Miguel Leon-Portilla's "Broken Spears"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Leon-Portilla's book "The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico" is an excellent illustration of how the naivete of one culture and the rapacity of another usually collide to produce wide-spread tragedy. The author points out that the writer's objectives were to give a voice to the forgotten victims of the conquest of Mexico, which history had denied them, and to present the surviving Aztec accounts of this conquest as being great works of literature, which rival anything found in the western tradition. The paper relates that the significance of Cholula was to undermine the civilizational confidence of all Aztecs who heard about it, to constitute massive loss of native life, to re-affirm the efficacy and might of the Spaniards and to reinforce among the Aztecs the desirability of aligning themselves with the Spaniards rather than joining with their Mexican brethren in opposition to the new arrivals.

From the Paper:

"The massacre at Cholula had many negative effects upon the Aztec peoples - leaving aside the obvious loss of life. Most notably, the massacre revealed the penchant of the Aztec peoples of Mexico to conspire against one another by feeding Cortes and his minions half-truths or outright fabrications about a bitter rival; this sort of rumor-mongering on the part of the people of Tlaxcaltecas, suffice it to say, stirred Cortes to march on Cholula, killing all present there. Moreover, the brutal defeat of the Cholultecas was compounded by the fact that their idol Quetzalcoatl had not served them in any way during the battle."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Leon-Portilla, Miguel. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962.

More papers on Miguel Leon-Portilla's "Broken Spears":

• Essay # 34015 : "The Broken Spears"
• Analytical Essay # 9616 : "The Broken Spears"
• Book Review # 95632 : "'Broken Spear"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: