Preserve and Share Knowledge of Nahua Civilization
We are committed to building the most comprehensive, freely accessible digital repository of Nahua history, religion, art, social structures, and intellectual traditions. From the ancient migrations of the Chichimeca to the vibrant Nahua communities of today, no aspect of this civilization should be lost to time or locked behind paywalls.
Make Nahuatl Language Accessible to Learners Worldwide
Nahuatl is spoken by 1.7 million people today, yet quality learning resources remain scarce outside specialist circles. We provide structured lessons, a searchable dictionary, grammar guides, and pronunciation tools so that anyone—from students to heritage speakers to curious minds—can engage with this living language.
Honor Living Nahua Communities and Their Ongoing Cultural Traditions
The Nahua peoples are not a relic of the past. From the Sierra Norte de Puebla to the Huasteca, from Milpa Alta to the communities of Guerrero and Veracruz, millions of Nahua people maintain vibrant cultural traditions. We highlight contemporary voices, living practices, and the ongoing evolution of Nahua identity.
Provide Academically Rigorous, Culturally Respectful Content
Every article, timeline entry, and language lesson on Nahuas.com is grounded in peer-reviewed scholarship, primary source analysis, and consultation with Nahua cultural practitioners. We reject sensationalism, stereotypes, and the reduction of complex civilizations to simplistic narratives. Accuracy and respect are non-negotiable.
In tlilli, in tlapalli:
in machiyotl, in tlanextilli.
The black ink, the colored paint:
the symbol, the illumination—
this is the way of knowledge.
— Huehuehtlahtolli (Ancient Nahua Orations), preserved in the Florentine Codex, Book VI
Primary Sources
📘 Florentine Codex (Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España)
Compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators between 1545 and 1590, the Florentine Codex is the single most important ethnographic document of Mesoamerica. Its twelve books cover cosmology, ceremonies, rhetoric, natural history, social organization, and the Conquest from a Nahua perspective. Our primary reference for religious practices, daily life, and the huehuehtlahtolli orations.
📘 Codex Mendoza
Created circa 1541 under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, this pictorial manuscript records the tribute lists of the Aztec Empire, the history of Mexica conquests, and detailed depictions of daily life from birth to death. Essential for understanding the economic structure and social hierarchy of the Triple Alliance.
📘 Codex Borbonicus
A pre-Conquest or early colonial divinatory almanac (tonalamatl) and festival calendar. One of the finest surviving examples of Nahua ritual art, it records the 260-day tonalpohualli calendar and the 18 monthly festivals (veintenas). Primary source for our religion and calendar sections.
📘 Codex Borgia
A pre-Columbian ritual and divinatory manuscript from the Puebla-Tlaxcala region. Renowned for its elaborate depictions of deities, cosmic directions, and calendrical auguries. Used extensively in our cosmology and deity reference material.
📘 Annals of Cuauhtitlan (Anales de Cuauhtitlan)
Part of the Codex Chimalpopoca, these annals record the history and mythology of the Nahua peoples from the earliest times through the colonial period. They contain the fullest account of the Quetzalcoatl-Topiltzin legend and the mythic history of Tollan. Key source for pre-Aztec and Toltec-era history.
📘 Cantares Mexicanos
The largest surviving collection of Nahuatl songs and poems, transcribed in the late sixteenth century. Includes flower songs (xochicuicatl), war songs (yaocuicatl), and philosophical verse. Essential for understanding Nahua literary traditions and the worldview of the intellectual elite.
📘 Romances de los Señores de la Nueva España
A collection of Nahuatl songs and poetry compiled by Juan Bautista de Pomar in Texcoco around 1582. Offers a complementary perspective to the Cantares Mexicanos, with particular emphasis on the literary traditions of the Acolhua court of Nezahualcoyotl.
Modern Scholarship
📚 Miguel León-Portilla (1926–2019)
The father of modern Nahua studies. His Aztec Thought and Culture (1963) and The Broken Spears (1962) revolutionized our understanding of Nahua philosophy and the Conquest from an indigenous perspective. His work on the concept of in xochitl in cuicatl (flower and song) as a metaphor for poetry and truth is foundational to our language and philosophy sections.
📚 James Lockhart (1933–2014)
Pioneer of New Philology and the study of Nahuatl-language documents. His The Nahuas After the Conquest (1992) transformed understanding of how Nahua communities adapted to colonial rule while preserving their identity. His Nahuatl as Written (2001) remains indispensable for Nahuatl textual analysis.
📚 Ross Hassig
Leading authority on Aztec warfare, trade, and political economy. Aztec Warfare (1988) and Trade, Tribute, and Transportation (1985) provide the empirical backbone for our military culture and economics sections.
