The mācēhualtin were the commoner

Commoner

In British law, a commoner is someone who is neither the Sovereign nor a peer. Therefore, any member of the Royal Family who is not a peer, such as Prince Harry of Wales or Anne, Princess Royal, is a commoner, as is any member of a peer's family, including someone who holds only a courtesy title,...

 social class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 in the Mexica Empire.

During the reign of Moctezuma II

Moctezuma II

Moctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...

 (1502–1520), they were banned from serving in the royal palaces, as this monarch widened the divide between pipiltin

Pipiltin

The Pipiltin were the noble social class in the Mexica Empire.These people were members of the hereditary nobility and occupied the top positions in the government, the army and the priesthood...

 (nobles) and macehualtin.

As Aztec society

Aztec society

Pre-Columbian Aztec society was a highly complex and stratified society that developed among the Aztecs of central Mexico in the centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and which was built on the cultural foundations of the larger region of Mesoamerica...

was in part centered around warfare —every Aztec male received basic military training from an early age—, the only possibility of upwards social mobility for mācēhualtin was through military achievement —especially the taking of captives (māltin [ˈmaːɬtin], singular malli).