500 Years Later, Adventure In The Land of Aztecs - Prologue

Prologue:  

The Lost Lake of Texcoco

Depending on who you speak to, even the simplest, most commonly agreed terms could mean a whole different world than the definitions you are used to. 

To many Americans and Canadians, the term "North America" simply refers to the area that covers from the Arctic Ocean down to Rio Grande (in other words, the United States and Canada). Places like Cuba and Panama are probably located on an exotic continent that has lots of sun, nice beaches, tons of turmoils, and endless problems and craps you hear on the news all the time.  I remember one day I was doing a college assignment on Urban Sociology. Because I had to emphasize on New York's 20 million population, I was tempted to use the term "North America's largest city by population" to back up my claim. For those of you who have gone through academic paper writing, you know what I needed next: evidence. I googled the term "North America's largest city by population" , and this was what Google gave me:

Mexico City

.......................................

Like New York City, Mexico City has a building that resembles the Empire State Building....and lots of people.

A couple of years later, I found myself looking down on this part of North America, on a red eye flight. Just a couple hundred years ago, the valley below me was once a giant lake where a powerful civilization thrived - the Aztecs. The Aztecs built the great city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the middle of the lake and ruled the Aztec empire from there. Then the conquistadors from Spain arrived, so did European style flood prevention projects. Over the years, water level began to drop, rapid urbanization began to take place on the former lake bed. Eventually, the city claimed the entire lake once known as Texcoco.

Ancient and Modern Mexicans

Wait, what was the whole point talking about a damn lake that doesn't even exist anymore? Well, the whole point is: you don't really know how much impact humans can do to our natural environment - until you see an area larger than the Great Salt Lake now completely occupied by a sprawling metropolis. The shadow of the night was lifted by the morning sun, I could finally see what was outside of the plane window: rows of buildings and buildings...and buildings - even smaller hills were completely covered by people's houses from top to bottom. The scenery sent a chill down my spine. The sh*t was getting real.

This quite built up area, just a couple hundred years ago, was a lake

When the plane landed, I joined a horde of people lining up at the Mexican immigration. I was approached by this American tourist in his twenties, who had never been to Mexico and was en route to Patagonia. He kept complaining about how he had to go through Mexican customs to catch his transfer to Argentina. He believed the Mexican immigration system was "deeply flawed". I had to explain to him that this was the standard procedure in many countries in the world (I guess some people just don't understand the pain someone from a developing country has to go through in order to transfer a flight in the U.S. Ever heard of "transit visa", mate?). If he had to transit through a Russian or Chinese airport, he would have to go through the immigration as well.

Yes, even a golden Ferrero Christmas has to go through the Mexican immigration with its Italian passport

But the ranting didn't stop there. He pointed at the migration card and said: " You know, this country just wants to copy everything we do and be like us. I know in Spanish our country is called ' Estados Unidos'. Hey, look, even their full name is trying to copy us: 'Estados Unidos Mexicanos'.

The Mexican flag certainly did not copy the design of the American flag

It was my first time visiting Mexico, but I had experience meeting and the honour to be friends with many of them. Their pride in their Mexican heritage in no way enticing that they "want to be like the United States".  I suggested the man not to say anything like such before getting a little bit knowledge of Mexican culture & history. Otherwise it was just plain disrespectful.

The indigenous history of Mexico has fascinated people around the world. The study of U.S indigenous history has just become a mainstream subject just some decades ago

Mexico City, although at the same latitude with Cancun, was chilly in the early morning. At 2,400 meters above sea level, Mexico City is one of the highest capital cities in the world, although the city in reality is sitting at the bottom of a former lake. I boarded the empty bus heading towards the city center. The largest city in North America was already busy at around 6:30am: when the bus passed by a public market, I could see people running around with simple, rustic trolleys fully loaded with merchandise on the cobble stone streets. I could imagine travellers from 30 years ago seeing the exact same scenes I saw at that very moment. 

Plaza de la Republica in early morning

I got off the bus near the famous Angel of Independence. There was a grand parade of high school bands and dance groups,  which occupied one huge section of Paseo de la Reforma. The music and the tremendous energy from the parade made me feel so happy, especially when it was sunny out and I just literally escaped the epic rainy weather of British Columbia. OK, maybe jet lags and the lack of sleep do draw weird connections and mess up people's minds. All of sudden I realized: 

Wait a minute, am I standing at the bottom of a lake?  

But one moment later I literally didn't care anymore. I just wanted to enjoy everything in front of me. Plus, I vaguely remembered that one compatriot of that Patagonia guy once said something like his country will be great again if the nation allows him to drain the swamp.

Sorry, who said it again?

(Continued in Chapter One)