Like other Prehispanic cultures, the Aztecs used symbolic ideograms rather than an alphabet in writing, and their language, Nahuatl, was primarily an oral rather than a written one. But despite this, it was an expressive language suited to poetry, and the Aztecs were perhaps surprisingly poetic and eloquent considering their fierce and blood-stained reputation! Poetry and collective chanting was performed both as sacred hymns and for reciting in pastime.

For centuries prior to the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs had used pictographic or "painted books" to guide or aid the poet or singer, and students at the Calmecac, or school for the elite classes, were taught to follow, memorize, then enlarge upon the contents of these books. Sadly after the conquest poetry little by little died out, though some fragments were preserved by Aztecs working under the direction of a missionary during the latter part of the 16th century.