Analysis Of The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account Of The Conquest Of Mexico

The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, by Miguel León-Portilla is a singular account of the conquest of the Aztecs in the early 16th century, from the Indigenous perspective. As J. Jorge Klor De Alva writes in the “Forward”: “victors ordinarily write history” (p.xi), and the Spanish point of view, based on the conquistadors’ account of their encounter with the natives of South America is generally the common understanding of the conquest. León-Portilla recounts the conquest in a chronological order, which allows greater clarity for the non-specialist reader. The Broken Spears is split into sixteen chapters, each preceded by an “Introduction”, which summarize the chapter’s contents, the sources used, and any discrepancies

Perspective can only be gained in hindsight. The accounts draw both on a retelling of events and on emotionality—which cannot be objective. The Aztecs were victims, and their perspective in skewed in this mindset. When the Spanish burned down the Aztecs’ temple, the people “wept and cried out” (p.109), but when they needed to defend their city their “spirits and courage were high; not one of them showed fear” (p.111). Both are possible; yet, they also glorify, romanticize and victimize the Nahua peoples. When Tenochtitlan was destroyed, the warriors “stared at the ruins of their city in dazed silence, and the women and children and old men were all weeping” (p.122), nevertheless they persisted and survived these events. The Broken Spears show the conquest’s emotional, human impact on the natives, despite the subjectivity this might entail. Nevertheless, the events ring true, and have been academically vetted—leading to suggest that this account is historically accurate,

There was not a simple clear and distinct dichotomy between the “good” and the “bad”. As established previously, the Aztecs did not all live in perfect harmony, leading to tensions, and side-taking when Europeans arrived. A number of Indigenous peoples had a part to play in the downfall of the Aztec empire. Furthermore, the importance of gold in these relations was of great significance, and “Cortes bullied… tortured the Aztec lords… to obtain gold” (p.116). León-Portilla chooses to end on the topic of the tributes of “gold that had been lost in the Canal of the Toltecs” which the Captain expects to be returned to him. This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51). In “Chapter Fifteen”, León-Portilla includes post-conquest poems, written by the Aztecs, which are