Tochtli Wear, a traditional apparel brand focused on celebrating Aztec culture, brings people together by promoting ancestral cultural wear, artifacts and dance.
Yei Tochtli Mitlalpilli, the co-founder of the brand and a San Jose State alumnus, first got the idea for the cultural apparel in 1993.
He said he was inspired to create the clothing brand after seeing Black SJSU students wearing white “X’s” and leather medallions with the symbol of Africa to represent the civil rights movement, after the release of the 1992 movie “Malcolm X.”
Mitlalpilli said he wanted his culture to be represented through his own clothing. As an artist, he decided to make his own leather medallion with a symbol of an Aztec shield, which received attention from his SJSU classmates in 1993.
“All of a sudden, somebody asked me where they could get [the leather medallion],” Mitlalpilli said. “A light bulb went off and I just started making necklaces and going to Mexico to find some cool stuff and bring back to make [more] necklaces.”
He was also a dancer for Dance Azteca at SJSU in 1993, a club that performed Aztec dances at school events. He said this motivated him to proudly practice his ancestral culture and create clothing for dancers.
He then created designs incorporating the Aztec flag onto a T-shirt in 2010.
The brand was only a hobby at the time but it took off decades later after he began applying his 20-year business experience.
Mitlalpilli began working full time on Tochtli Wear after getting laid off from his job in 2017. He named the brand after the word Tochtli, which is the year he was born in the Aztec calendar and translates to rabbit.
Mitlalpilli then began making other Aztec merchandise like dancewear, calendar designs, Aztec Mexica books and DVDs and macuahuitls, or traditional battle axes.
One of Tochtli Wear’s most popular items are feathered hair pendants made for dancers to wear when they perform. They are made by collecting fallen bird feathers from different places like local zoos.
Tochtli Wear collaborates with other brands and artists who also share pride in their Aztec culture.
Jesse Hernandez, also known by his artist name Urban Aztec, is a Bay Area visual artist and illustrator who combines graffiti and ancient indigenous culture in his art. He’s made artwork for Mexica New Year for the past two years.
Mexica New Year is an annual event in San Francisco that celebrates indigenous Latinx culture with food, music, traditional dance and art.
“I created the artwork for the last two Mexica New Years . . . that became the symbol featured for Mexica New Year, and as a collaboration on apparel with Tochtli [Wear],” Hernandez said.
Enereya Salazar, a Totchtli Wear customer and owner of Houston Aztec Massage, found out about Mitlalpilli’s brand through social media and was surprised to see the culture’s influence in San Jose.
“I think that they do a fabulous job in representing our ‘cultura,’ ” Salazar said. “Hopefully, I can one day visit California [to buy products in person].”
Mitlalpilli said that having strong traditions is like having all the necessary things to survive and it’s important in preserving Aztec culture.
He said he hopes to expand by opening a storefront, developing new designs and creating connections with different artists.
“We believe that our culture is a part of eating our traditional food, using traditional medicines and practicing our traditions,” he said.
