Summary Of The Aztec Market Place At Tlatelolco

1128 Words5 Pages

The Aztec Marketplace at Tlatelolco is a section from the book The Conquest of New Spain, written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. The book was originally written in 1576 and published in 1632. Bernal Diaz del Castillo was a Spanish soldier born in the mid-1490s in Medina del Campo, Spain (Davidson). Castillo served in the expedition of Hernán Cortés, where the conquistadores conquered Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Empire, in 1521 (Brown 2000). After the conquest, Castillo was awarded with an encomienda, which was a grant of land and/or labor, for his services as a soldier (Davidson). Nearly fifty years later Bernal Diaz del Castillo began writing his remembrances of that time as The Conquest of New Spain as he lived in Guatemala retired (Brown 2000). The book had the original title of Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España and was written to establish the correct facts of what happened in …show more content…

Being able to see all of this in person really showed Castillo how intelligent the Aztecs were, as they were able to organize such a big marketplace in a way that made it easy for everyone to find exactly what they needed. Furthermore, Castillo’s accurate and detailed description of the marketplace allowed people to really picture the beauty and complex within the Aztec society and marketplace. Others were able to imagine how the marketplace was laid out and were able to realize the technique the Aztecs had as they were able to put together such a big, successful market. In his book, Castillo also mentions how he thought the layout of the market was a good idea because “in this way you could see every kind of merchandise to be found anywhere in [Mexico]” (Castillo