“Walk always with your eyes upon the mirror that smokes, where truth hides and destiny waits.” Take a deep breath, close your eyes and leave your world behind. Open these pages and wander into another time and another place, Tenochtitlán, five hundred years ago, where the physical world blends with the celestial realm to create a distinct reality. Walk with Huitzilin, "the Hummingbird," an extraordinarily talented human being to experience this fascinating and vibrant culture. Spanning two generations, this family saga follows Huitzilin’s household as they rise through Aztec hierarchy. First they were humble farm workers, but with talent and fire in their hearts, they advance through education, military service, the arts, business, trade, construction, and diplomacy, until Huitzilin reaches the pinnacle of the Aztec world to stand beside Emperor Moctezuma II. The story guides you through the history of the Mexica people who started as nomads in their ancestral birthplace in the caves beyond Aztlan and follows them as they rise to supremacy in Mesoamerica in both power and beauty. But, the arrival of the conquistadors brings their world, in the era of the Fifth Sun, to its prophesied end with an earthquake of fire and rain. You will experience Aztec culture as it has never before been presented, through their art and poetry: in xochitl in cuicatl, “ the Flower and the Song.” Art must not just please the eye, it must carry truth. It must be beauty that invites reflection on life and death, on the fleeting and the eternal. The heart of art is philosophy. A flower blooms and withers. A song rises and fades. But what they carry remains. This book includes 50 color images mostly taken from the fifteenth and sixteenth century codices.