Classical Nahuatl, Aztec supremacy, and the far right

The language known as “Classical Nahuatl”, the variety of Nahuatl in the colonial period, has been an important symbol of Mexican nationalism since the early independence movement in the 19th century. Mexican postcolonial nation‑building adopted an ideology in which Aztec or Mexica culture and history are a national heritage of the entire Mexican nation. This means that all Mexicans, even those who have no concrete ties to any living Indigenous communities, may choose to define themselves as ‘heirs’ to the Aztec cultural legacy and see the Nahuatl language as their heritage language. In this role as a national symbol, it has also come to be adopted by Mexican far‑right nationalist groups, who use it as an element in a nativist ideology in combination with symbols of European fascist movements. No potential conflict of interest was reportedby the author(s). I analyse how this type of use of the language interacts with mainstream nationalism in Mexico and how it relates to Indigenous political movements, arguing that there is a race‑ and class-based division of the Mexican nationalist right, where working‑class Mexicans racialised as non-White tend to use Indigenous rather than European symbolism in their exclusionary nativism.