The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 103

Figure 2.16 The Aztec

deity, Quetzalcoatl, the

“Feathered Serpent.”

After the Codex

Borbonicus.Graz,

Austria: Akademische

Druck- und Verlansanstalt,

1974, folio 22.

The Mixtecs of Southern Mexico

The Mixtecs live in the western part of what is today the Mexican state of Oaxaca,
an area called La Mixteca (Figure 2.17). The term “Mixteca” is a Nahuatl word for
“people of the cloud place.” The Mixtecs call themselves tay ñudzahui,or “people of
the rain place” (Terraciano 2001:1). The Mixtec region is geographically and eco-
logically diverse, extending from the hot and humid coastal zone in the south (Mix-
teca de la Costa or Ñundehui) to the semiarid and topographically varied Mixteca
Baja (Ñuiñe), and to the cool highland valleys and rugged mountains of the Mixteca