Page:Historia Verdadera del Mexico profundo.djvu/30

 However, it is necessary to point out that the philosophical synthesis which was embodied in the Olmec iconography will remain as a common thread throughout the entire developmental process of the Anahuac civilization. The Spanish invaders found the roots of the Olmec culture alive in the 16th century. This is how Quetzalcoatl, whose image was engraved in the stones of Chalcatzingo, Morelos, during the Preclassical, is also found in Teotihuacan, during the Classic, with the Toltecs, and in Tenochtitlan, with the Aztecs, in the Postclassical. Rattlesnakes, felines, the Quincunx, and representations of Tlaloc through the use of two opposing snake faces, in profile; talk to us about a knowledge, philosophy and religion, which were alive and evolved for at least 3 thousand consecutive years and which somehow survives in the mystical and spiritual being of native peoples and peasants of contemporary Mexico.

"Neither warriors nor traders, but civilizing agents, the Olmecs fulfilled their self—assigned destiny. They reached as far as they could, and extended their knowledge over time; thus building what was to be the spiritual backbone of our ancient culture.

''The concept of humanity they forged provided the foundation of the perpetual optimism of the men that succeeded them. Their heirs, whether Teotihuacan, Zapotecs, Mayan, Mixtecs, Huastecs, Totonacs, Aztec, succeeded, thanks to the momentum provided by them, in the endless proliferation of happy cultural constructions whose vestiges still educate and dazzle.''

Teotihuacán, Tula, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, El Tajín, Tikal, Palenque, Toniná, Uxmal, Monte Alban, Mitla, Malinalco, Chichen Itza, Tenochtitlan, and many other similar cities, bear witness to this justified and enduring optimism. ____________________