The film La Otra Conquista entails the life of Topiltzin, the sole illegitimate son of Aztec emperor Moctezuma. During Herán Cortés conquest of the Aztec empire, Topiltzin faces the confrontation of Spanish conquistadors, whom slaughter and capture any Native Americans in an attempt to take control of Tenochtitlan. This act of violence driven by the urge to find sources of wealth, and especially in this film, focuses mainly on the conversion of Native Americans to Catholicism. Specifically, Friar Diego focuses his attention on Topiltzin’s conversion to Christianity. While the film appears mere fictional, the elements portrayed in La Otra Conquista correspond to events occurring in the conquest of the Aztec empire. Therefore, the film entails elements of religion and gender roles. After being caught performing a human sacrifice by Captain Cristóbal and Friar Diego, a violent confrontation takes place resulting in the death of Native Americans and the capture of Topiltzin. When confronted face to face with Herán Cortés and his mistress and translator Tecuichpo (revealed as Topiltzin’s half-sister), Cortes spares the life of Topiltzin on the terms that he converts to Christianity. Cortes then renames Topiltzin as Tomás and Tecuichpo as Doña Isabel. La Otra Conquista, directed by Salvador Carrasco (ADO Entertainment, 1998), DVD, 106 min. Five years later, under Friar Diego’s guidance, Tomás finds difficulty in his newfound Catholic faith, often conflicting with his
Matthew Restall, a Professor of Latin American History, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the Director of the university’s Latin Studies. Throughout “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest,” he discusses many false truths that have been passed down through history. For instance, he discusses, “The Myth of Exceptional Men.” “The Myth of Spanish Army,” and “The Myth of Completion.” For the sake of time, I will discuss three myths that correlate with class lectures and serve as the topic of this paper, “The Myth of Exceptional Men,” “The Myth of the King’s Army,” and the “Myth of the White Conquistador.” It should be noted that Restall speaks to his audience assuring us that his “...his purpose is not to degenerate this technique of historical writing completely...Nor do I mean to create a narrative in which individual action is utterly subordinated to the larger structural forces and causes of social change.” (4). He states that his intentions are to react to more than just the works of Columbus, Pizzaro, and Cortez.
The legacy and impact of the Spanish conquest is continually discussed and analyzed. The struggle in finding native identities while also acknowledging Spanish heritage is a continuing process in Latin America. Modern film and art, such as Salvador Carrasco’s La Otra Conquista and Diego Rivera’s mural the arrival of Cortés speak about the conquest and its effects on Mexico identity. The film challenges myths about the conquest by arguing against the greatness of Cortés, showing power in native agency, and Spanish dependency on interpreters. The mural upholds myths of the conquest like the black legend, minimizes
La Otra Conquista was set in 1520 in colonial Latin America. The story focuses on Topiltzin, a young Aztec scribe and son of Moctezuma and his struggle with religion during the conquest. A Spanish Friar named Diego makes it his mission to convert Topiltzin into civilised Christianity. Hernan Cortes who is the voice of power in Tenochtitlan grants Friar Diego his wish to take Topiltzin, who is now called Tomas by the Spanish, to the mission. Topiltzin must learn how to navigate this new world while still holding to his own culture. Struggling against both spiritual and personal difficulties, Topiltzin tries to show Friar Diego how similar Christian beliefs are to the Aztec beliefs. Overall, the film stays fairly true to history with some exceptions that director used to move the storyline forward. Religion played a key role in the film as it did in the conquest itself. The Spanish conquistadors and friars were there for converting the Aztec to Christianity through whatever means necessary. Whereas the Native Americans were trying to hold onto their beliefs and culture throughout the horrific takeover. In order to communicate their wishes, the Spanish needed someone who could translate so they taught Native Americans to speak Spanish who could then communicate into the tribal language. The most famous of these was La Malinche, who is referenced in the film although at this time is her replacement, Dona Isabel or Tecuichpo. The film is fairly accurate to how this would have looked historically. The conquistadors are appropriately harsh, cruel and violent. At any moment trying to exert their power over the Native Americans and quick to subdue. In summary, La Otra Conquista was a fairly historically accurate film that portrayed the tension and violence of the time.
Every artist's dream is to create something that leaves a lasting impression. The Last Conquistador follows the story of a sculptor who does exactly that. John Houser spent nearly a decade painstakingly crafted a 34-foot tall equestrian statue featuring the infamous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate y Salazar. Following in the footsteps of his father who assisted in the carving of Mount Rushmore, Houser's fantasy of leaving his mark in one of the largest bronze equestrian statues in the world finally became a reality (Valadez). However, what an artist attempts to express and what message is truly received may not be one and the same. While the Hispanic elite of El Paso praised (and funded) the magnificent piece, the Acoma were horrified by the towering symbol of oppression and genocide looming overhead. This film not only provides a window into the conflict and controversy surrounding Houser's work, but also showcases several aspects of Texas political culture and highlights the dismissive attitude toward Native American culture that is still prevalent today.
