Pre-Hispanic Mexico

By Deane Barker • •

“Hispanic” means relating to Spain. So, “pre-hispanic” means “before Spain showed up.”

Another word for this is “pre-Columbian,” which means “before Columbus came over to the New World.”

(Those aren’t technically the same thing, but they roughly coincide.)

Spain conquered the Aztec empire in the 1500. So “pre-Hispanic Mexico” refers to the ancient kingdoms of Mexico: the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas, etc.

Why I Looked It Up

In a World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bordain:

[Teotitlan del Valle is] a town where the arts, crafts, and traditions of pre-Hispanic Mexico are celebrated, and packaged for consumption.

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