In answer to this e-mail:
"I am quite interested in this page. I am a member of the LDS church and am rather familiar with the Book of Mormon as one might expect from a member. I happened upon your site as I was looking for anything relating to Mexico, for I am preparing to serve a mission there.
I wondered if possibly, you would have anything on the Aztecs, or if you know just the Olmecs. If you do indeed have info on the Aztecs, could you please send it to me or refer me elsewhere if at all possible.
Thank You"
Depending on your perspective, the Aztec are not easily pin-pointed. In the various legends of the peoples that are supposed to make up the 'Aztec,' there cannot be found definitive answers to their origins. From the pages of the Book of Mormon, we can understand that all those beyond the date of 385 AD, must need be of the Lamanite group. But by that date, who are the Lamanites? Dissenting Nephites had long since been numbered amongst the Lamanites, Zoramites had joined them, and all those 'Nephites' including Mulekites, Samites, Jacobites, and Josephites, who would deny Christ would become numbered with them. And this is beyond the Ishmaelites, the Lamanites, and Lemuelites who already where a part of them. But, for sure they were no longer 'true Christians' and if they followed the practices of the Lamanite nation who destroyed the Nephites, they where idol worshippers and believers in human sacrifice. And that pretty much is what the Aztecs where from the perspective of the Spanish in the days of Cortez. They where worshippers of 'idol' gods and they would practice human sacrifice and reportedly worse.
Now as to their 'legendary' origin you can take your pick. They were born of 'springs of water,' their race was that of the gods, or they came from the 'seven' caves where their ancestors dwelt. A couple of these could have a tie into corruption of gospel ideas, but who is to say? Since it seems to mimic the 'caveman' evolutionist, today's preferred portrayal is of course that they came from cave dwellers. Convenient but not without a possible Book of Mormon tie when one considers that the favorite hide outs of the 'Gadiantons' where caves.
Archaeologists do not try to match religious histories but the 'origins of primitive man theories.' They give a number of groups associated with the Aztec or as being of the same people who replaced and joined with the remaining Toltec of the land. These are various Chimchemic origin myth groups named in order of appearance Tepanecs, Chalcans, people of Texcoco, people of Xochimilco, and the people of Culhuacan of the Toltec. And of course the Aztec from Aztlan. Most have these people coming from the north down to the south but the date of the arrival of the Aztec in about 1195 AD and the fact that they were 'wanderers' means who can really say what their past histories where. In 1195 AD, well past the 385 AD date of the Nephite demise, the 'wanderers' or Aztec enter the Valley of Mexico to find their other 'Chimchemic' relations building a new empire out of the Toltec old one which they would have 'conquered.' These Aztec invaders, intermarry the survivors who they conquer which is a noticeable pattern to the American Indian way.
And to keep it short from the aspect of the Aztec, in 1519-1521 the Spanish conquered them killing Moctezuma and many of the Aztec. The Spanish committed unspeakable atrocities against the Indians in the name of wiping out 'paganism' and human sacrifice. The Spanish had concluded that the Aztec ruled their empire in fear of pagan idols and due to human sacrifice rituals.
This is all that Europeans have determined from their perspective of the Aztec people and how they fit. As to the Book of Mormon, they would be amongst the 'tribal' societies into which the 'Lamanite' coalition broke up into once they no longer had a unifying common enemy in the hated Nephites. Many today concentrate of single groups such as the 'Inca,' the 'Maya,' the 'Aztec,' the 'Toltec,' and the 'Omec,' leaving the impression that these are all that where. The truth is that these were only the groups who had 'kingdom' centers that survived and are easy to study. But there where many, many, many subgroups and tribes.
One group or tribe that helps me put it together in a more reasonable perspective is the of the Muscogees or those who speak the Muscogee language. Now you many never have heard of them but you may have heard of the 'Creek Indians' associated with the Cherokee. Well there is an over all story that matches the Book of Mormon story in the Muscogees Indian legends as researched and told by 'Big Warrior.' The Muscogee did not always live in Oklahoma. That is just their reservation. They with the Cherokee were removed during the Indian Removal Act of the United States from their 'homelands' in Alabama and participated in the march of the famous 'Trail of Tears' from Alabama to Oklahoma. But Alabama was not their original homeland either. They had lived in Mexico at the time of Cortez and where one of the groups the Spanish supposedly where trying to protect by conquering the Aztec. But the Muscogee joined with the Aztec and a number of other 'tribes' or groups of Indian in the area to fight the Spanish. And when they lost the wars from 1519-1521, instead of staying subject to the Spanish, they removed themselves to the Southeast lands of the United states where they 'wrestled' or fought other Indian groups for land in that region. 'Big Warrior' himself was proud of the fact that his mother was of the 'Northern' tribes either taken in battle or a part of a peaceful settlement. But what is more telling is the traditions of these Muscogees as totaled by Big Warrior, a Confederation Chief of a number of tribes joined together and labeled as the Creek by the white man. In 1822, Big Warrior said that his ancient ancestors had originally come from Asia meaning Asia Minor around the lands of the Middle East and Turkey. And he said they had crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed around the Isthmus of Darien which then was another reference to the Panama regions. From there, what is left of the Muscogees legends said that they came from there and settled in the Mexico regions, and from thence as force by Cortez and the Spanish to dwell in Alabama.
Now for those who would make the Toltec, the Maya, the Aztec, the Inca, and all the other Indian groups into separate peoples or separate cultures just to meet their perspectives, I would like to ask a question. How are the Muscogees not a part of all these peoples when they came from Lehi's landing site as taught by Joseph Smith, page 267 of the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, a little south of the Isthmus of Darien? And if they traveled through the lands of the Maya, the Toltec, the Aztec, the Mississippi mound builders, and as a part of the 'Trail of Tears' to Oklahoma where they now reside, how are they not the same people as the rest of the Indians of the Americas?
What is of interest is that modern scientists, anthropologist, archaeologist, and historians tend to ignore the truth in the personal histories such as that told by 'Big Warrior' which make sense. And which correlates with the Prophet Joseph Smith's statement. But they cling to fanciful legends of people being born of 'water from springs' and coming out of caves just to make their theories of the origins of prehistoric man match what they have been taught.
Well, there is a lot to be learned about the Aztecs. There are books and volumes written that can be studied. But there is not greater truths about the origins of the Aztecs, Maya, Inca, Toltec, Omecs, and Muscogees, than those that can be learned from the pages of the Book of Mormon.