Child of the Flower-Song People: Luz Jiménez, Daughter of the Nahua

This account follows Luz Jiménez, who was born in late nineteenth-century Milpa Alta, Mexico. Raised with Nahuatl and stories from her Aztec, or Nahua, elders, she learned traditional practices and hoped to read and become a teacher. A government school barred her language and traditions, and after her father’s death during the Mexican Revolution, her family moved to Mexico City. There, Luz worked with artists as a model, taught Nahuatl to scholars, and guided anthropologists and artists through Milpa Alta, helping document her culture.