“We have been so interested and so eager to restore the dignity of the indigenous people that we have run to insist that they were not vulnerable,” said historian Camilla Townsend during the virtual talk “Myths and realities of the fall of the Mexica empire”, in the Diego Prieto, director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), also participated, with the moderation of historian Antonio Saborit, director of the National Museum of Anthropology, in the meeting organized by EL UNIVERSAL and the Miguel Alemán Foundation.
The Malintzin scholar assured: “How are we going to understand that the indigenous people were very vulnerable, but without imagining that the Spaniards had all the power, or that they were invincible, because it was not true either” and called to “be less believers thinking about the traditional myths of the power of the Spanish, for example, but without convincing us of other myths, for example that the indigenous people were not afraid ”.
Diego Prieto, for his part, stressed that myths move on the level of symbolism, “if they tell me that there was a sad night, I understand that that night was sad for the hosts of Hernán Cortés, it does not seem to be a lie; If you tell me that it was a victorious night, of course it was extremely victorious and happy for the hosts that Cuitláhuac commanded ”.
He also said that we are facing a military event that obeys two aspects, two processes that are intertwined, on the one hand there is a rebellion against a hegemonic political center, Hernán Cortés, “who represents, I think, not even the Spaniards properly, represents basically the expansion of Europe ”.
Antonio Saborit said that between Spaniards and natives there was a difference in weapons and also in the conception of war.
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