The Mexica had come a long way, the speakers reminded their listeners, from the tragic last days of Shield Flower. They had been hunted wanderers—quite literally, at one point, after the war with Culhuacan—but under Huitzilihuitl, Chimalpopoca, Itzcoatl, and Moctezuma they had strategized and fought and jockeyed for position with such success that the surrounding people who once abused them now feared them, and hunger stalked them only intermittently. Sometimes, it was true, it felt as though they were still just barely hanging on, that there was still a threat at every turn.
