Genesis Veracity wrote:The ancient ancestors of the Mexicans said that they sailed to their land from across the ocean to the east, from the land they called Atlan, or Aztlan, so where do you supposed that was?
AZTLAN which is translated as ""the place of whiteness," or "the place of herons' see: D. Carrasco, ed. 2001. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, vol.1, pp.72-72; or E. Seler. 1991 [1902-1903]. "where was Aztlan, the Home ofthe Aztecs?" in Collected Works in Mesoamerican Linguistics and Archaeology, vol 2:18-27. Culver City, CA: Labyrinthos.
But don't get carried away by 'place of whiteness'. "aztatl" is Nahuatl for herons or white-plumed birds. Aztec priests used white to symbolise origin, so it Aztlan might just mean 'place of origin'.
So, do we know where that might be? You could read E. Seler, which I haven't done. This might help:
http://web.ku.edu/~hoopes/aztlan/History.htm
and this, although you need to check anything from Wikipedia, it can be a good start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztl%C3%A1n
It says "The name of Aztalan, Wisconsin (a Mississippian site) was proposed by N. F. Hyer in 1837 because he thought it might have been Aztlán, following a suggested etymology of "Aztatlan" by Alexander von Humboldt.
In the mid-nineteenth century, fringe theorist Ignatius Donnelly, in his famous book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, sought to establish a connection between Aztlán and the fabled "lost continent" of Atlantis of Greek mythology; Donnelly's views, however, have never been recognised as credible by mainstream scholarship.
In 1887, Mexican anthropologist Alfredo Chavero claimed that Aztlán was located on the Pacific coast in the state of Nayarit. While this was disputed by contemporary scholars, it achieved some popular acceptance. In the early 1980s, the Mexican President José López Portillo suggested that Mexcaltitlan, also in Nayarit, was the true location of Aztlán, but this was denounced by Mexican historians as a political move.[1] Even so, the state of Nayarit incorporated the symbol of Aztlán in their Coat of Arms with the legend "Nayarit, cradle of Mexicans".
Eduardo Matos Mocteuma presumes Aztlán to be somewhere in the modern day states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Michoacan. [2]
It has also been proposed that Lake Powell, Utah was originally the site of Aztlán. Part of the migration legend also describes a stay at Culhuacan ('leaning hill' or 'curved hill'). Proponents of the Lake Powell theory equate this Culhuacan with the ancient home of the Anasazi at Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Arizona.[citation needed]"