True History of the Profound Mexico, chapter 16

What it is

This is chapter 16 of a modern book called True History of the Profound Mexico, published in 2010. The chapter is titled 'The Conquest' and is available as a Wikisource translation. It opens by describing the conquest of the Americas as written by the victors and their descendants, and it looks back at the Spanish kingdoms before the voyage to America. The passage in the archive notes that Spanish history still presents Cortés as a great hero, and it describes his rivalry with Diego Velázquez.

Why it matters

This is a secondary commentary, written centuries after the events it describes. It shows how some modern Mexican writers question the older view of Cortés as a hero. The author argues that people need to know their own story so that the cycle of victors and defeated does not repeat. Because it is a translation, the English wording is a modern rendering, not the author's own words.

Look closer

• What view of Cortés does the author set against the traditional Spanish one?
• Which voices does the chapter quote, and whose perspective might it leave out?
• Why might the author begin with the history of the victors rather than with Cortés himself?