Slam Nahuatl is dedicated towards using the art of spoken word to uplift members of our community. Our slogan is “Achieving Immortality through Creativity.”
The Meaning of Nahuatl
Nahuatl was primarily an oral language of the Aztec people, which still lends itself to expressive metaphors, and eloquent repetitions. Nahuatl has over a million and a half speakers, more than any other family of indigenous languages in Mexico today. The name "Nahuatl" (pronounced in two syllables, ná-watl) comes from the root nahua ([nawa]) which means 'clear sound' or 'command'.
Poetry in the Aztec Culture
Poetry in the Aztec world was known as "flower and song," the Nahuatl metaphors for art and symbolism. It was the highest art form and it often celebrated the transient nature of life on earth. Life, so solid, so apparently real, was thus an illusion. Only by creating art, by imitating the Lord of the Close and the Near, could they aspire to immortality. Thus the idea that "art made things divine," and only the divine was true. In this they felt they were imitating their principal deity, Omeoteotl, the creator of the universe, also called the Lord and Lady of the Close and the Near. Omeoteotl achieved immortality through creativity, and the Aztec poets sought to do the same.
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