Danza Azteca: Mexica History and Living Traditions in Colorado

Grupo Huitzilopochtli and Azteca Arts Colorado will present a special Native American Heritage Month program exploring Mexica history and the living Indigenous traditions of Mexico through danza, music, storytelling, and cultural teachings. Grupo Huitzilopochtli was founded by Raul Chavez, who brought the traditional danza of his ancestors from Mexico to Colorado. The group has maintained an open-door tradition of welcoming youth, adults, and elders to learn ceremonial dance, music, and teachings while promoting cultural understanding, compassion, stewardship, and community responsibility. The program will introduce audiences to the Indigenous foundations of Mexica culture, including the broader connections between Nahuatl-speaking peoples, the Uto-Aztecan language family, Mexico, and the American Southwest. It will also explore how Indigenous traditions continued and changed following Spanish colonization and migration into the Southwest. Most importantly, the presentation demonstrates that these traditions are not simply part of the historical past. Through Grupo Huitzilopochtli and Azteca Arts Colorado, danza remains a living cultural practice in Colorado—performed, taught, shared, and passed from one generation to the next.