natives

We Americans tend to pride ourselves on being from an extremely diverse country.  We see and feel the diversity in our foods, our accents, our cities and even our music.  Unbeknownst to most, México is NOT lacking in diversity, although it is not necessarily as visible as it is in the States.  Walking along the street near the Zócalo, I found myself following these three girls.  They caught my eye because of their similar garb.  Uniforms??  Kind of.  You see, the forgotten faces of México are those which have been here the longest:  the indigenous descendants of the people which populated this land long before the arrivals of Columbus and Cortés.  México turns its back on these founders, and it's not quite clear why.  However, as I walked and heard the girls conversing in their native tongue (náhuatl, perhaps??), it was hard to imagine that they represent a people that was almost completely annihilated.  They are a link to the past which we Americans cannot boast-- how many Puritans or Native Americans have YOU seen lately??  But here are these young women, dressed in the fashion that their tribe dictates.  And here they are, in this big city, probably commiserating over their tough work days.  So, what makes them so different from other Mexicans??