ABSTRACT
Ail nations and peoples are, more or less, products of their own history. Mexico and Mexicans are more so than most. Mexican sociologist Raul Bejar Navarro has shown that studies seeking to prove that there is a unique Mexican “character” are largely impressionistic and unscientific. But there certainly is, in Mexico, such a thing as national experience, a shared history. Within the great sweep of Middle America lies the Valley of Mexico. It is 7,000 ft (2,134 m) above sea level and encompasses some 5,000 sq mi (12,950 sq km). The valley is bounded on all sides by snowy volcano mountains. When Hernán Cortes and the conquistadores came over the snowy pass to the east and first saw Tenochtitlan and the other cities in and around the lake, they could hardly believe their eyes. Cortes had cut off the head of the Aztec Empire.
