The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1959

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-14

Chapters 15-16

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “The Spaniards Are Welcomed in Tezcoco”

The passages in Chapter 7 are sourced from a new text: the Codex Ramirez. This pre-1580 manuscript preserves Spanish translations of older Nahuatl accounts that have since been lost. It is the only account set in another Mexican city-state to the northeast of Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco, where one of the Spaniards’ primary motivations is revealed: conversion of the New World to Christianity.

In “The March to Tezcoco,” the Spanish meet Tezcoco’s prince Ixtlilxochitl and his brothers. The meeting is relatively harmonious. Both sides marvel at the other—the Spanish are particularly stricken that Ixtlilxochitl’s brother is so fair-skinned that he appears to be white.

In “The Arrival at the City,” the Spaniards proselytize. They have been sent, they claim, by the emperor of the Christians to convert Indigenous Peoples and save their souls. In the next section, “Ixtlilxochitl Becomes a Christian,” the Tezcoco prince is wholly won over by their description of the mysteries of Catholicism and wishes to be baptized. Though a few Spaniards object—Ixtlilxochitl does not yet know enough about the tenets of the faith to convert—Cortés himself overrides them. He sees to it that Ixtlilxochitl and many other inhabitants of Tezcoco are baptized that very day.

But not all of the people of Tezcoco convert so easily. “The Reactions of Yacotzin” details how Ixtlilxochitl’s mother Yacotzin resists, telling her son that “he must have lost his mind to let himself be won over so easily by a handful of barbarians, the conquistadors” (60). Here, accounts diverge: Either Ixtlilxochitl sets fire to his mother’s quarters, or he finds her in a temple “of idolatry” (60). In any case, Yacotzin quickly acquiesces to conversion. The Indigenous People are given Christianized Spanish names.

Meanwhile, in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, Motecuhzoma and his lords have a final meeting before the Spanish arrive (“Motecuhzoma’s Final Decision”). While most advise that the wisest and most courageous option would be to welcome the Spanish as friends, Motecuhzoma’s brother Cuitlahuac is the lone voice of dissent: He pleads, “I pray to our gods that you will not let the strangers into your house. They will cast you out of it and overthrow your rule, and when you try to recover what you have lost, it will be too late” (61). Though the lords tend to agree with Cuitlahuac, Motecuhzoma is resolved to welcome the “Christians” (61).

Chapter 8 Summary: “The Spaniards Arrive in Tenochtitlan”

In Chapter 8, the Spaniards finally arrive at Tenochtitlan. Again, Sahagun’s Aztec informants provide the accounts.

In “Motecuhzoma Goes out to Meet Cortés,” Motecuhzoma lavishly welcomes the captain and his commanders, “those who had come to make war,” with flowers and gold (63). Cortés is insistent in demanding to know Motecuhzoma’s identity: “Are you the king? Is it true that you are the king Motecuhzoma?” (64). Motecuhzoma confirms that he is and pays high praise to the visitors, claiming that the Aztecs have long awaited their arrival. In “his strange and savage tongue,” Cortés replies that they are Motecuhzoma’s friends: “Speeches of Motecuhzoma and Cortés” confirms that there is nothing to fear (64). The author catalogues the other Aztec chieftains who were present at this first meeting, if only to shame them: When Motecuhzoma is eventually imprisoned, these mighty lords will run and hide (“Attitudes of the Spaniards and the Native Lords”).

The Spanish waste no time in making themselves at home. They put Motecuhzoma under guard and fire their cannons in the city, terrifying the Aztecs. They demand Motecuhzoma obtain more supplies from his chieftains, who quickly lose respect for their king (“The Spaniards Take Possession of the City”).

The Spaniards are interested in learning about the city’s defenses, but are most interested in its treasures. The final two sections of the chapter, “The Spaniards Reveal Their Greed” and “The Seizure of Motecuhzoma’s Treasures,” detail their incredible greed for Motecuhzoma’s stores of gold: “They seized these treasures as if they were their own, as if this plunder were merely a stroke of good luck” (68). Still, despite their incredible fear of their occupiers, the people of Tenochtitlan “did not abandon the Spaniards to hunger and thirst. They brought them whatever they needed, but shook with fear as they did so” (69).

Chapter 9 Summary: “The Massacre in the Main Temple during the Festival of Toxcatl”

Chapter 9 focuses on the Spanish massacre of Aztec warriors during a religious ceremony in Tenochtitlan. Sources agree that Cortés did not directly orchestrate the attack. He was out of the city, repelling a force sent from the Spanish colony of Cuba to arrest him (he was in trouble with the Spanish authorities for operating in Mexico on a revoked charter). Cortés’s deputy, Pedro de Alvarado, was left in charge at Tenochtitlan.

Sahagun’s informants provide the first version of the narrative, originally written in the Aztec language of Nahuatl. In “The Preparations for the Fiesta,” the Aztecs beg Motecuhzoma to celebrate the festival of the patron god of their city, Huitzilopochtli. This festival was, according to Sahagun, as important as the Christian Easter. As the Aztec women piously grind chicalote seeds into paste for the celebration, the Spanish men coldly inspect them. The seed paste is used to create a lifelike facsimile of the god Huitzilopochtli, which is carefully adorned in an intricate ritual costume (“The Statue of Huitzilopochtli”).

