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Related: About this forumMexico marks 500 years since Aztec's capital's fall with public spectacles, political rancor and har
Mexico marks 500 years since Aztecs capitals fall with public spectacles, political rancor and hard words for Spain
Hernan Cortess destruction of Tenochtitlan in 1521 ended an empire and paved the way for the Mexico we know today. Now the president, his opponents and Indigenous people are struggling for control of the story
DAVID AGREN
MEXICO CITY
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED 9 MINUTES AGO
UPDATED AUGUST 12, 2021
Dancers perform at Mexico City's central Zócalo square this past July to mark the
of the founding of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire that Hernán Cortés
conquered for Spain in the 1520s.
LUIS CORTES/REUTERS
Legend has it Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes wept under a Moctezuma cypress tree after the Mexica drove him from their island capital in 1520. He cried for his lost men reputedly weighed down by gold and slain as they fled over a causeway and for the Indigenous people who had fought alongside him.
The debacle became known as the Night of Sorrows. It preceded his return the next year, when Cortes and his allies overthrew tMhe Aztec empire and conquered Tenochtitlan, which would become Mexico City.
To mark this years 500th anniversary of Tenochtitlans fall, the Mexico City government renamed the plaza containing the cypress stump Plaza of the Victorious Night an attempt to give voice to the original peoples of our territory, according to Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
If we say the night of sorrows, we think of Cortes and the conquest, Ms. Sheinbaum said at the ceremony. If we say victorious night, we honour those who died in the massacre at the Templo Mayor and the population of Tenochtitlan.
Critics panned the renaming as political same as they did for the national government celebrating the 700-year anniversary of the founding of Tenochtitlan, a date historians consider dubious. The episode has underscored the enduring controversy of the conquest, an event that produced many of the countrys foundational myths. Hispanophiles cling to notions of Cortes and the Spanish bringing civilization, religion and language to Mexico. Indigenous peoples see the conquest referred to as the so-called conquest as an unmitigated disaster.
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-mexico-marks-500-years-since-aztecs-capitals-fall-with-public/
Haggard Celine
(16,820 posts)worst part of the conquest. They brought the Inquisition to Mexico and executed many of native people. Also, they wiped out much of the native works of art and, especially, they destroyed nearly all of their recorded history. It's unforgivable.