Comment on Chat, is this true?

fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• Sal@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Hah, sure, let’s investigate 🕵️‍♂️

  The term ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’ was added as a potential Aztec name to the English wikipedia page on February 15, 2025, by user ‘Mxn’.

  The description of the edit is the following:

  Frum says the Aztecs had no specific name for the gulf, which is plausible in a practical sense, but Fernández gives a specific religious name and is more of a reliable source on this topic

  So, it is clear that the term was identified by user Mxn by performing an active online search.

  If we investigate a bit further, we can see that the term Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl is described to be a name for the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ in the spanish Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl

  This page was updated to include the description of Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl as the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ in September 16, 2018. I don’t have access to the citation so I don’t know if the citation specifies if this term is still known/used.

  If you check the history you will find that the same ‘Mxn’ fixed a typo in this page on February 15, 2025.

  So, from this sequence of events it is highly likely that the term ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’ was included into the Gulf of Mexico wiki page as a result of the user Mxn performing an active search for Aztec names for the Gulf of Mexico.

  I can find no evidence of native people referring to the gulf of Mexico as ‘Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl’. I can find no mention of this becoming viral in Mexico.

  I find it highly unlikely that:

  • User Mxn added an obscure Aztec term to the Wiki page two weeks ago AND
  • This same obscure Aztec term coincidentally began being used by Mexican natives, and this trend became popular enough to be noticed by foreign media but not by Mexican media

  More likely…

  • Mxn actively looked for a term and updated the English wiki
  • Someone read the English wiki, thought this would be a nice story, made the meme

  And this concludes my little investigation 🧐

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  • fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Haha, fantastic. Thank you for your work. ALAS! We have uncovered a deeper mystery! 🔍🔎🔎🔍🔎 🤔

    Is this the book? annas-archive.org/…/fb8569c405991107b987fda775f49…

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    • Sal@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, but that version is in German. That website also has one in English: annas-archive.org/slow_download/…/0

      Let’s see…

      Woah, interesting. The author is José López Portillo. I thought he shared the name with a former Mexican president, but, nope, the author is a former Mexican president.

      The title of the English version is a bit different, but the text appears to be the same. It is a novel, and I can find no mention of the gulf of Mexico or of Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl in this book. To me it looks like a mistake in the citation.

      The claim appears to come from this text (citation 1): scribd.com/…/Dioses-prehispanicos-de-Mexico-mitos…

      Image

      Unfortunately, that book does not contain references nor is it stated where this claim comes from.

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      • fossilesque@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Neat!!! Thank you.

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  • PunnyName@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Damn, look at you being awesome!

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  • indepndnt@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The post in the screen shot is dated February 14, 2025 though?

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    • Sal@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      How did I miss that?!

      My timeline is incorrect then. Since the post from sassymetischick.bsky predates the wiki edit, it is more likely that the wiki edit was made in response to this meme, and not the other way around. This pretty invalidates what I said above…

      I still can’t find any evidence of this being an actual trend, but I no longer have a good guess about the origin.

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      • Sal@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Looking through the archived history of the talk page, I can confirm that the claim on the wiki page is derived from the viral post, and not the other way around: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…/Archive_3#Chalchiuhtlicue…

        Image

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      • mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Could that just be a timezone difference?

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