Frank Diaz, an expert of the Aztec Calendar Interview part 1 of 2



As a member of the mexicaness movement, what is your opinion of it?
I'd rather speak about a movement that rescues the roots. In the Anahuac, the ancient name of Mexico, there were many groups that fought for a common ideal. Such as Mexicas, Mayas, Zapotecs, Huicholes, etceteras. The accumulated knowledge of these people was the Toltecayotl or Toltecness. The Toltec movement is everyday stronger, not only in Mexico, but beyond. It's born out as a social need, as many people have realized that the only way of being entirely free, is being conscious of the roots of our identity. Inside this movement there are those who propose a return to the past, but others as I want to take the wisdom from the past to use it on our daily lives.

How long did it took to compile the information of "Sagrado 13" Sacret 13?
Five years. I began in August 1999 and wrote my thesis on May of 2000. After that, I searched for elements that would corroborate it.

What was the meaning of 13 to the Maya grandfathers and Aztec grandfathers?
Thirteen has some of the most important cycles of cosmos. Thirteen are the moons durring a year; thirteen the months of gestation of a woman (ancient months were made of 20 days); the years that the planets are visible from Mercury to Saturn can be divided in 13 days, eteceteras.
What were the challenges you faced to publish your work?
Two. The first one was hostility of some representatives of Mexican tradition, who do not want to accept the calendar was one. The second was the indifference of cultural institutions, as they don't think the reconstruction of the prehispanic calendar is an important subject.
Nevertheless, I must add that I have also found a lot of support among people with true passion for the past. For example, the cultural activist Gabriela Gomez-Junco, who at this moment keeps a permanent call to all those investigators and people interested in these issues.

 

 

What are the uses for people in their everyday lives?
To answer that question, I am going to do an analogy: When Arabs took the concept of Zero to Europe, Europeans considered it was not important, as they already had a written system for numbers (the roman numerals). Five centuries had to pass for them to accept these number, that revolutionized science and has permitted the advancements we have today.
I think that the day when humankind discovers the incredible solutions contained in the Toltec calendar, there is going to be a quantum leap in thought.

Could you explain to us a bit about the correlation in the Mexican calendar?
The correlation is a matching of two calendars, for example, between the Julian and Gregorian (the ones we use today), or among this last one and the Toltec. My thesis is based upon what I call "internal correlation", that is, in the comparison of the calendar used by the Nahuas and the one of the Mayas.

 

What is your opinion in the use of the moon calendar instead of the one we use today?
The calendar of the thirteen moons is very beautiful. It's origin is not mexican, it ws proposed about two centuries agó by August Compte. Today, José Arguelles has matched it to the Toltec calendar, achieving it's universal diffusion. Nevertheless, a more precise mechanism is needed with the movement of the sky, if we are truly looking for a system that will last for many years.



Next month, the rest of the interview...