Apology is needed for Aztec comparison

Your front-page coverage “A reminder of man’s humanity,” April 28, reports that City Councilman Ara Najarian dared to include “Spanish conquistadors’ massacre of the Aztecs” as part of a week of remembrance to victims of past genocides.

Good God! I hope Najarian can blame his inclusion of Aztecs as genocide victims on some municipal staffer who prepared his remarks. One hopes he cannot be that ignorant of historical facts.

Aztecs were perhaps the most vicious people ever to occupy the face of the earth before the Spanish conquistadors, under Hernan Cortes, eliminated the Aztec regime in 1521. They were unmerciful and relentless terrorists of the 14th and 15th centuries.

As the Aztecs began conquering other kingdoms in the 1430s, they created their own god, Huitzilopochtli ? transforming him into a universal power controlling the earth, the heavens and the rising of the sun. Although Aztec witch doctors could never explain why, Huitzilopochtli had to be well-nourished and healthy, which required food to sustain him in his “holy” endeavors.

So each day dozens of slaves and captives of conquered tribes were sacrificed.

Beating human hearts were physically ripped out of their chests and placed in the chacmool, the Aztec sacred receptacle ? still warm and palpitating.

Not exactly the idea ? at least of Cortes and fellow Christian conquerors ? of taking Holy Communion of wine and wafer, is it?

Holy war was the total purpose of the Aztec state and mind set. Peace was dangerous and unacceptable.

Without war, there would be no prisoners to sacrifice, no food for the gods. To celebrate the completion of the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli in 1487 in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, 20,000 prisoners were sacrificed in 14 days.

This is worthy of Glendale’s commemoration?

Aztecs were the Hitlers and Stalins of their time. Torture and child sacrifice were daily rituals. They brought about continuous and perpetual war on weaker tribes, such as the Culhuas, Texcoco, Tepanecs and the noble Toltecs, a peaceable and advanced race ? so they could capture ? not kill ? their enemies. These captives were then sacrificed at the pyramid to the sun at the beginning of each day.

Other Aztec “gods” were hungry, as well.

Tlaloc, their rain god, needed the hearts of children and babies so that it would rain. Xipe, the plant god, needed human skins acquired by skinning a victim alive so that plants would grow.

Yet one of our councilmen commemorates Aztecs?

Not long after a few hundred Spaniards led by Cortes conquered them, about 9 million Aztecs converted to Christianity. This phenomenon can be traced directly, at least by tradition, to the conversion of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. He was an indigenous Mexican who had a vision of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Catholic Church canonized him in 2002.

Linking Aztecs to actual victims of real genocides of the past ? Armenians, Jews and others, including those in Sudan today ? denigrates and belittles the memory of those who have unjustly died at the hands of tyrants.

What can Glendale residents next look forward to from a city-sponsored event?

Najarian needs to publicly apologize to residents of Glendale for his callous remark and indifference to history.