EL PAÍS quotes the Mexican historian Enrique Ortiz in the Templo Mayor, once the center of the Mexica empire and the great city of Tenochtitlan. Ortiz, also known online as Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc, has just published his latest book The Conquest for people in a hurry (Ed. Planeta), a compendium of historical passages, characters and important moments in history that allow us to understand what the clash of two great civilizations was like, the collapse of one of them and the origin of something new that three centuries later gave rise to the country that is Mexico. The purpose of the interview is to discuss with Ortiz some of the most important historical passages of the Conquest, however, it is impossible not to touch on the diplomatic conflict between Spain and Mexico and President López Obrador’s demand for forgiveness from the Spanish crown. for the atrocities committed 500 years ago. A topic that comes in handy to start the conversation. “It is one thing to make history and another to use history to make politics,” Ortiz responds. “History is not Manichaean; It is not something about good and bad. The more you study a historical period, the less room you have to make value judgments about the protagonists and the actions they carried out,” adds the author.
The tour begins on the site where the ceremonial site of Tenochtitlan was, a place of majestic temples and palaces, and will end six kilometers northwest in The sad night treenow renamed as The tree of the victorious nighta centenary ahuehuete, where legend has it that Cortés mourned his bitter defeat, on June 30, 1520. The historian explains that if he could travel in time, he would do so to that night. “That must have been a beast. 800 Spaniards died out of around 1,200 and at least 2,000 indigenous Tlaxcalan allies. It was the worst defeat that the army of the conquistadors suffered throughout the entire conquest of America,” he says.
In the conversation the names of Cortés, Moctezuma, Malinche, Cuauhtémoc or Cuitláhuac will arise. About them, the popularizer has built an entertaining narrative to explain one of the most important moments in the history of both countries. “The Conquest was the origin of miscegenation and the origin of the identity of the Mexicans, but it was also the moment in which the sun set for the indigenous people and darkness arrived for the large indigenous groups,” he responds. “The subjugation of these peoples did not end in 1521, but continued until the 20th century and afterwards, in independent Mexico, they continue to be mistreated,” he comments.
At a time when polarization is rampant, Ortiz calls for restraint, but also for empathy and self-criticism. “In the 21st century it is important that nations, wherever we are from, generate empathy with others and not delve into polarization, aware that we have a common history. We have to understand the other, we have to understand that atrocious things happened and the Mexican himself must also generate empathy with the indigenous groups because racism prevails in our country,” he criticizes.
The historian does not answer directly whether the king of Spain should ask for forgiveness, although he does consider that a reflection on history itself is necessary. “It is an open wound that dates back to 1521 and has remained open for more than 500 years. Many of our governments have preferred to hide it, forget it instead of resolving it and giving it the relevant attention it deserves,” he responds and considers that none of the countries has known how to correctly handle the diplomatic crisis. “I think the way the apology was requested was not correct. There were diplomatic errors, it ended up being leaked to the press and an agreement was prevented, despite the fact that there is no country closer to Mexico than Spain.”
The historian explains that countries use history as they wish to narrate themselves and to create a national identity. From its beginnings, López Obrador’s government placed a strong emphasis on reclaiming the country’s indigenous heritage and the civilizations that existed before the arrival of the Spanish, a recurring practice during the 19th century and after the Revolution. “They greatly praised the native cultures, reviling the issue of Hispanic heritage, but the reality is that the vast majority of us come from a mixture of cultures, although that generates discomfort in many Mexicans.”
Ortiz walks where Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma walked 500 years ago. From the Templo Mayor you reach Tacuba Street in a straight line, the oldest street in Latin America, known as the Mexico – Tacuba road. The Mexica built it to connect the ceremonial site with the outskirts of Tenochtitlan. “It must have been the most beautiful city in the world, without a doubt: it was built on a lake, surrounded by volcanoes, with hundreds of floating gardens and temples more than 45 meters high,” highlights Ortiz. Walking through the center of Mexico City is walking through centuries of history, layer upon layer, indivisible, parts of a whole.
On República de Guatemala Street, curiously close to the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico, rest the remains of the Tzompantlian altar where hundreds of skulls were placed in public view in order to honor the gods, there is also Calmecac, the school where the children of Mexica nobles studied. A little further on, on the corner of Isabel la Católica street, was the Cortés palace, a construction that occupied about four blocks. Now, in the upper left corner of the most recent building, a Virgin of the Remedies, remembers the passage of the conquistadors and a little further on, in the famous Café Tacuba, there is a representation of the defeat of the Spanish falling into the waters of the Lake Tenochtitlan during The Sad Night.
Almost in the plaza of the National Museum of Art, the Garden of the Triple Alliance serves as a tribute to the lordships of Tlacopan, Texcoco and Tenochtitlan that united to impose their hegemony in the Valley of Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish. Next to the Sad Night Tree, a new sign reads in Nahuatl: Quautli in Yohualli Paquiliztli, nican ochoca (Happy night tree, here it cried). “The important thing about this is to reconcile ourselves with our own history because we cannot be fighting with our past when we have a promising future. History is there to learn from it, not to fight with ghosts from 500 years ago. We have to objectively accept what happened,” says Ortiz.
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