Ohtli Oztomeca
The Potential Pochteca
Ohtli Oztomeca
Hi, I'm Ohtli. I'm a twenty-two year old from Texcoco, a grand and beautiful city that I have lived in all my life. It is part of the Triple Alliance, along with Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan. I love it with all my heart. One of our four sections of government is even dedicated to just science and art! I live with my mother and younger brother, Itotia. We have a small plot of chinampas on Lake Texcoco, right next to our home, that my mother and brother tend to and grow maize, squash, and beans. Chinampas are like floating gardens, located in the lake bed of Lake Texaco as a space saving method. It is very high-tech farming technology that I do not understand very well, but my mother and brother love to do. Thankfully, we do not have to rely solely on this because we have been very fortunate over the past years, all because of my father, who is a successful pochteca, or a professional trader. Every couple of months, he would come home with more cacao beans, Aztec's sort of unofficial currency, than I could count. He would tell me stories about all the exotic things he got to handle, things as rare and important as leopard skins and gold and obsidian. He is the reason that I want to leave our little home in Texcoco and venture out to the great trading city of Tenochtitlan, where I hear the opportunities are endless. I am leaving on a canoe tomorrow to go to the great capital, and I am filled with excitement. I feel like I was born to be a merchant. My name does mean "road", so maybe I was!
Sources:
https://www.ancient.eu/Tenochtitlan/
https://www.ancient.eu/Huitzilopochtli/
https://www.ancient.eu/Tlaloc/
https://www.livescience.com/34660-tenochtitlan.html
http://www.usd448.com/herronshappenings/ancciv15/6H37AztecCartographer/Trade_In_Ancient_Aztec.html
https://sites.google.com/site/tenochtitlanproject/economy-and-trade
http://aztecsandtenochtitlan.com/aztec-names/aztec-boys-names/
http://aztec.com/page.php?page=merchants
http://www.tenochtitlanfacts.com
https://postclassicalcities.weebly.com/tenochtitlan-americas.html
http://staff.4j.lane.edu/~loo/worldstud/americas/Chap25Aztec.PDF
https://www.ancient.eu/Texcoco/
http://warrensburg.k12.mo.us/earthkam/hick/mexcity/