Durango High Noon Rotary
January 12, 2006
 

Guests:  Mike Burns, President of Alpine Bank
 
Announcements: 
 
Angie Beach - The Interact Club is growing with one of their latest projects being cooking at the Mana Soup Kitchen.  The club is planning a trip, and giving up their Spring Vacation, in order to help a town in Mississippi hit by Hurricane Katrina.  As you know this takes money and so here is our opportunity to help out.  The Interact Club will host an auction within the Rotary club on February 16, 2006.  Steve Govreau - Marcella Arcuri was taking her first ski lesson today and hopefully will fill us in at our next meeting. 
Bill Cartwright - The Wells Fargo Bank has returned as a sponsor for Red Ball Express again this year.  Tickets need to be returned by February 9, 2006.  You can purchase a single ticket, note on the ticket the number of Red Ball chances you are purchasing, e.g. 1-, 25, 50, etc./person and then submit the single ticket.   
Steve Redding - Youth Services cup is running over and they could use volunteers to get involved with their activities.  Please get in touch with Steve and give them a hand.  Thanks 
Tom Brossia - Capital Projects held a meeting immediately after HNR. 
Steve Govreau - Wayne Bedors' wife Donna is very ill.  Please keep them in your hearts and minds. 
Dan Morgenstern - There will be a classical music concert at St. Columba, Friday, January 13, 2006, beginning at 7:30 p.m. 
Steve Wheeldon - LaPlata Open Space Conservancy's Snowdown Wine Tasting & Fine Art Exhibition will be held Thursday, February 2, 2006.  Tami Coddington - A big Thank You for all those who rang the Salvation Army bell over the holidays.   We took in more money this year than the Kiwanis.   
Guest Speaker - Professor Marilee White, Fort Lewis College - Aztec Culture  
DISCLAIMER - None of the Aztec names in this article are even remotely spelled correctly.  Ms White was asked to be concise and give us a brief, 30-minute, talk on Aztec culture so it is written as she spoke; or as close as the writer could come. 
Aztec relevance to us; they were under divine order to conquer and subjugate by order of religion.  
Archeologically - advanced peoples
Created Books - diagrammed what they did with words and pictorial etchings.
Sacrificed - Was for the greater good and to themselves; so the bluebloods were sacrificed.
Deity - Quaxlique -  Life was a duality; for life to occur death must occur and vice versus.
Books - Their historians were extremely into, but destroyed mostly by Spaniards and only four remained.  Artists and priests passed on the knowledge.  Their books were made of the bark of fig and andante trees, and then folded in an overlap fashion.  They referred to their books as codices.
 
Aztecs - There were seven clans and seven families who were immigrants to Tulox, what is now North Western Mexico; into the Toltec area.  They took over some of the Toltec ideas and adopted them as there own.  In the beginning they were originally promised land in what is known to us as Mexico City.  At that time Mexico City was situated on a large lake surrounded by smaller villages.  Being considered an uncultured people they were given a piece of marshy land in the middle of the lake which they eventually turned into a beautiful city.  Once well established the Aztecs set about conquering those around them.  They created canals in the city that carried clean water in and dirty water out. 
 
When Cortez first laid eyes on the city he was amazed at how clean it was compared to his home.  Although he only had 200 men compared to the 200,000 Aztecs, the difference in cultures allowed the Spaniards to overcome and conquer the Aztecs.  The Spaniards set about leveling the Templar Miore - which was a common practice then - and built their own city on top.
 
If you visit today you can see where an observatory was built in front of the large temple with two towers representing their two gods at the time.  At the summer equinox the sun will shine from the observatory right between the two towers letting the Aztecs now it was time to begin planting.
 
As stated before, only the bluebloods were sacrificed to the gods of the sun - their hearts would be cut out - but the year prior to this happening they lived a very good life and nothing the city was denied them.  Examples of the blades used for this procedure were made of exquisitely carved stone made to look very much like a human.
 
The Aztecs had two calendars; a 260-day ritual (religious) and 365-day solar calendar.  Taxes were stiff in Mexico and were a tribute to the empire.  Males and females both paid, none were exempt.  Males paid in goods and females paid with their weaving products.
 
On a last note; The Aztec Empire was created in 1325, but in 1475 the history was recorded to reflect they were not immigrant, but descended from the Toltec's.  We are not the only one who rewrite history to reflect what we think/believe how it sho