Mexico 1529The Chinantecs are an indigenous people that live in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico. Prone to a disease called the "Painted Disease"One's skin is blotched a livid blue. Dies of suffication. Spaniards called them "The Pinto People"War of Flowers-fought to only take prisoners for sacrifice9the Flowery Death) during "the Hard Times" A Sheaf of years was 52 years.Hollow Days- five days gap between their last month of the old year and first month of the new year. Stayed in, did nothing to avoid disasterAztecs had five points to their compass.The fifth was the center.Prostitute was called "A Road Straddler"Marranos were originally Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who had been forced to convert to Christianity, some of whom may have continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret. The term Marrano derives from Arabic meaning "forbidden, anathematized". Marrano in 15th century Spanish first meant pig, from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, practiced by both Jews and Muslims. Marrano in Spanish still means pig and dirty, but it is no longer commonly related to religious beliefs.Although originally the term was used by common people, the insult was mostly racist, as people associated superstition and prejudice to the descendants of forced New Christians as racially identifiable people for their bad denture. In the sixteenth century, marrano was used to refer to both the forced converts from Judaism and the forced converts from Islam, as both religions prohibit eating pork. Over time by scholars, the latter were called Moriscos, and the voice marrano was only to designate the Jews of converso descent. In the sixteenth century sense, marrano was used by rival "Old Christians" to insult Miguel de Cervantes, supposedly of Muslim or Jewish descent, to disparage him as a "New Christian".Marrano acquired connotations of "filthy-dirty" (sucio) and "unscrupulous" (sin escrúpulos) during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, when the term was used to impugn the character of the recalcitrant crypto-Jew. In contemporary .Thus the word "MOORS"Cochoneal-scarlet dye in Mexico from an insect who lived on a type of cactus. Purple from the snails.Tlaloc-Aztec rain god. Chac- Mayan rain godSpaniards asked "What is this place" Answer was YUCATAN! (We do not understand you.) And that is how it got it's name!VERA CRUZ_the True Cross In this area natives used a cross to signify fresh waterMITLA- native name for HELL. Corpse had a jade stone put in its mouth to pay the lord and lady of the underworld and they would decide if he was worthyCatherine of Sienna prayed that her body would be splayed across the pit to Hell so that no more poor sinners would ever fall in.Mageuy-Agave americana, commonly known as the century plant, maguey, or American aloe (although it is in a different family from the Aloe)is an agave originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. Used for cloth fibre and for alcholic drink1506-Spanish ships off the coast of the Yucatan were sent from Cuba to map areaMoctezuma II (c. 1466 – June 1520), also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin (Moctezuma the Young), was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520. The first contact between indigenous civilizations of Mesoamerica and Europeans took place during his reign, and he was killed during the initial stages of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, when Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his men fought to escape from the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.During his reign the Aztec Empire reached its maximal size. Through warfare, Moctezuma expanded the territory as far south as Xoconosco in Chiapas and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and incorporated the Zapotec and Yopi people into the empire.He changed the previous meritocratic system of social hierarchy and widened the divide between pipiltin (nobles) and macehualtin (commoners) by prohibiting commoners from working in the royal palaces.The portrayal of Moctezuma in history has mostly been colored by his role as ruler of a defeated nation, and many sources describe him as weak-willed and indecisive. The biases of some historical sources make it difficult to understand his actions during the Spanish invasion. In this book he was depicted as a fool.Hernan Cortes-In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, due to the old gripe between Velázquez and Cortés, he changed his mind and revoked his charter. Cortés ignored the orders and went ahead anyway, in February 1519, in an act of open mutiny. Accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons, he landed in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mayan territory.There, he met Geronimo de Aguilar, a Spaniard who had survived from a shipwreck and joined the troops.Geronimo de Aguilar, a Franciscan priest, had learned Maya during his captivity, and could thus translate for Cortés. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown. He stopped in Trinidad to hire more soldiers and obtain more horses. Then he proceeded to Tabasco, where he met with resistance and won a battle against the natives. He received twenty young indigenous women from the vanquished natives and he converted them all to Christianity. Among these women was La Malinche, his future mistress and mother of his child Martín, later called Dona Marinaztec) Nahuatl language and Maya, thus enabling Hernán Cortés to communicate in both. She became a very valuable interpreter and counselor. Through her help, Cortés learned from the Tabascans about the wealthy Aztec Empire and its riches.In July 1519, his men took over Veracruz: by this act, Cortés dismissed the authority of the Governor of Cuba to place himself directly under the orders of Charles V.