Now, let's try to get inside the mind of the Mexica, or the Aztecs, shall we? Once again, we will begin with a process of elimination of what they didn't have at their convenience:
No computers, no phones, no TV's, no movies, no radios, no electricity, no toilet paper, no wheels, no air travel, no automobiles, no awareness of peoples or countries outside of Mexico or South America, no internet (which means no Google, YouTube, Facebook, Netflicks, Tinder, etcetera), limited food selections and availability, no democracy, no human rights, no public health care, no tolerance of diversity.
Unlike the Spanish, they did have chocolate, but only the priests and nobles were allowed to eat it, but it was likely kind of gross given that it was drunk as an unsweetened beverage. Also unlike the Spanish they were clean, bathed frequently and had running potable water to supply their superiorly organized cities. Like the Spanish, their society was severely regimental in an inflexible and unforgiving social hierarchy. Like the Spanish, they lived essentially under a theocracy and the lower classes of serfs and slaves owed their lives to their ruthless and unpitying overlords.
Their religions were decidedly different but for the way they conducted them. Both used religion as an excuse for bloodshed: the Spanish burned and garrotted heretics, witches and Jews; the Aztecs offered to their gods as human sacrifices anyone they didn't happen to like. Both peoples were incredibly warlike and bloodthirsty and both cultures carried in them already the collective trauma from multiple invasions.
A young Mexica, depending on gender and social class, had limited options, of course. The nobles had the best life, were wealthy, well-fed and powerful. Their word was law. If you were a young Mexica born into this caste, then the world was your oyster offering blue pearls aplenty. As I already said, your food choices would be limited: maize, beans, squash, tomatoes, cactus, dog meat, turkey, fish and wild game, as well as whatever native fruits and vegetables they cultivated. You of course had the greatest abundance and quality at your disposal, and you were also allowed to drink Theobroma, or chocolate, unsweetened unfortunately, the food of the gods.
If you were a young priest you would be learning all the intricacies of the heavenly bodies and forecasting the will of the gods and determining how many would be slaughtered during the next ritual human sacrifice. You enjoyed the best of everything, with slaves aplenty to do your bidding, all of them potential food for your gods.
Nobles and priests alike were held to the strictest code of conduct, unlike the highborn Spaniards who swaggered all over Iberia and then in Latin America like one giant portable and terrifying frat boy party. The greatest expectations were held over the heads of the highest born Mexica and for violating the ethical norms the penalties were often severe and not infrequently mortal. More food for the gods.
If you were a merchant or artisan you still did pretty well and were highly regarded. Your trade, your craft, was your life. Likewise for the peasants and farmers, and of course there were the serfs and the slaves, always dispensable and often a ready supply of food for the gods.
The women, like the Spanish women, were subservient to men and the strictest codes of modesty were enforced, though I also understand there was a much freer intermingling between genders than for the Spanish. Likewise, homosexuality, if not recognized, was tolerated and accepted.
I can only imagine how life must have been for the disabled, the chronically sick and the mentally unstable. I cannot imagine any of them surviving long from birth.
So, these were scrupulously clean people, whose lives in every detail were circumscribed and ruled by their gods, who worked hard with their hands and did much to create beauty despite the environment of death and dread they lived in. Even if victims of trauma, it is hard to believe that they were bowed by trauma as they strove through their own creativity and industry to craft a life that seemed worth living to themselves and their descendants.
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