The Secrets of Tenochtitlan Revealed

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect and City Planner

One Summer in Mexico ~ Part 75

Although what was then visible of the architecture of the Mexica (Aztecs) composed the first sites that I visited on the Barrett Fellowship, it was only on later trips to Mexico that much of the acropolis of Tenochtitlan had been revealed by archaeologists. Shortly before I arrived in Mexico to start the fellowship, archaeologists had just discovered that the Spanish had not completely destroyed the buildings in the acropolis of Tenochtitlan. Instead they directed their Aztec slaves to knock down the upper parts of temples then used the filled in lower parts as foundations for Spanish-style architecture. Most of the stone masonry for the Spanish buildings came from the partially-demolished Mexica buildings.

Each time that there is excavation for a tunnel or large building in Mexico City, more information is gained from the past. The chronology of mankind’s presence in the Valley of Mexico is much more precise than fifty years ago, but it continues to be revised. The Mexica were just one of the many peoples, who have come to live in this natural bowl, surrounded by tall volcanoes.

The 20-year non-disclosure agreement just expired, so now I can tell you this. In June 2001, on the 10^th anniversary of us faking an affair,  Covert Federal Agent Susan Karlson invited me to go on a honeymoon with her to Mexico City. I never did know what federal agency that she was then working for.  She was tailing some men from the Middle East, who were taking commercial pilot lessons in Georgia and Florida. There were several pilot schools in the Middle East, so the assumption was that one or more Middle Eastern countries planned to convert passenger jets into bombers and then conduct a surprise attack on Israel.  This was also the thirtieth anniversary of me flying to Mexico for the first time. (See “The French Courtesan Who Came In from the Cold – Parts 11 and 12” to understand why Susan and I had faked an affair . . . but ended up faking, faking an affair.)

We posed as giddy newly-weds, Richard and Susan Gardner . . . complete with fake passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards and wedding pictures. My home telephone answering machine was relayed to someone in Mexico City, so that I could answer important phone calls as if I was still in Jasper, GA, where I now lived. 

Susan’s agency was using my absence as a means of making a protected federal witness from Asheville, NC disappear.  She had worked under me for six months at Asheville City Hall in 1980 . . . had tried to persuade me to have an affair with her, several time while I was in Asheville.  So, no one in state law enforcement, after contacting their counterparts in Asheville, would think it odd that her car would be parked at my house. She intentionally allowed my neighbors to see her . . . “making herself at home” in my house. Of course, in a little under three months the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks would occur in New York City and Washington, DC.

Our hotel was near the Zocalo, so while Susan was doing whatever she was doing, I had free time to tour the vast area of Tenochtitlan now excavated.   However, I was not allowed to contact my friends in Mexico.  This gave me time to thoroughly study what was being revealed about Tenochtitlan.”

A secret visit to Mexico City

The 20-year non-disclosure agreement just expired, so now I can tell you the rest of the story. In June 2001, on the 10^th anniversary of us faking an affair,  Covert Federal Agent Susan Karlson invited me to go on a honeymoon with her to Mexico City. I never did know what federal agency that she was then working for.  She was tailing some men from the Middle East, who were taking commercial pilot lessons in Georgia and Florida. There were several pilot schools in the Middle East, so the assumption was that one or more Middle Eastern countries planned to convert passenger jets into bombers and then conduct a surprise attack on Israel.  This was also the thirtieth anniversary of me flying to Mexico for the first time.

We posed as giddy newly-weds, Richard and Susan Gardner . . . complete with fake passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards and wedding pictures. My home telephone answering machine was relayed to someone in Mexico City, so that I could answer important phone calls . . . as if I was still in Jasper, GA, where I now lived. 

Susan’s agency (whoever they were?) was using my absence as a means of making a protected federal witness from Asheville, NC disappear.  She had worked under me for six months at Asheville City Hall in 1980 . . . had tried to persuade me to have an affair with her, several time while I was in Asheville.  So, no one in state law enforcement would think it odd that her car would be parked at my house after calling their counterparts in North Carolina for a background check.

Our hotel was near the Zocalo, so while Susan was doing whatever she was doing, I had free time to tour the vast area of Tenochtitlan now excavated.   However, I was not allowed to contact my friends in Mexico.  This gave me time to thoroughly study what was being revealed about the Aztecs.

Archaeological excavations around the Great Temple

El Club Cristobal Colon

During Christmas Season of 1970 and early 1971, my 10 year old sister and I stayed in Alicia’s house in Colonial Nueva Santa Maria, Mexico City. Thanks to the cooperation of my sister, Alicia and I finally were able to have quality time . . . even if it meant her tip-toeing into my bedroom at 3 AM and waking me up by swishing her silken black hair across my face.

On the last Saturday night that Alicia and I were together, she suggested that we get all dressed up and go out to the Club Cristobal Colon in the Zona Rosa at the the hotel of the same name. A group of young men, called Los Angeles Negros were providing the dance music. The band went on to become one of the most beloved popular music groups in Latin America during the 1970s. Fortunately, I purchased a signed 45 rpm vinyl record of “Y Volvere” from them on the way out. It became Number One in all of Americas.

During the first year of the Great Recession, I stumbled upon a legal notice from Cancun, Quintana Roo that a woman with the same unusual full maiden name and age as Alicia was getting foreclosed on by a bank. So Alicia was single again and back in Mexico. Then in the months before I joined the ranks of the homeless, there were a series of prayers published in a Roman Catholic website by Alicia for her mother, who was dying of cancer in Mexico City.

Just before I was evicted on Christmas Eve, there was one last votive from Alicia in the Roman Catholic website. Her mother had died and Alicia begged forgiveness for spending most of her life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. When two years later, I again was under a roof and had internet connections, Alicia’s full name had disappeared from the internet. One legal document from Cancun suggested that she had moved to Miami . . . but who knows?

In 2014, Los Angeles Negros gave a concert to a packed audience in Mexico City. The song they sing . . . “Y Volvere” means “And I will return.” This song is dedicated to Alicia Rozanes Moreno . . . wherever you are. This song ends our series based on the little black book in which I wrote my daily experiences . . . One Summer in Mexico.