A Day in the Life of an Aztec Farmer

Created byEvan Peetros

Early Morning

• I would wake up from my hut with a thatched roof at 7:15 AM.

• As I go downstairs, I smell a really good breakfast that my wife Is making.

• She is cooking cornbread with butter. For a beverage I would be drinking hot chocolate. “Ummm!”

• I would watch my kid, a boy, walk to school to learn how to be a farmer.

After Breakfast

• After breakfast, I go upstairs and but on a loin cloth made from Maguey. I can’t put on feathers or wear fans because if we did, we could get killed!

• After I put on my clothes, I go downstairs to get my hoe to pick the crops, a wooden stick as another tool to harvest with, and a knife to harvest the crops. After I get my tools, I get my 16 year old kid to help on the farm and we are off to the plantation.

On the Farm

• Once I get to my farm at 8:15, I call my slaves onto the plantation.

• While I am on my farm, I am picking corn and sending them them to my neighbors. I also have floating gardens because I don’t have enough room on the plantation.

Floating Gardens

• Floating gardens are gardens that are on rafts. Farmers have floating gardens because they would usually not have enough room on the plantation, so, they would put gardens on rafts with mud walls around the perimeter, especially if they were near a body of water.

More Farming

• At about 11:30, we sit down and enjoy an ear of corn, and then, it’s back to work.

• At about 1:00 I take the maize that I have harvested with a knife to Tenochtitlan where I sell my crops to get money.

• After I’m done in the market, I go back to my farm to go back to work.

End of Day

• At 5:00, I send my slaves back to their houses and me and my son go back to our house.

• When we walk in the house, I smell tamales filled with meat and vegetables and a side of spicy chili peppers that my wife got from the market. “Ummm”.

After Dinner

• After we eat dinner, our family plays a ball game. I don’t know what it is called.

A Ball Game

• How you play this ball game is you get a ball. Then you go to a court where there is two hoops. They will use this game to decide who wins a war. Me and my family just plays it for fun. First, you dribble the ball. Then you pass it to a person. Then they try to shoot the ball through the hoop. If you make it in you get a point. The one with the most points after 30 minutes wins.

After Dinner Continued

• After we play the ball game we go to the podium and pray to Huitzilopochi, the main god. We also worship other gods I just can’t remember their names.

To Bed

• At 8:30 we all get into bed. We tuck our children to bed. Then we go to bed too. Goodnight everybody. See you tomorrow morning!