The Aztlán Kid

By RM Krakoff

What if the Mexica people had defeated Cortez in 1519? This novel imagines what would have happened if this once flourishing and highly advanced nation did not succumb to the onslaught of Herman Cortez and the Spanish Empire. What if they had pushed Cortez and his men back into the sea? What if the Aztlans were a thriving global power today? What role would they play in 21st century?

• Language: English
• Publisher: RM Krakoff
• Release date: Sep 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458102751

RM Krakoff

By day I’m the founder and president of Razer Group Ltd., a large multi-national computer hardware company and also founder and president of MindFX Science, a developer of natural supplements for the brain. Today I reside full time near Guadalajara, Mexico where I find time for work, play and my passion, creating works of fiction. I believe that I am an pretty good writer and an excellent story teller. I'm probably not much different from the throngs of would-be novelists that started writing late in life - not that I'm old or anything. I've always dreamed of writing and of all things, my son beat me to it by authoring several unpublished novels and scads of short stories a few years back. I always used the excuse that I was working for a living, supporting a family and paying my employment dues so to speak. When my wife and I moved to the warm and wonderful shores of Lake Chapala in the State of Jalisco, Mexico I was further motivated to write by residing in the artist village of Ajijic. Initially life was too good here and I spent my days on the tennis courts and working remotely as president of my two companies. After challenging myself to finishing what I had started, I began to create on a regular basis. The good news is that I never watch television and spend my time being creative instead of passively vegitating on the couch.

Book preview

The Aztlán Kid

by

RM KRAKOFF

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

RM KRAKOFF on SMASHWORDS

The Aztlán Kid

Copyright © 2010 by Roxy Entertainment

ISBN:  0-9765153-6-9

Cover design by SB Krakoff

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Prologue

Over the years much has been written and debated regarding the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire. Anahuac is the true name of our nation. We were all part of the Anahuac civilization that gave us the Olmeca, Zapoteca, Teotihuacan-Toltec, Maya and Mexica civilizations. The Mexica part of our Anahuac heritage is how we reconstructed ourselves as a Nican Tlaca Nation, as the Aztlán Nation of indigenous people.

We have deep and rich historical, cultural, linguistic, and physical characteristics that make us one Anahuac nation, binding all of our civilizations. It is true that we were a religious and superstitious race, but it is also a fact that even the early Aztlán society was one of the most scientifically advanced, culturally diverse and most thoroughly educated people ever to walk the earth.

Aztec is a name fabricated by Europeans. We never called ourselves Aztecs. Aztec refers to our people when we lived in Aztlán. In Aztlán, it would not have been appropriate to have used that word. But in the 16th century, Aztec was a word never used because it only applied to a small portion of people and the majority of people who came from Aztlán called themselves Mexica, Tlaxcallan, Texcoco, Tlacopan, after the names of the cities in which they formerly lived.

This book tells the story of how this flourishing and highly advanced nation of people in fact did not succumb to the onslaught of Hernán Cortés and the Spanish Empire. Our nation, united in both purpose and passion, pushed Cortés and his men back to the sea. Since in his arrogance Cortés had burned his ships, the Spaniards had no way to return home. Most were killed, some were imprisoned. Cortés was paraded throughout Aztlán and then beheaded.

The Spanish Empire never again attempted to send its warships laden with guns and human pestilence our way.

In fact, we are thriving today. What is our modern story? How do our people fit into the global society of the 21st century?

We have also chronicled in the book appendix….a timeline of historical milestones dating from our nomadic days of the 6th century to the present.

This story follows and honors our culture and propels the Aztlán Nation into the world of today. Enjoy the journey. We the Aztlán Nation have.

My Kind of Town

I land on time at La Guardia. The man behind me tugs uneasily at his carryon bag. His is afraid of me. At the terminal I peer at the masses of people seemingly from all lands of this planet. They are busy walking, scurrying to make connections, shopping, eating or just sitting around waiting. They look at me as if I have the plague.

I find my luggage and join the long queue of alien beings waiting for cabs. The driver, a dark bearded man of East Indian heritage, looks at me guardedly and asks, Where to? I have reservations at the Helmsley Hotel but I have always heard about Times Square. I tell him to go there. He seems to be afraid of me. I am the stranger here.

The cab follows crowded freeways that twist and turn to finally face the city. The skyline suddenly looms before us. It is breathtaking - massive, stamped on what one can only imagine was once a landscape of rolling hills of primeval forests.

We enter deep into the metropolis. The long streets are shadowed by concrete needles stretching far above. The sidewalks are crowded with people. I roll down my window and am met by a blast of smells. This isn’t a city, it’s a bunch of citizens rolled up into a huge rancid tortilla. The air itself is stale, like yesterday’s garbage. This city is a vast pollutant, a stench of refuse, asphalt, auto exhaust and body odor. The massive buildings lean against each other, exhausted. This is a strange land.

Tototl picks his way through Times Square past derelicts, tourists, street vendors and business people rushing to the corners of nowhere and everywhere. So this is the famous Times Square, The Great White Way as some have called it, the iconic landmark of Manhattan Island. It is nothing more than a giant commercial intersection where the corporate Gods have enjoined in surreptitious marketing ritual.

He has seen Times Square and now is anxious to reach the revolving doors of his hotel, the New York Helmsley.

Tototl means bird in the ancient Nahuatl language. Since the accepted language of science around the world is English, in his professional life he doesn’t often use his native tongue even as an inhabitant of Aztlán. Tototl has never traveled outside Aztlán (or the Mexica Nation as it is better known to outlanders like the United States of America.) Tototl holds a doctorate of science from the highly respected University of Tenochtitlan and he was recently elevated to the rank of Priesthood or more precisely to priest-scientist.

