossible, even in the face of great evils.” [url=http://www.thebiganswer.info/books/A-No-Fault-Holocaust.php]http://www.thebiganswer.info/books/A-No-Fault-Holocaust.php[/url] Nazism and the culture that gave rise to the Aztecs were a great evil. Nevertheless, more than fifty-seven percent of illegal immigrants to the United States have their roots in a culture once dominated by the Aztecs. The institutionalized human sacrifice that the Aztec empire represented should not be dismissed as simply an aberration of the past. Such cruelty is practiced daily by the Mexican drug cartels. Aztec cruelty came to the fore during the Mexican Civil War and may come to the fore again if there is another war between the U. S. and Mexico. The possibility of that war happening is far from remote in places along the border. In California, the potential for violent social conflict between citizens and illegal Mexican immigrants grows with each passing day. Taking an approach to culture in line with the classic anthropologists like Edward B. Tylor who saw culture as a "complex whole," we must ask what would have happened if the Aztecs were not conquered? How could that culture survive and coexist with the culture of the West, even a West that has gone down the long slide of relativism since the Enlightenment? Imagine an alternative history where the Aztecs sail across the Atlantic Ocean to set up their pyramids of sacrifice in Paris. I am sure the Aztec gods would find the hearts of Enlightenment philosophers as tasty as the hearts of Mexican campasinos. Today, our professors of multiculturalism and diversity might be in a stew because of that reversal. An Aztec nightmare just like a Nazi nightmare could raise once more its head as government officials sleep. The obsidian knives that tore open a man's chest or flutes made from human thigh bones could be used once more. The ovens could we made to flame. The evils advanced by the Nazis and Aztecs do not happen in a vacuum. Sadly, like the genocide in Rwanda, these are evils advanced by governments. It is safe to say along with professor Ed Sison that, "The image of modern Mexico and its citizens as the descendants of the Aztec has been manipulated for political and nationalistic purposes by the Mexican government.” Changing peoples' minds for the better about the abuses of Nazism and the Aztecs is not easy, especially when governments give support to these dangerous ideologies and the borders between different cultures are not maintained.