Miguel Leon-PortillaThe Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Very interesting stuff here. The way the Spanish kind of just fell into Aztec religion/mythology and ran with it was quite a layup for them. Combine that with some petty neighboring cities and you have a strong start to your brutal conquest.

Leon-Portilla's work is a must-read for all those interested in the Conquest of Mexico and those interested in Mexica culture. Certainly the accounts aren't perfect but, then again, they really can't be perfect. The writers tell of events many years in the past and the writers are telling their stories from totally different cultural points of view. The accounts of Mexicans ruined by the destruction of their city and empire will be--and are--entirely different from Tlaxcaltecan accounts. The Tlaxcalteca cooperated with Cortes, supplying him with thousands of fighting men. From their limited point of view, they used Cortes to destroy hated enemies. From our current point of view--and certainly from Cortes' point of view--Cortes used the Tlaxcalteca, and other Mexica-dominated peoples, to destroy Tenochtitlan and loot all of Mexico.Still the various accounts are in basic agreement as to events. Even more interesting, the native accounts are quite similar [not identical] to Bernal Diaz' personal account. We have no problem discerning the lying duplicity of Cortes; the religious confusion of the natives; the craven nature of Moctecuzoma; the almost incredible Spanish greed for gold; and the ultimate futile courage of the Mexica, once they recognized that their own priest-king, Moctecuzoma, had betrayed them. Too late. Then again it was probably always 'too late'. Even had Moctecuzoma recognized the danger of Spaniards early-on and destroyed them before they reached Mexico, it was too late. Had the Mexica forgone their traditional religious sacrifices following their overwhelming victory on the causeway during 'La Noche Triste', and killed every last Spaniard, it was tooooooo late.Assuming that the Aztecs finally grasped grim reality--annihilated Cortes' force, and co-opted and maybe copied their weapons--it was still much too late. The Spaniards would have soon arrived with even larger and more lethal armies. The Aztec nations were doomed. They were doomed years earlier when Christopher Columbus placed his boot on that first Carribbean island.The only unfortunate part of this book is the foreword by J. Jorge Klor de Alva. He seems to view 'La Conquista' as does any doctrinaire modern-day Leftist i.e. the conquest was an act of imperial colonialism now being corrected by Marxist revolutions in the various suffering countries. Castro, Guevara, Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Rivera, Calle, La Raza Cosmica [Unida] and Barack Obama etc. etc. bear the torches of cultural 'freedom' and nativism. Nonsense. Marxism-Leninism is far more alien to native cultures than was the Roman Catholicism of the Conquistadores. As much as the various peoples may have disliked it, they understood military conquest and religious replacement. Not only is Marxism-Leninism more imperialistic than were the Sixteenth-Century europeans, but it is also officially atheistic. The native peoples--no matter where they lived--were, and still are, emphatically religious. Catholicism, although initially mandated, came to fill the souls of the native peoples. Marxian-Atheism--an even more dictatorial system--fills the native soul with.......nothing.

Nice to have a book that covers the Aztec point of view of the conquistadors. The conquistadors interested in nothing but gold and riches and to hell with the Aztecs. Very interesting and easy to understand.

Received this book today. The corners are a bit bent, there is a bit of sticker residue on top right corner of front cover, and overall in good shape. No markings on pages when checked over. I will keep it since it was way under general price. I contacted seller to mention the same. I received it quick about 4days sooner than expected. Thank you and look forward to reading this highly recommended book about my people.

The "Conquistadores" didn't have the capacity to reflect on the events from 1498-1503 in an unbiased manner, even if it was brutal and traumatizing. The Aztecs had the same but equally opposed problem.By having BOTH sides of the historical encounter, I feel better informed.Broken Spears is an account of a loving, deeply religious society, invaded and slaughtered by Gods On Large Deer.The book is easy to read, has all the deities masterfully explained, and so on.I'm staying Catholic.

Great book, amazing! This book is a must for anyone studying history, anthropology, mesoamerica, or even those who just want to depend their understanding of the American conquest.I think the main point of this book is to give us a unique perspective of the conquest through the voices of the Maya and Aztec people. This is a side of history we rarely hear about. It explains the entire conquests with excerpts of written accounts by the native people. It’s fascinating to learn how the Spanish acted and how the natives saw them.Like I said this is a must read, it even has a couple illustrations and there’s some poetry at the end.

I have read the history described by Bernal Diaz del Castillo that is biased in favor of the conquerors, read this one who pictures the Aztecs as a peace loving empire. However, the Conquest of Mexico by Ivan Velez is more objective. The Spaniards were not an army of poets and philosophers, they were men who bought the chance to be part of an expedition to obtain wealth. They didn’t arrive to exterminate natives, but their ambition created discontent among natives who protected their land even against those who arrived to Yucatán before Cortes. The Aztecs were a bloody theocracy who abused neighbors. Every conquest has been violent and this wasn’t different. Cortes sent back prisoners with a peace message and the Aztecs always sacrificed Spanish captured. The main obstacle for a better relationship was the human sacrifices and the Aztecs treatment of weaker mexicas. Moctezuma tried to keep his empire, but European weapons and internal division didn’t help him despite his strategy to defeat the foreigners.

a bit outdated on information due to its time but regardless of how old the information is, the info that is provided in this book is detrimental to all Amerindians/Native Americans who wish to learn more about what exactly has been taken from our peoples of the Anahuak/Americas. Just puts everything into perspective as to why westerners view us as poor.