Today he’s in New York for a conference at the United Nations. As he stands outside the world headquarters, Tototl studies the inscription on the gray wall: An international organization to facilitate cooperation in international law and security, and economic development toward the achievement of world peace.

On the street his dark skin, enormous probing eyes, elongated straight nose, long black straight hair pulled into two pony tails, and indigenous bone structure are a dead giveaway to his roots. Even in our modern society, there is no love in the United States for their next-door neighbors to the south-west.

Tototl senses deep hostility, bordering on fear and even believes he hears the murmurings of indio and worse coyotl, which means coyote, someone who helps others cross the border illegally.

The silent war between the Aztlán Nation and the United States has waged over 165 years since the Mexica/US War over Texas was concluded with essentially no changes in borders or boundaries. Today the US consists of 44 states. The formerly disputed states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California remain a part of the Aztlán Nation.

There are many reasons a macehualli, the middle class Aztlánders, could be offended by these New York looks and leers, but in this germ-infested dangerous city, the snake eye or name-calling is way down on Tototl’s anxiety list.

The Helmsley Hotel is less than one-half mile from the UN. That limits Tototl’s exposure to this hotbed of human diseases. Ever since the Spanish invasion into the Mexica world, bringing with them their venereal diseases and smallpox plague, the Aztlán Nation has been wary of both outsiders and infection. His friends and co-workers have warned Tototl that New York is a contamination incubator awaiting outright human plague. Tototl is warned about contracting carbon monoxide poisoning, HIV, hepatitis, influenza and pneumonia, just to name a few.

As one of the most powerful and richest nations on earth, Aztlán has the most stringent immigration laws and travel restrictions of any world government. It took Tototl over a year to clear his passport with the Aztlán government for travel to the US. If he wanted to travel to Europe, permission and papers could take twice as long to obtain.

His hotel room and the supposedly distinguished old hotel is dark and dreary by comparison to hotels in his home city of Tenochtitlan, the capital city of Aztlán. Aztlán furnishings and decorations are open, bright and airy. They are vibrantly colorful and warm to the soul.

Tototl sees The New York Helmsley as depressing and full of sharp 90 degree corners. Only a few hours in New York and Tototl wishes his passport had never been approved and he was back home with his iconoyotl, friends in Nahuatl, drinking tesguino, the sacred corn beer of the Tarahumara.

Aztlán is a nation of people who for many centuries have shared a common language that has helped to preserve their culture. Because of their experience with Cortés and the Spaniards, the leaders of Mexica have always sought isolation, solidarity and resistance to foreign influences.

As Tototl crosses the expansive Helmsley lobby, he’s aware of stares. He knows most of these American people assume he is a poorly educated and inferior foreigner.

Tototl is a biological engineer – specialized as a biotechnologist. He is also a medical doctor. His earlier studies of crop yield were revolutionary in his field, and they have been applied extensively in the advanced sciences of red biotechnology.

Balanced atop the highest spire of the University of Tenochtitlan, gleaming in the Aztlán sun, a statue of the Great Speaker Namacuix stands watch over the University. This massive edifice is the spiritual construction that Tototl remembers from his youth. His father was a professor of history and Tototl was his shadow for much of his youth. So much that both faculty members and students donned him the Aztlán Kid.

To this day his closest friends and scientific colleagues refer to him as either the Aztlán Kid or simply the Kid. The name still seems to fit because of his boyish enthusiasm for life and his playful but highly successful approach toward research. Besides, since Nahautl is rarely spoken anymore, Tototl is a mouthful in English.

Tototl discovered his love for engineering genetic cures through genomic manipulation back in his days at med school.

He came up with his first genetic solution to a pathogenic virus known as the Kalanchoë mosaic, a viral plant disease, on a bet with a colleague. Whoever lost the wager would have to change bedpans on the hospital wards for a week. Tototl won, but he felt his genetic breakthrough was reward enough and rather than force his rival to waste a week in the wards, he took the loser out to dinner instead.

Throughout his career, like most Aztlán people, Tototl has never been driven to seek financial reward or recognition. He considers his work his civic duty to the Aztlán Nation.

He’s known about the UN Conference for Bio-Engineering of Underdeveloped Nations and Unknown Environments for over fifteen months. Tototl is much more interested in the unknown environments section of this conference. To him, this means really unknown, as in…not of this earth.

Tototl Recall

The January nights in New York are bitter cold, unlike the semi-tropical air warmed by the gulf currents near his native city of Tenochtitlan. Once across the overheated Helmsley hotel lobby, he takes the stairs two at a time. His room is on the 7th floor.

He’s hungry, yet suspicious of all the processed foods prevalent in the US. Tototl carefully reviews the room service menu for foods not sated in corn starch and animal fats. He hates the idea of leaving his hotel room sanctuary, to mingle with the great unwashed masses and those who are either repulsed by or fear him, even to seek out healthier food.

His stomach says don’t eat this crap while his wits say don’t venture out into this city at night. He’s planning to be in New York for only four days and perhaps he can fast on water and a few tortillas from a nearby market.

He flips on the television. On the local 1800 hours newscast, a buxomly enchantress is bubbling her way through the weather report. Tototl knows that sex is appealing, but already 37, science has been his only real mistress most of his life. He admits he’s been more attentive to microorganisms than to female bodies although he has played with the idea of making some interesting bets with his female colleagues.

While tall and relatively handsome by Mexica standards, Tototl lives a solitary life. The title of Priesthood probably doesn’t open many doors for romantic encounters, even though in the Aztlán world all senior scientists are anointed into the brotherhood of secular clergy.

Hundreds of years ago, as the Aztlán culture matured from their roots of pagan rituals̶, worship of gods and human