The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => History => Topic started by: corbe on November 07, 2019, 04:30:47 pm
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Cancel Culture Comes For Hernán Cortés in Mexico
On the 500th anniversary of Hernán Cortés’ meeting with Montezuma II, the conquistador deserves a reconsideration, not cancellation.
By John Daniel Davidson
November 7, 2019
(https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Hernán_Cortés_Museo_del_Prado-998x749.jpg)
On any given day outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City, you’ll see a curious sight: dozens of men and women adorned in full ceremonial Aztec dress, elaborate combinations of feathers, animal bones, and body paint—everything, it seems, but actual jaguar headdresses festooned with human skulls. They gather a stone’s throw from the ruins of Templo Mayor, once the center of Aztec religious and political life, where at least 4,000 people—and possibly many more—were sacrificed every year, many of them ritualistically cannibalized.
Here, between the ruins of the old temple and the spires of the cathedral, crowds of tourists and Mexicans line up waiting their turn for a limpia, or spiritual cleansing. A supplicant stands with arms outstretched and eyes closed while a play-acting Aztec, burning incense in one hand and a bundle of herbs in the other, performs a brief ritual, passing the herbs over the person’s head, torso, and limbs as the incense smoke wafts over him. Meanwhile, men and women in Aztec garb work the lines collecting money.
But this isn’t some kind of gimmicky street sideshow, it’s a ceremony that both the tourists and Mexicans waiting in line appear to take seriously.
And it’s loud. Inside the cathedral during Mass you can hear the faint, incessant thump of the Aztec drums in the street, even behind the 500-year-old stone walls—walls built with stone taken from Templo Mayor after the conquest of the Aztec empire by Hernán Cortés in 1521.
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https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/07/cancel-culture-comes-for-hernan-cortes-in-mexico/ (https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/07/cancel-culture-comes-for-hernan-cortes-in-mexico/)
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The Spanish conquistadores were, even by then current standards, rather brutal - in conquest and in ruling. Many were veterans of the battles that finally ousted the Moors from Spain in 1492, so warfare and brutality had been significant parts of their life. However ...
All three of the major cultures (Aztec, Maya, Inca) they overthrew were even more brutal. All three practiced human sacrifice - the Aztecs on a massive scale - and the Aztecs and Incas were more brutal in conquest and ruling than were the Spaniards.