The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
by Miguel León-Portilla (ed.) · Visión de los vencidos
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1959
- Form
- History
- Language
- Spanish
- Length
- Medium · 220 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, translated by Lysander KempBeacon Press, 2006The expanded edition, with new material on the aftermath of the conquest and the Aztecs' later history.
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An anthology of Nahuatl accounts of the Spanish conquest, edited by the Mexican historian Miguel León-Portilla from sixteenth-century sources, chiefly the informants of Sahagún, translated into Spanish by Ángel María Garibay. It follows the omens before Cortés's arrival, Moctezuma's embassies and his capture, the massacre at the festival of Toxcatl, the Night of Sorrows, the siege and fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, and the elegies the survivors sang. It gives the conquered a voice the Spanish chronicles lack.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