[7] In order to eliminate any ideas of retreat, Cortés scuttled his ships. In Veracruz, he met some of Moctezuma's tributaries and asked them to arrange a meeting with Moctezuma. Moctezuma repeatedly turned down the meeting, but Cortés was determined. Leaving a hundred men in Veracruz, Cortès marched on Tenochtitlan in mid-August 1519, along with 600 men, 15 horsemen, 15 cannons, and hundreds of indigenous carriers and warriors.[7] On the way to Tenochtitlan, Cortés made alliances with native American tribes such as the Nahuas of Tlaxcala, the Tlaxcaltec, who had surrounded the Spanish and about 2,000 porters on a hilltop and the Totonacs of Cempoala. In October 1519, Cortés and his men, accompanied by about 3,000 Tlaxcalteca, marched to Cholula, the second largest city in central Mexico. Cortés, either in a pre-meditated effort to instill fear upon the Aztecs waiting for him at Tenochtitlan or (as he later claimed when under investigation) wishing to make an example when he feared native treachery, infamously massacred thousands of unarmed members of the nobility gathered at the central plaza, then partially burned the city.By the time he arrived in Tenochtitlan the Spaniards had a large army. On November 8, 1519, they were peacefully received by the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, due to Mexican tradition and diplomatic customs. Moctezuma deliberately let Cortés enter the heart of the Aztec Empire, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better and to crush them later. He gave lavish gifts in gold to the Spaniards which enticed them to plunder vast amounts of gold. In his letters to Charles V, Cortés claimed to have learned at this point that he was considered by the Aztecs to be either an emissary of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl or Quetzalcoatl himself — a belief which has been contested by a few modern historians. But quickly Cortès learned that Spaniards on the coast had been attacked, and decided to take Moctezuma as a hostage in his own palace, requesting him to swear allegiance to Charles V.Meanwhile, Velasquez sent another expedition, led by Pánfilo de Narváez, to oppose Cortés, arriving in Mexico in April 1520 with 1,100 men.Cortés left 200 men in Tenochtitlan and took the rest to confront Narvaez. He overcame Narváez, despite his numerical inferiority, and convinced the rest of Narvaez's men to join him. In Mexico, one of Cortés's lieutenants Pedro de Alvarado, committed The massacre in the Main Temple, triggering a local rebellion. Cortés speedily returned to Mexico and proposed an armistice, attempting to support himself on Moctezuma, but the latter was stoned to death by his subjects on July 1, 1520 and Cortés decided to flee for Tlaxcala. During the Noche Triste (30 June-1 July 1520), the Spaniards managed a narrow escape from Tenochtitlan across the causeway, while their backguard was being massacred. Much of the treasure looted by Cortés was lost (as well as his artillery) during this panicked escape from Tenochtitlán. After a battle in Otumba, they managed to reach Tlaxcala, after having lost 870 men. With the assistance of their allies, Cortés's men finally prevailed with reinforcements arriving from Cuba. Cortés began a policy of attrition towards the island city of Tenochtitlán cutting off supplies and subduing the Aztecs' allied cities thus changing the balance and organizing the siege of Tenochtitlán, destroying the city.In January 1521, Cortés countered a conspiracy against him, headed by Villafana, who was hanged.Finally, with the capture of Cuauhtémoc, the Tlatoani (ruler) of Tenochtitlán, on 13 August 1521, the Aztec Empire disappeared, and Cortés was able to claim it for Spain, thus renaming the city Mexico City. From 1521 to 1524, Cortés personally governed Mexico.Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈθið kampeaˈðor], "The lord-master of military arts"), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat. Exiled from the court of the Spanish Emperor Alfonso VI of León and Castile, El Cid went on to command a Moorish force consisting of Muladis, Berbers, Arabs and Malians, under Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, and his successor, Al-Mustein II.After the Christian defeat at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086, El Cid was recalled to service by Alfonso VI, and commanded a combined Christian and Moorish army, which he used to create his own fiefdom in the Moorish Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia.Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became the alférez, the chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors.SMALL POCKS- actually weakened the Aztecs to the point that they could not fight off CortesThe Basque witch trials of the 17th century represent the most ambitious attempt at rooting out witchcraft ever undertaken by the Spanish Inquisition. The trial of the Basque witches at Logroño, near Navarre, in northern Spain, which began in January 1609, against the background of similar persecutions conducted in Labourd by Pierre de Lancre, was almost certainly the biggest single event of its kind in history. By the end some 7,000 cases had been examined by the Inquisition.
