ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three groups: the Maya, the Tarascans, and the Aztecs, people living in different environments, with different cultural orientations and style, but sharing long traditions that unite them as Mesoamericans. Santa Rita also has murals whose origins have been puzzling because of some resemblances to central Mexican art, although the themes are typically Maya. The Putun Maya had probably come in around 1200 bringing news of Toltecs and a new ideology. The Aztecs traded with all the groups and may have had a friendship treaty with the Cakchiquels. There is some disagreement as to the language spoken, but probably the bulk of the population spoke a Maya tongue. A favorite eastern raid of the Tarascans was to reach the fine salt deposits of Ixtapan, probably within the Aztec domain. Both Aztecs and Tarascans maintained forts in a north-south line that extended more or less just west of Toluca.