The next morning, the celebrants offer the idol gifts of cakes and human flesh and begin the ceremonial dances. Certain participants, the Brothers of Huitzilopochtli, have fasted long in advance in preparation for the ceremony and hold a place of special prominence (“The Beginning of the Fiesta”). But suddenly, “when the dance was loveliest and when song was linked to song, the Spaniards were seized with an urge to kill” (74). “The Spaniards Attack the Celebrants” describes in gruesome, but poetic detail how the unarmed Aztec warriors are trapped in the Sacred Patio and mercilessly slaughtered: “Some attempted to run away, but their intestines dragged as they ran; they seemed to tangle their feet in their own entrails” (76).

The alarm is raised in Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs attempt to fight back, but the Spaniards hole up in the palace and shackle Motecuhzoma in chains (“The Aztecs Retaliate”). The city mourns the many warriors killed at the fiesta (“The Lament for the Dead”). Motecuhzoma sends a messenger to the roof of the palace to beg the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan not to fight the Spanish, who are too powerful. He appeals to the elderly, the lower classes, and the children, all of whom “deserve [their] pity.” The Aztecs are enraged. “Who is Motecuhzoma to give us orders?” they demand. “We are no longer his slaves!” (“Motecuhzoma’s Message”).

The people of Tenochtitlan decide to starve the Spaniards out (“The Spaniards Are Besieged”). A gang of armed guards prevents any supplies from entering the palace, violently tyrannizing anyone sympathizing with the Spaniards or Motecuhzoma: “no one could walk out of doors without being arrested and accused” (79). For 23 days, the Aztecs keep the Spaniards trapped in the palace. This ends Sahagun’s account of the episode.

Another Aztec source, “The Massacre According to the Codex Aubin” from the Codex Aubin, supplements the story. This account directly attributes the Spanish betrayal to Cortés’s deputy Pedro de Alvarado. In this version, Tecatzin, the chief of the armory, reminds Motecuhzoma of the Spaniards’ treacherous earlier slaughter of the Cholultecas at a peaceful assembly (see Chapter 5). He suggests the warriors at the festival of Huitzilopochtli keep weapons nearby in case they are betrayed, but Motecuhzoma plays down Tecatzin’s concerns. As a result, when the Spanish attack, the Aztecs “could only fight back with sticks of wood; they were cut to pieces by the swords” (81).

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

These chapters highlight an important function of historiographical accounts from the vanquished: They preserve cultural knowledge in the face of its systemic eradication by the victors. In a narrative outlining the destruction of their civilization, the Nahua dwell on details like the type of seed used for the facsimile of Huitzilopochtli, the finer points of the idol’s costuming, and the lengthy preparations made by the Brothers of Huitzilopochtli. As Chapter 7 makes clear, the Spanish were not just interested in conquest: They wanted to force a complete cultural reorientation onto the peoples of the Americas. Conversion to Christianity was not optional, as the treatment of Ixtlilxochitl’s mother Yacotzin demonstrates, and conversion affected native life on every level. In baptism indigenous peoples even lost their Nahuatl names, rebranded instead with Christianized Spanish names.

These chapters also reinforce the literary skill of Nahuatl storytellers. Before the slaughter of the celebrants at the festival of Huitzilopochtli, there are chilling moments of foreshadowing. The Aztec authors point out the Spaniards’ othering of native peoples, their view that indigenous nations were fundamentally less worthy of respect (and more worthy of suspicion) with their description of how the Spaniards “stalked among the women” preparing the ritual chicalote seeds: The Spanish men “looked at them one by one; they stared into the faces of the women […] After this cold inspection, they went back into the palace” (72). The treatment is both malicious and distant; the Spaniards examine the women like dangerous animals in a zoo.

Conversely, the authors take great care to portray the Aztecs as empathetic and concerned with shared humanity. Despite their fear, many of the Aztecs still attempt to placate and support their visitors. At the end of Chapter 8, the translator for the Spaniards, La Malinche, cries out “Mexicanos, come forward! The Spaniards need your help! Bring them food and pure water. They are tired and hungry; they are almost fainting from exhaustion!” The Aztecs do so: “they did not abandon the Spaniards to hunger and thirst” (39). These statements should not be taken at face value—as the Tlaxcala accounts demonstrate, writers of history are sometimes comfortable with altering events to improve optics for their own people. That being said, these details do underline the Aztecs’ cultural emphasis on the proper reception of guests and their understanding of reciprocal obligation (values they claim the Tlaxcaltecas betrayed in facilitating the massacre of the Cholultecas in peaceful assembly, Chapter 5).

Notably, the Spanish do not mirror these attempts by the Aztecs to find middle ground; the invaders do not acknowledge that they are dealing with other human beings. For them, stealing gold and resources from the Aztecs is not stealing from other people; it is “merely a stroke of good luck” (68).