Exotic items clearly imported from Central America have been repeatedly uncovered in the archaeological records within the traditional territory of the northerners collectively known aptly as the ‘Pueblo’, or town peoples.
Such items include, but are not necessarily limited to, copper bells and macaw-parrots (the Hopi people of U.S. northern Arizona do indeed have a parrot clan — pic 3); utensils such as corn-grinding mano-metates; architectural features such as platform mounds, ball-courts (pic 4) and residences; and particularly their cultivated plants that originated in Mexico, especially the ‘Three Sisters’, maize-corn, beans and squashes.
This influence is also seen in pottery styles and artistic iconography, the latter exemplified by the mysterious and ubiquitous T-shape symbol (as found in Pueblo doorways and tablita headdress, plus Meso-American funerary masks).
Wow.
Before I tell you just how right you are I need to explain who the aztecs actually were rq. Basically what most people know as the aztec were a confederation of 3 city states, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. At first they ruled semi-equally but eventually Tenochtitlan came to dominate the political sphere. The primary ethnic group of Tenochtitlan were the Mexica and their homeland was a place they called Aztlan from which we derive the term Aztec.
Now the Mexica didn’t originally live in the valley of mexico, their home of Aztlan was most likely in the south western United States like arizona and new mexico. For whatever reason they were pushed out of that land and took the dangerous journey south to the valley of mexico. Now, we cannot know this for certain but I believe they were willing to take this perilous trek because they had heard of a flourishing culture there. However, upon their arrival they found the land completely and utterly inhabited. They had travelled through hell to get here probably dreaming of a paradise but found it heavily guarded by the people living off of it. As a solution they lived in the lake and made new land, they acted as mercenaries for other powerful forces and became known for their valor and skill. There story is one of persistence and often immense comraderie.
I think there were 100% rumors of a far off exotic land south of that great desert and I think they took their chances. I am doubtful they were the first to make this journey with these hopes. Their history evens mentions that their god huiztlapochli told them to leave Aztlan for a paradise but this could technically be a later revision.
But how on earth did a desert people quickly develop the incredibly unique and complex chinampa system? They must have either learned it from locals who were already practicing it or had generations of occupancy to develop it.
CORRECT AGAIN! They learned it from a people just south of them and it was a large part of their early imperial growth