Q: How are the myths of Lake Teguayo and Aztlán similar, and how do they arise?

A: Understanding the origins of the Aztecs is going to require figuring out this idea of the lake that they came from, or the river that they came from. And actually most of the cultures in the Southwest and Mexico proper for that matter, originated along waterways. It may have been wetlands, it may have been rivers, it may have been lakes. People did not survive, in the pre-modern world, by being very far away from water. So you really have to look at the water resources available in the region.
When the conquistadors first came to this area as part of the Coronado expedition to try to find the riches of the Seven Cities of Cibolla, and to find the origins of the Aztec in the North, they mounted [an] expedition, and most of it went to New Mexico, that’s the famous Coronado expedition. But a part of that expedition went up the Gulf of California and up the Colorado River in the year 1540. When they reached the Colorado River, they were told by the inhabitants that there was a great lake to the west, [but the] conquistadors did not follow up on this. They didn’t go to this lake. They returned. This was really the first expedition to the North. It was carrying out Cortez’ promise to the king that they would conquer the north of Mexico as well.
The idea of the lake origins ties in to the fact that the Indians along the Colorado River told the conquistadors that there was a lake to the west. This was probably Lake Cahuilla. It wouldn’t have been visible from the Colorado River. It would have been about forty or fifty miles away, but this is the lake that was being referred to. The next expedition [that] came to the Colorado region was the Oñate expedition that came around 1604, if I’m not mistaken. And again Oñate was told that there was a lake to the west of the Colorado River.
There [are] other lake origin stories in the New Mexico area where people believe that their origins were in what’s called Lake Teguayo. And Lake Teguayo, because of its association with the idea of the lake of Aztlán and this lake, Lake Coapalla, the conquistadors were told about, which would have existed in California, was called the Lake of Gold. If you look at the old maps, there’s a lake of gold there. And that was probably based on this idea of Lake Coapalla, west of the Colorado. The Lake Coapalla idea [claimed] that’s where people who lived in the New Mexico Pueblos ultimately originated. Probably both are true.
In fact, there [are] probably several different lake origins for the cultures that established the cities of the Southwest. That originally they came from rivers and lakes, where they had settlements, and ultimately they created more urban settlements in the New Mexico area. So there [are] probably two, and probably more lakes in the history of the Southwest that are part of understanding the way these cultures developed. But the lake in California, Lake Cahuilla, was notable in that it was the largest lake in the entire west of the United States. West of Mexico, West of Canada, for that matter. It was a huge lake, and would have accounted for some settlement and some cultural evolution around that lake.
So [Aztlán is] probably not the same as Lake Teguayo, but it’s a similar kind of thing, where people who develop settlements near lakes and near rivers, and develop flood plain agriculture and agriculture that could be developed around these lake areas. Ultimately they move to the cities where they could practice more wide scale agriculture and build the kind of architecture that survives the ages. But they all probably started along the river or at different lakes, but Lake Teguayo and Lake Coapalla and really Lake Cahuilla, is really what we call it now, are probably two different ones. Lake Cahuilla is probably the California lake, and Lake Teguayo is probably the Utah lake that is probably the origins of some of the peoples of New Mexico.