How We Came to the Fifth World: A Creation Story from Ancient Mexico

by Harriet Rohmer, Mary Anchondo

An Aztec myth recounting the creation and destruction of the world

Genres: Spanish Literature

31 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[dianne b.]

Gorgeously illustrated, this Aztec creation story, told bilingually, doesn't bode well for our current existence, here in the fifth world, as our survival depends on ridding all human hearts of evil. But as the homo sapiens morph from previous worlds, they do become nutrition for the worthy in the next, so there is hope for us as compost!

[Hugo Chavez]

This is a book about an ancient creation myth from Mexico. The book begins that with the first world and how men have become wicked, so the gods choose one god to destroy it. The gods also choose one couple to save whom are not wicked. Then the book continues to the next world and the worlds keep getting destroyed because of wicked men. The book then ends with the fifth world which is the one where we live on now. Will it be destroyed because of the wickedness of men? Who knows, but it’s a fantastic book that explains creating believes of ancient Mexican cultures.

[Janice]

The Aztec creation story told in English and Spanish. Interesting that the world was destroyed 4 times because evil people in it until our current one. First destruction was a flood. Beautiful art.

South America

[Rocio Ramirez]

Genre: Traditional Literature – Fable/Myth/Folktale/Legend
Awards: N/A
Audience: Kindergarten to 3rd grade
a. The main characters are Gods and humans. The Gods are powerful and control the humans. The humans are given things by the Gods but soon become greedy except for the two who aren't in each of the worlds.
b. I am not familiar with other version of these stories, but I am familiar with the gods mentioned in the story.
c. I would use this story for storytelling to a group of children because it exposes students to a new culture as well as a new story to how the world got to where it is today.
d. Q: Why would the gods decide to get rid of all the humans who weren’t good? A: The gods were not pleased to how the humans were being selfish and greedy and not paying much attention to them. The gods wouldn’t have wanted the world to be destroyed by the behavior of the humans.