PXL_20250425_172346029

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:49:22 +0100

The Humiliation of Cortés

Creoles and mestizos looked back to the indigenous past. They imagined Moctezuma as a refined yet brutal emperor, adorned with gold and feathers, inhabiting enormous and complex buildings, surrounded by courtly protocols, and devoted to a bloody religion.

They embraced the pagan era as their own. They also constructed a narrative of their own history: the portent of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe would mark a sacred boundary; shortly after the arrival of the conquistadors, the land known as New Spain was designated as the promise of the new chosen people, the Americans.