The Aztecs The Aztecs were the Native American people who dominated northern Mesoamerica at the time of the Spanish conquest led by Hernan Cortes in the early 16th century. According to their own myths and legends, they originated from a place called Aztlan, somewhere in north or northwest Mexico. At that time the Aztecs, who referred to themselves as the Mexica or Tenochca, were a small, nomadic, Nahuatl-speaking aggregation of tribal peoples living on the margins of civilized Mesoamerica. Sometime in the 12th century they embarked on a period of wandering and in the 13th century settled in the central basin of Mexico. Continually dislodged by the small