Central America

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Central America Region Study Part II
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Historical Culture
Central America Historically called
Mesoamerica Mesoamerica - A region extending
south and east from central Mexico to include
parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and
Nicaragua. In pre-Columbian times it was
inhabited by diverse civilizations, including the
Mayan and the Olmec. Central Americas history
and culture are predominantly Indian inundated.
Its geography is rich in Indian tribesbranging
from the Aztecs in the central highlands, to the
mayans that dominated the lowlands.
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Basic Aztec History
The great empire of the Aztecs and its capital
city of Tenochtitlan flourished in the central
valley of Mexico just before the arrival of the
Spanish in 1519.      The Aztecs were late
comers to the Valley of Mexico, heirs of ancient
cultures and traditions that had flourished there
for over 3000 years.  Legend says they left their
original homeland of Aztlan around A.D.1100. 
They arrived in the Central Plateau around 1200. 
Tenochtitlan, founded in 1325, was built on a
rocky island in Lake Texcoco where the Aztecs
discovered an eagle perched on a cactus with a
serpent in its mouth.  They had been told by
Huitzilopochtli, their patron god, that this
symbol, still the emblem of modern Mexico, would
mark the spot for their capital city. In 1519
the expanding Aztec empire was governed by the
semidivine emperor Moctezuma II.  He ruled over
a highly stratified society of nobles, commoners,
serfs and slaves.  His magnificent palace stood
at the center of the empire's capital
Tenochtitlan, the sacred and secular heart of the
Aztec state.   This beautiful island city,
located where Mexico City stands today, was
constructed on a series of artificial islands
with canals for streets, towering pyramids and
slendid public buildings.  In 1519 it had a
population of at least 250,000 people, making it
one of the largest urban centers in the world. 
The city was connected to the mainland by three
great causeways.  Along these causeways ran
aqueducts carrying fresh water to the pools and
public fountains of the town.  The canal system
supplied efficient transportation and thousands
of canoes carried goods and people through the
city and to surrounding villages on the lake
shore.  For the Aztecs this method of transport
was particularly important as, like all the
prehispanic cultures of the Americas, they lacked
draft animals and the wheel. In this
sophisticated metropolis were government
buildings, schools, great markets, ball courts,
temples, pyramids, palaces and simple homes.  At
its center was the sacred precinct where the gods
of the Aztec pantheon were worshiped through
song, dance, ritual and human sacrifice.  At the
heart of the precinct stood the Templo Mayor, or
"great temple".  This massive double pyramid
structure was dedicated to the two most important
gods of the Aztec empire, Tlaloc, god of rain,
and Huitzilopotchli, god of war and the sun. 
These were the deities responsible for the
sustenance of the Aztec state Tlaloc as
provider of the empire's agricultural needs and
Huitzilopotchli as provider of the wealth and
tribute resulting from wars of conquest.    
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Basic Mayan History
Maya Civilization developed in the Mesoamerican
lowlands by 600 B.C.E. At Nakbe and El Mirador,
the Maya erected elaborate ceremonial centers of
stone and stucco buildings standing on pyramids
and platforms. Even as El Mirador prospered,
other important centers like Tikal and Uaxactún
grew in importance, ushering in the Classic
Period of Maya Civilization from 300 C.E. to 900.
Maya life was governed by an intricate calendar
system and a recently deciphered hieroglyphic
script. Their writings tell us of a lowland
civilization ruled by powerful lords, who
presided over small city-states. Each state
competed constantly with its neighbors, as
different centers like Tikal, Palenque, and Copán
vied for control of key trade routes and for
political and religious prestige. Maya lords
considered themselves intermediaries between the
living and spiritual worlds. A small nobility
controlled Maya society. Their power base gave
way suddenly in about 900 C.E., probably as a
result of partial ecological collapse as
farmlands became exhausted. Nevertheless, Maya
Civilization continued to flourish in the
northern Yucatán until the Spanish Conquest in
the 16th century C.E. In the highlands, the
Toltecs held brief sway over the Valley of Mexico
from about 900 C.E. to 1200, ruling their state
from Tula, north of the valley. They may also
have had some influence over lowland politics,
for there is strong Toltec influence at Chichén
Itzá, a great ceremonial center in the northern
Yucatán. Political chaos followed the collapse of
Toltec civilization in the 13th century.
Eventually, the Aztecs, once nomadic farmers,
rose to power in the Valley of Mexico.
Link to Mesoamerican inspired art pieces
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More Recent Cultural Styles
In the years since World War II, Latin American
art, literature, and film have assumed a
prominent international status. Many Latin
American artists of the postwar era have used
their work to engage in social and political
struggles. Poets such as Nobel Prizewinner Pablo
Neruda (190473), whose most famous work, Canto
General (1950), explores the history of Latin
America from the point of view of the workers and
peasants, examined issues and social groups that
had been all but ignored. Cuban poet Nicolás
Guillen, too, used traditions drawn from
Afro-Cuban folk culture to attack imperial
domination in Latin America. Over the past 50
years, the novel and short story have emerged as
the two dominant art forms of the region. In the
1940s, the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges
(18991986) rose to international prominence with
works such as Ficciones (1944), which used magic
and fantasy as its primary vehicle. The Mexican
Nobel laureate (1990) Octavio Paz published his
major work, The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), in
the immediate postwar period. During the same
years, writers such as Miguel A. Asturias, who
wrote Men of Maize (1949), were developing the
school of magical realism in Latin America. These
authors blended myth, fantasy, and native imagery
to produce works that might be understood from
the perspective of Indian cultures or as
rejections of the logic of Western literary
narratives. The boom in Latin American fiction
began in the 1960s. During this decade, the
Mexican Carlos Fuentes (The Death of Artemio
Cruz, 1962), the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa
(Conversations in the Cathedral, 1970), and the
Colombian Gabriel García Márquez (One Hundred
Years of Solitude, 1967) gained international
prominence. García Márquez (b. 1928), perhaps the
most prominent Latin American author, used
magical realism to retell some of the most tragic
events in Colombian history, mixing fantasy with
reality, making the two part of everyday life.
García Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1982. In the postwar period, the
Latin American film industry also grew
significantly, but it was not until the 1960s
that Latin American filmmakers emerged as major
artists. Cinema Nôvo in Brazil produced a wealth
of films exploring poverty in the region,
focusing particularly on the favelas (urban
slums) of Brazil's cities. During the 1960s the
Cuban film industry, led by figures such as Tomás
Gutiérrez Alea (Memories of Underdevelopment,
1968) launched a concerted assault against the
dominance of Hollywood in the region. Elsewhere
in Latin America, efforts at independent
filmmaking have been frustrated by the lack of
public and private funding.
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Localized Web Site LatinOL.com

• General Overview
• LatinOL.com is an internet gateway for users from
  Central America, specifically Panama. The page
  is composed in entirely Spanish, the major
  language of this region, and the content focuses
  on this area. For instance, in the news section,
  the stories focus on current events in the
  region. There are also pages for localized
  events, such as car shows, and singer
  performances. Basically, this site is meant to
  cater to Panama, and its residents.

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Localized Web Site LatinOL.com

• Localization
• This page contains a massive amount of
  content, much of it is information that applies
  globally, such as news. By having this
  information interpreted and reported by local
  reporters, the content is given a local spin.
  Furthermore, by adding extra local content, the
  site then appeals specifically to Panama.