Nahua

The Nahua are an Indigenous people of central Mexico and, in smaller numbers, El Salvador, whose best known historical branch, the Aztec or Mexica, built the imperial capital of Tenochtitlan and dominated much of Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest of 1519 to 1521 led by Hernan Cortes. Nahuatl, the Nahua language, was the administrative and literary language of the Aztec Empire and survives today as Mexico's most widely spoken Indigenous language, with numerous modern dialects and a substantial body of colonial-era and contemporary literature. Nahua cultural legacies, including maize-based cuisine, the concept of Nahual spirit companions, and numerous Nahuatl loanwords such as chocolate, tomato and coyote, have passed broadly into Mexican and global culture well beyond communities that identify as ethnically Nahua today.