The reading “An Aztec account of the Spanish Conquest” is mainly about a story when Hernan Cortes came for the first time at Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City). The Aztecs believes that when Hernan Cortes arrive they believe the he was Quetzalcoatl, the main god in the Aztec culture. Cortes were friendly invite to the Aztec city as the most important guest, the Aztec people made a big party to celebrate the return of their god, but the Aztec people did not know Cortes intentions of conquer the empire. Later the Aztecs were betrayed by Hernan Cortes. Cortes’s army began to attack the city and at the end they take over the city.
Ramon Gutierrez’s When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away is an exploration of the merging of Spanish, Franciscan and Pueblo Indian cultures throughout Spain's “frontier” in its colonial American empire before Anglo contact. Gutierrez builds a foundation for his analysis by discussing Pueblo Indian life prior to outside contact, Franciscan theology, and the class structure of Spanish communities in each of its respective book sections. He examines meanings of the cultural interactions of gift exchange, ownership, trade, sexual rights, labor, kinship, social status, religious beliefs, and honor among many others using marriage as a window. His interpretation of the complex cultural meanings of marriage illustrates the ways in which the
The book focuses on how the Spanish slowly exploited the Aztec resources to the point where they started killing people for no reason but to exterminate them. One of the turning events during the Spanish conquest is the massacre in the main temple during the fiesta Toxcatl. The Aztecs begged their king to hold festivities in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli. After they got permission, they very carefully prepared for festivities and sworn to do their best dancing at the festivities to show the Spanish the beauty of their rituals. The Spanish showed that they are interested to learn more about the festivities, but they were planning to murder all the celebrants. When the celebrations began, the
In the film created by Salvador Carrasco, he tells us the story of the oppressed Aztecs by the Spanish conquistadors. The film leads to a social and religious understanding by two of the main characters Topiltzin (a native Aztec) and Fray Diego, (a friar in Catholicism). Together, both characters form a bond and that lets for the two different cultures to get together for the viewers to understand that these cultures are more in tune than what they seem. Carrasco, divides his movie into two parts, setting the tone for the mirroring of scenes, duality, and parallelism that takes place during the course of the movie. The director intends for his viewers to draw important connections from these elements that bring them to a greater understanding of social culture, religion, and faith. In one of the final scenes leading up the end of the movie, Fray Diego confronts Topiltzin at the church. At this point that the viewer sees a behavior change in Fray Diego's eyes. Fray Diego knows Topiltzin's feelings toward religion, indicating the large strides that he has made over the years in
Miguel Leon-Portilla author of Broken Spears- The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, tells the story of the Spanish conquest over the Aztecs from the Aztec point of view. It is more familiar in history that the Spanish led by Hernan Cortez defeated the Aztecs with a powerful army and established an easy victory all while having intentions to gain power and greed. However, Leon-Portilla focuses on the Aztec Empire and their story. Leon-Portilla does a great job giving readers the real occurrences and events from Aztec members. This paper argues that history must be told from all sides. It is more common to hear about the Spanish conquest
The Conquest of Mexico and the conversion of the peoples of New Spain can and should be included among the histories of the world, not only because it was well done but because it was very great. . . . Long live, then, the name and memory of him [Cortés] who conquered so vast a land, converted such a multitude of men, cast down so many men, cast down so many men, cast down so many idols, and put an end to so much sacrifice and the eating of human flesh! —Francisco López de Gómara (1552)
What is ironic is that although the Spanish felt that Mexico’s population had to be converted because they were uncivilized and inferior, "mestizaje, the product of racial interbreeding with Indian, black, and mixed-blood women," took place. As a result, Mexicans share a rich mestizo cultural heritage of Spanish, Indian, and African origins. By raping the uncivilized Other, the Spaniards were in turn making themselves uncivilized. Those women represented nothing more but the medium through which the Spanish could vent their sexual desires. This was a major problem that Mexican women had to encounter.
money. Cortez along with the Spaniards ultimately destroys the Aztecs in their quest for fortune
Representation” by Michael Schreffler argues that “ . . . early modern rhetoric and iconography . . . constructed a distorted view of painting in Aztec Mexico and entangled it in the conventions of colonial historiography” (407). This essay is effective because of its thorough examination of the accounts that explain a painting made by the Aztec’s at San Juan de Ulúa on Easter Sunday of 1519.
Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Never Marry a Mexican” deals heavily with the concept of myth in literature, more specifically the myth La Malinche, which focuses on women, and how their lives are spun in the shadows on men (Fitts). Myths help power some of the beliefs of entire cultures or civilizations. She gives the reader the mind of a Mexican-American woman who seems traitorous to her friends, family and people she is close to. This causes destruction in her path in the form of love, power, heartbreak, hatred, and an intent to do harm to another, which are themes of myth in literature. The unreliable narrator of this story was created in this story with the purpose to show her confusion and what coming from two completely different
As a new and mysterious world awaits to be discovered, daring conquistadors leave their home country of Spain in a journey of exploration. Two men by the name of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca set sail to thwart the untrustworthy Cortez who, behind the backs of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca, sailed to the New World with half of Narvaez’s crew in search of treasures. However, the journey would prove to be treacherous as the conquistadors would have to encounter hostile Native Americans and strange terrain they have never seen before. Throughout the expedition, future encounters between the Native Americans and conquistadors were heavily influenced by the personalities of the individuals and past experiences the Native Americans faced.