| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY, a History
of The Mexican people (Chapter 1) |
by Prof. German Estrada
February, 2005 |
CHAPTER 1 THE FOREFATHERS (part 26th) continues ....
2
THE CONQUEST OF TENOCHTITLÁN
While peace negotiations were still underway with the Tlaxcalans, more of Moctezuma's envoys arrived in the Spanish camp. They bore more gifts: "three thousand ounces of gold" in multiple forms. Moctezuma, they declared, congratulated Cortés on his victory but regretted he could not receive him in Tenochtitlan . Cortés rejected that advice. After a stay in the capital of Tlaxcala, a city Cortés compared to Granada , the Spaniards moved on, but not before erecting a cross and converting to Christianity a bevy of daughters of the native caciques. When he was offered them as gifts, Cortés had replied that he could not accept them unless they became Christians.
The route chosen by Cortés took the Spaniards to Tenochtitlan through Cholula . Just prior to departing from Tlaxcala, Aztec envoys had again arrived in the Spanish camp, saying that their emperor had changed his mind. He would, after all, receive Cortés in Tenochtitlan and invited him to travel by way of the city of Cholula . Its people, the emperor promised, had been told to offer the Spaniards hospitality. The Tlaxcalans, old enemies of Cholula , urged Cortés n to pay heed. Cholula , they said, was a nest of hypocrites, willing tools of Moctezuma. Believing the Spaniards could show neither fear nor weakness, Cortés ignored the warning.
The city of Cholula , with a population of about sixteen thousand, lay some twenty leagues southeast of Tenochtitlan . From Cholula , Cortés could see the mighty Popocatepéctl and Iztaccihuatl, guardians of the entrance to Tenochtitlan . Far richer and more cultured than the Tlaxcalans, the inhabitants of Cholula were under the sway of the Aztecs. In this sacred city, surrounded by fields planted to corn, chilies, and cactus, a conspiracy, according to the Spaniards, broke out. Moctezuma, so goes the history, had ordered his vassals to kill the unsuspecting Spaniards. Without their Tlaxcalans allies, whom Cortés had left outside the city, the Spaniards would be easy prey. To their good fortune, the Spaniards discovered the plot. Doña Marina, it seems, had befriended the wife of one of the local caciques, who, in gratitude, revealed the intrigue, putting the blame on Moctezuma.
To forestall the treachery, Cortés summoned the caciques of Cholula to appear before him, rebuked them for their perfidy, and asked them to provide two thousand men to carry the guns and supplies of the Spaniards, assuring them that he would depart the next morning. When they arrived with more porters than requested, Cortés, who awaited them in the great court of the city where he had posted his men, ordered the slaughter of the defenseless natives. Every musket and crossbow claimed victims, and those who escaped were killed by sword-wielding Spaniards. The Tlaxcalans, meanwhile, attacked Cholula from the rear, taking a frightful toll of human life. When the butchery was over, more than three thousand natives had perished and Cholula was no more.
The Spanish interpretation, however, fails to convince. The native version, for one, cast doubt on the tale of the conspiracy. Caught in Cholula among people known to be vassals of the Aztecs, Cortés either lost his nerve or, using the supposed conspiracy as a pretext, decided to frighten Moctezuma and his allies. According to another native view, the culprits were the Tlaxcalan soldiers of the Spaniards. Old foes of Cholula , they got their revenge when the Spaniards gave them free rein. Whatever the truth, the Spaniards and their allies butchered defenseless people, including women and children. With the "massacre at Cholula ," the natives baptized the Spaniards popolucas, barbarians.
Source: From the book Triumphs
and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his
author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization.
(W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London). We'll continue with this fascinating
book.
estradanav@yahoo.com
Prof. Germán
Estrada is the author of the best selling book,
"México
Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know
About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto
Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books,
Books as well as directly from the author by internet.
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