| TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY, a History
of The Mexican people (Chapter 1) |
| by Prof. German Estrada - April, 2005 |
CHAPTER 1 THE FOREFATHERS (part 31st) continues ....
2
THE CONQUEST OF TENOCHTITLÁN
Texcoco was the first of the cities to succumb, betrayed by its nobles and abandoned by its inhabitants. Then the Spaniards captured and sacked Ixtapalapa, beating its defenders, who fought with courage. Chalco fell next, but only after a bloody battle. As the Aztecs retreated, more and more of the subjects went over to the Spaniards. Cortés then occupied Tacuba, one more key city, after a furious resistance by its guardians. By this process, the Spaniards isolated Tenochtitlan , with Alvarado, Gonzalo de Sandoval, and Cristobal de Olid, the Spanish captains, advancing from Tacuba, Tepeyac, and Coyoacán.
The Aztecs endure the siege of their city for three months. Once the Spaniards had made the lakes their own, the Aztecs had to eat worms, insects, and bark of trees. Until the final hour, they fought valiantly, once capturing sixty-two Spaniards, whom they sacrificed on the alters t Huitzilopochtli in full view of Cortés and his men. Nonetheless, Aztec valor proved inferior to Spanish arms and military tactics. Yet the Aztecs never surrendered; to occupy their city, Cortés had to ravage it. No temple, palace, or idol survived the Spanish assault, their remains becoming, one Mexican author notes, the stones for the foundations of Spanish buildings.
When the Aztecs could no longer defend Tenochtitlan , Cortés sent in a detachment of his men. "We found the houses filled with dead," wrote Bernal Díaz; "the discharge from their bodies was the kind of filth evacuated by pigs that have nothing to eat but grass." The entire city "had been dug up for roots," which its inhabitants "had cooked and eaten..We found no fresh water, only salt.." Defeat, say the Aztec accounts, produced a profound trauma. The end was dramatic and tragic.
Sob, my friends,
For with this defeat
We have lost the Mexican nation.
The Aztecs, who called themselves the "children of the sun," had been beaten. With their gods destroyed, their rule shattered, and their glory lost, writes a Mexican historian, the memory of defeat embedded itself in the soul of the vanquished.
When the resistance ended, a canoe left Tenochtitlan , which fell prey to the Spanish brigantine. On board was Cuauhtémoc, the last of the Aztec emperors. A "young man of about twenty-five, and very much a gentleman...he was married to a daughter of Moctezuma." A brave leader, "he had made himself so feared that all his people tremble before him." Cuauhtémoc did not long survived his capture. According to records of the Chontales, of Tabasco , his death occurred in the region of Acalan, on the Gulf of Mexico . On his trip to Honduras , Cortés took Cuauhtémoc with him. During the march, the Spaniards claimed, Cuauhtémoc attempted to foment and Indian uprising against Cortés, who, alerted, killed him. However, the Chontal version differs. The Spaniards put Cuauhtémoc in chains and, "on the third day, after having baptized him, cut off his head, and stuck it on a tree standing in front of the temple of the god of the people of Yaxzam."
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).
In the next issue we'll continue with Chapter III of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN 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.
Archives
by date |
Current
Weather Report
