Another book hamstrung by being written in 1959; this was the 2006 edition and while I’m happy to give a 1959 edition 5 stars, 50 years later it’d be nice to update some of the commentary as well as add more translations.

Okay so: This is a collection of (largely) primary source documents written in (mostly) Nahuatl by (primarily) central Mexican authors about the conquest of central Mexico, ~1519-1522. There’s a short history of the Aztecs at the beginning and some post-conquest documents in Nahuatl at the end.

It’s great, and a very clear look at a literate society that lost/was absorbed into another culture; it helped highlight the specific turning points in 1519-21 where history could very easily have gone a different route.

Unfortunately because Leon-Portilla initially wrote it in 1959, it comes from very early postcolonialist theory, and makes a lot of very limited assumptions about why the Mexica etc acted that way, wrote these things, etc. Big example: Taking the writers of the Florentine Codex at their word when they say that Moctezuma thought the Spaniards were gods/representatives of gods and was honoring them when he sent them tribute. Which is like…such a loaded exchange, written down at least 40 years after the fact, by highly educated survivors of a catastrophic defeat and with a Franciscan friar overlooking the writing…

Again, fine analysis for 1959 but there have been some developments in postcolonial theory in the last 50 years! Leon-Portilla added several post-conquest documents to the new edition but did not otherwise update his commentary?

Very fascinating! As someone who learned about the conquest of the Aztecs from a purely European and conquistador perspective, this was revelatory! If you're interested in Mexican history, this is going to be fascinating! The authors go back to Nahuatl and Aztec and allies accounts to learn how they are viewing the events. 

Una joyita