My GOD this man could write. He's from my hometown, and lived not so far away from my house, and I could never arrange a meeting while (and being I'm not a stalker and respected the crap out of this guy, I didn't try too hard). A complete enigma to me; massive genius. I might have been scared to meet him, in fact — loved his writings, but they were so graphic that I believe I feared meeting someone who could imagine such brutality.I love historical fiction, and Jennings' works tackle times that aren't politically correct to tackle with such honesty; but I'm not a fan of sugar-coating history, either. That being said, this book, albeit with such historical verisimilitude, engaging characters, and subtle dialogue, could have benefited from a tad less gruesome detail; it can be hard to read on a full stomach, and the unsettling images last for years.Jennings deals us an engaging story that's so descriptive that you can put the book away and half-expect to be IN that world; he draws you in as an observer, and you don't feel safe in that world. Such immersion can be horrifying, especially in dealing with cannibalism and sacrifice, but you come away feeling like you have a better understanding of a completely lost and foreign culture. That's the highest praise I can give to an historical fiction.And after reading this tome, I never wanted to visit and SEE the historical sites for a fictional work so much, maybe if just to test the truthfulness, and possibly to mourn the loss, of such a society. You come away feeling that there's blood on everybodys' hands: the Aztecs, the conquerors, ...humanity. But in a good way, that doesn't leave room for judgment, but rather for thought. Aztec works as a great equalizer.My criticism would certainly be that his writing is so compelling, and the violence so disturbing, that if it's not as truthful as it seems, could be an unfair indictment against an entire society. In other words, Jennings is such a good storyteller, and has so much actual history to back him up, that he needed to be very careful that his dramatics doesn't leave an unfair portrayal of that society.I think if you read this keeping in mind that it's historical FICTION, you can get a good understanding of a society that ritually sacrifices and consumes humans. It will leave an impression on your soul, imo, about what humanity is capable of.I loved it; will reread it again. Mindblowing.
Do You like book Aztec (2006)?
One of the most eye opening, intense, and enjoyable books I've ever read. Recommended to me by my grandmother, a devout conservative catholic, I was almost shocked she'd read such an intense book (go grandma!). Gary Jennings spent over a decade researching the Aztec culture and created this non-fiction based fictional story about a culture so incredible different from our own, and yet even more cultured in some ways. The story follows an Aztec man who's captured by the Spanish Inquisition and regales his life story from pauper to prince. Prepare yourself for a journey of intense and bazaar sexual acts, lavish environments, bloody sacrifices, and an opportunity to go beyond your comfort zone and into a different world that's not all that far away.
—Noah Coad
I read this for the first time about 18 years ago and I knew that one day I'd reread it. I'm not sorry that I did. Its a very long and violent book were an old Aztec man is being interrogated for his life history by some Spanish monks. And what a history he tells them. It took me a while to read as I couldn't pronounce the Aztec names and place words, but it was well worth making the effort to try.I loved the full life that's described, and all the different things theatre described, from poverty to palaces and the flowery wars and the sacrifices that followed. The way the country is described is so good you can imagine very well what it was like and how in the end they were conquered so easily. For anyone interested in historical fiction books this I'd say is a must to read. Gary Jennings tells his story well and even though very long it kept my attention to the end. So much in it was so very violent though. And even though I'd been warned of some of what happens it was still a shock to read.(view spoiler)[the chapter with the skin wearing sacrifice (hide spoiler)]
—Angie
This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is simply the best single novel that I have ever read.Nothing is superfluous.There is human sacrifice galore as well as graphic (and I mean graphic) violence and sexuality. However, the drama is top notch and there are times when you must stop reading because you are overwhelmed by the spectacle of the story.I gave this book as an impulse buy to my mother for Christmas one year. I had no idea what it was like, I simply went by some fabulous blurbs on the cover and that she liked fat historical novels. I figured she had read lots of stories about Mary Queen of Scots and probably hadn't read one about the history of Mexico before the Spanish Conquistadors.I was right about that part, but had no idea what I was truly giving my mother.She was astounded by the gift, as was my father.The next year at Christmas she gave me the book back, but by that time it had gone through at least six pairs of hands.I was shocked when I read it, but the story still is seared in my brain.
—Linda C.
