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Secondary sourcePhotograph1928

Statue of Hernán Cortés

Fernando Garrorena Arcas · 1928

A 1928 photograph of a bronze statue honoring Cortés, showing how he was commemorated centuries after his conquests.

Shows a later statue built to commemorate Cortés, reflecting how he was remembered in twentieth-century Spain.

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Black-and-white photograph of a bronze statue of an armored standing figure with a helmet and a flag, on a tall stone pedestal inside an iron fence. A walled castle sits on a hill behind, with white houses and trees around a dirt square.
Fernando Garrorena, photograph of a statue of Hernán Cortés, 1928. Archivo de la Diputación Provincial de Badajoz, Spain.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white photograph taken in 1928 by Fernando Garrorena of a bronze statue of an armored figure wearing a helmet and holding a flag. The statue stands on a tall stone pedestal behind an iron fence, with a hilltop castle and village visible in the background. The photograph is held by the Archivo de la Diputación Provincial de Badajoz in Spain.

Why it matters

The statue was made long after Hernán Cortés died, showing how later generations in Spain chose to remember and honor him as a military conqueror. Monuments like this tell us as much about the values of the people who built them in the twentieth century as they do about Cortés himself.

Look closer

  • Why might a town choose to build a statue of Cortés in the 1920s?
  • What details of the armor and flag suggest how the sculptor wanted viewers to see Cortés?
  • What story does a statue like this leave out about the people Cortés conquered?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hernán Cortés on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of a 1524 printed book in black-letter type, framed by woodcut decorative borders, with a red handwritten signature and a note reading 'Cum Gratia, & Priuilegio' near the bottom. The title text describes Cortés's narrative to Emperor Charles V.Letter

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Letters from Hernán Cortés to Charles V

Hernán Cortés · 1520 (printed 1524)

Woodcut-style map from 1524 showing the Gulf of Mexico coastline on the left and the island city of Tenochtitlan on the right, with canals, causeways, temple precinct, and a Latin inscription at top, colored by hand.Document

Primary source

1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan

Unknown engraver, published by Friedrich Peypus · 1524

Lithograph portrait of Hernán Cortés, a bearded man with shoulder-length hair wearing ornate armor, shown from the chest up in three-quarter view, with the caption HERNAN CORTÉS below on a cream paper sheet.Painting

Secondary source

Engraving of Hernán Cortés

José Cebrián García · 1870

Open bound manuscript on a green cloth, showing two pages of handwritten text in columns with small painted illustrations of fish, a shell, a crab, and shrimp. Page headed 'Libro undecimo'.Book

Secondary source

Florentine Codex

Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua collaborators · 1569

Engraved portrait print of Hernán Cortés, a man in a broad brimmed hat and fur-trimmed cloak over armor, with a caption cartouche below reading Hernan Cortes, Marques del Valle, Capitan Gral. de N. España. Handwritten numbers appear at the top corner.Painting

Secondary source

Engraving of Hernán Cortés after Juan Antonio Salvador Carmona

Antonio Carnicero Mancio, after Juan Antonio Salvador Carmona · 1805

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