The Mexican government has expressed its dissatisfaction after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America, and as a result has launched a campaign to show the historical evidence that gives rise to the name of this body of water.
According to President Claudia Sheinbaum, the Gulf of Mexico received this name since the 16th century, with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Since then, the name has been adopted on maps and cartographies around the world and in various languages.
In the midst of the controversy over the name of this body of water that bathes the coasts of five states of the Mexican Republic, it is important to remember that for pre-Hispanic cultures it was also an important point of economic interest and power.
Among the various groups that inhabited the Gulf of Mexico region towards the end of the Late Postclassic, the Huastecs and the Totonacs stood out significantly, within a complex mosaic that also included Nahuas, Otomis, Chinantecs and Popolocas, according to archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma.
The inhabitants of this region prospered thanks to the use of its natural resources, which not only provided sustenance, but also tropical raw materials that were exchanged with inland communities.
There are chronicles that indicate that Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, consumed fresh fish brought from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, specifically from the region of Veracruz.
The Gulf soon became an area of great strategic and economic interest, therefore it was frequently the object of military incursions organized by the armies of the Triple Alliance (which included the lordships of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tacuba).
Through military power, the Mexicas sought to guarantee the continuous supply of a wide variety of products and raw materials.
The Mexicas established tributary provinces such as Tuxpan, from which various raw materials and finished products were sent, among which embroidered blankets stand out.
Totonacs and Huastecs settled in the Gulf of Mexico
Regarding the Totonacs, historians indicate that their migration to the Gulf coast could have occurred around the year 800 AD.
With the subsequent decline of Tajín, the Totonacs managed to establish dominion over a large territory, consolidating their presence in the area of Veracruz and Puebla.
This region had strategic characteristics that attracted various Mesoamerican peoples, interested mainly in the natural products it provided.
In times of threat from the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Totonac lordships articulated political networks that allowed them to resist the expansion claims of Tenochtitlan.
Local societies developed mechanisms to integrate into a broader system of exchange, being both suppliers and recipients in a highly complex interregional economy.
The Totanacapan, a territory that included central Veracruz and part of eastern Puebla, was characterized by the existence of various independent lordships.
Despite local resistance, the Mexicas exerted a strong presence on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, forcing the towns to pay tributes.
Source: infobae