📚 Matthew Restall
His Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (2003) and When Montezuma Met Cortés (2018) deconstruct colonial-era narratives about the Conquest. Essential for our balanced treatment of the colonial encounter and the agency of indigenous peoples.
📚 Camilla Townsend
Her Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (2019) draws exclusively on Nahuatl-language sources to tell the Mexica story from the inside. Her work on the Annals of Tlatelolco and indigenous-language recordkeeping has reshaped how scholars approach Nahua history.
📚 David Carrasco
Historian of religions specializing in Mesoamerican ritual and urban space. City of Sacrifice (1999) and Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire (1982) provide critical frameworks for understanding the relationship between cosmology, political power, and sacred geography in the Nahua world.
📚 Alfredo López Austin
Mexico's foremost scholar of Mesoamerican religion and cosmovision. The Human Body and Ideology (1988) is the definitive study of Nahua concepts of the body, soul, and illness. His work on Tamoanchan and Tlalocan is the foundation of our cosmology content.
📚 Frances Karttunen
Her An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (1983) remains the standard reference for Classical Nahuatl lexicography. Her collaborations with James Lockhart on Nahuatl grammar and colonial-era texts are foundational to our language lessons and dictionary.
Archaeological Sources
⛏ Proyecto Templo Mayor
The ongoing excavation of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan in downtown Mexico City, initiated in 1978, has yielded over 14,000 objects and transformed our understanding of Mexica ritual, tribute, and imperial ideology. One of the most important archaeological projects in the Americas.
⛏ Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
Founder and longtime director of the Proyecto Templo Mayor. His publications on the temple's seven construction phases, the offerings program, and the symbolic architecture of the sacred precinct form the empirical basis for our content on Mexica religion and urban planning.
⛏ Leonardo López Luján
Current director of the Proyecto Templo Mayor and author of The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan (1994). His excavation of the monolith of Tlaltecuhtli and the royal burial offerings near the Templo Mayor represents the cutting edge of Mexica archaeology.
Content Contributions
Found an error? Know a detail we missed? Have expertise on a topic we haven't covered yet? We welcome corrections, additions, and new content proposals. All submissions are reviewed by our editorial team for accuracy and consistency before publication. Contact us with your proposed contribution and we will guide you through the process.
Nahuatl Language Expertise
Native speakers, heritage speakers, and trained Nahuatl linguists are especially needed. We seek help with pronunciation recordings, dialectal variation documentation, dictionary entries, grammar verification, and the creation of new learning materials. Whether you speak Classical Nahuatl or a modern variant from Puebla, Veracruz, or the Huasteca, your knowledge is invaluable.
Academic Review
Researchers and scholars in Mesoamerican studies, ethnohistory, archaeology, linguistics, and related fields are invited to review our content for factual accuracy and scholarly rigor. Peer review strengthens every article on this site. We credit all academic reviewers and welcome ongoing advisory relationships.
Translation Help (Spanish, Nahuatl)
We are building a fully trilingual platform in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl. Translators are needed for all content sections. Spanish and Nahuatl translations ensure that this knowledge is accessible to the communities whose heritage it represents—and to the broader Spanish-speaking world.
Technical Contributions
Nahuas.com is built with open web technologies. Developers, designers, accessibility specialists, and SEO experts who want to contribute to an educational open-source project are welcome. We especially need help with interactive map features, search functionality, mobile optimization, and Nahuatl text rendering support.
🌱 Nahua Communities
Our deepest gratitude goes to the living Nahua communities of Mexico—in Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Guerrero, Mexico State, Tlaxcala, Morelos, and beyond—who are the true custodians of this knowledge. The language, traditions, ceremonies, and oral histories preserved by these communities are the living heart of everything on this site. We are committed to ensuring that our work serves their interests and respects their cultural sovereignty.
🏛 Academic Institutions
We acknowledge the invaluable work of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Proyecto Templo Mayor, the Newberry Library, the Library of Congress, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale in Paris, and the many universities and research centers worldwide whose scholarship and archives make this project possible.
💻 Open-Source Projects
Nahuas.com is built on the shoulders of the open-source community. We are grateful to the developers and maintainers of the web standards, frameworks, fonts, and tools that power this platform. Special thanks to the Google Fonts project for providing the typefaces used across this site, and to all contributors to open educational resources worldwide.
Ma huel on nemi notlazohtzin,
ma huel on nemi noyollo:
inic niquimittaz in noxochiuh,
in nocuicauh.
May my beloved ones live well,
may my heart live well:
so that I may see my flowers,
my songs.
— Cantares Mexicanos, folio 26r