Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtémoc (Classical Nahuatl: Cuāuhtemōc, Modern Nahuatl: Kwāwtemok 'the eagle that descends'; Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 1496 -Hibueras, 1525), known to the Spanish conquistadors as Guatemuz, was the last Mexica tlahtoani of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. He assumed power in 1520, one year before the capture of Tenochtitlan by Hernán Cortés and his troops.

The name Cuauhtémoc literally means "eagle that descends or perches" (from Classical Nahuatl: cuāuh- "eagle", temō "descend", -c PRETERIT ). The honorific form of Cuauhtémoc is Cuauhtemoctzin (the suffix -tzin is used to designate a dignity similar to "Don" or "Señor" in Spanish).

Cuauhtémoc, son of Ahuízotl and cousin of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin and Tecuichpo (Nahuatl: 'cotton flake'), when she reached nubility. When he took power, the conquistadors had already been driven out of Tenochtitlan, but the city was devastated by famine, smallpox, and a lack of potable water. Cuauhtémoc reached this moment after having been tlakatekohtli (chief of arms) of the resistance to the conquistadors since, since the death of Moctezuma prior to the call by the Spanish "Sad Night", he is identified as a military leader of the Mexicas.

Coronation

After Cuitláhuac's death, Cuauhtémoc was elected Huey Tlatoani in the month of July 1521, during Izcalli, which was the last month of the year "2 tecpatl".

Performance during the Conquest

Cuauhtémoc undertook the task of reorganizing the Mexica army, rebuilding the city and fortifying it for the war against the Spanish, since he supposed that they would return to fight against the Mexica. He sent ambassadors to all towns asking for allies, decreasing his contributions and even eliminating them for some.

The Spanish returned a year after being expelled and with them came a contingent of more than 100,000 native allies, most of them Tlaxcalans, historically enemies of the Mexica. After besieging Tenochtitlán for 90 days, on August 13, 1521, the Spanish, who were commanded by Hernán Cortés, captured it at Tlatelolco.

Defeat, flight and capture

According to Bernal Díaz del Castillo in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain, Cuauhtémoc was captured. The canoe in which he, his family and his closest warriors were fleeing from Tenochtitlan, was hit by a Spanish brig piloted by García Holguín. Cuauhtémoc demanded to be brought before "Malinche" (This is what the Mexica called Cortés, this being a patronymic term for Malintzin or Doña Marina, his indigenous translator.)

Prison of Guatimocín, last emperor of Mexicoby Carlos Esquivel and Rivas. 1854. (Museo del Prado, Madrid).

Once in his presence, pointing to the dagger that the conqueror wore at his belt, he asked him to kill him with it, since not having been able to defend his city and his vassals, he preferred to die at the hands of the invader. Among the Mexica warriors, like Cuauhtémoc himself, it was assumed that those defeated and captured by the enemy had to accept to die as a sacrifice to the gods in order to reach the final destination of accompanying the sun on its daily journey, for which reason Cuauhtémoc's request to Cortés may not have been simply a request for execution, but the interpretation of the fact prevails by European chroniclers who did not consider the norms of honor of the indigenous armies. This fact was described by Hernán Cortés himself in his third letter of relationship to Carlos I of Spain:

... he came to me and said to me in his tongue that he had already done all that he had on his part to defend himself and his people until he came to that state, that he now did what I wanted to do to him; and he put his hand in a stab that I had, telling me to give him stabs and kill him...

Third Letter of Relationship, Hernán Cortés

According to chronicler Francisco López de Gómara:

...Cuauhtémoc then laid hands on the hand of Cortez, and said to him, "I have already done all my power to defend myself and mine, and what was required was not to come to such a state and place as I am; and for you can deplete to do of me what you want, kill me, which is the best.".

History of the Conquest of Mexico

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain, described the event as follows:

"Mr. Malinche: I have already done what I am obliged to defend my city and vassals, and I can no longer, and since I come by force and prisoner before your person and power, take that stab you have on the tape and kill me with it." (and Guatemuz himself was going to give him a hand)

True history of the conquest of New Spain

The importance that the Spaniards attached to the arrest of Cuauhtémoc, Tlatoani Mexica, gives an idea of the dispute between García Holguín and Gonzalo de Sandoval for taking credit for the capture, which they already saw reflected in their coats of arms, as it was the head of Cuauhtémoc, according to Madariaga, on the shield of Cortés himself.

The Torment

Leandro Izaguirre, The suplicio of Cuauhtémoc (1893).

Cortés was not interested in Cuauhtémoc's death at the time. He preferred to use his dignity as Tlatoani before the Mexicas, now a subsidiary of Emperor Carlos V and Cortés himself. He did so successfully, taking advantage of Cuauhtémoc's initiative and power to ensure the collaboration of the Mexica in the cleaning and restoration work of the city. In the four years that followed, greedy Spanish stewardship, distrust of Cortés, and Cortés's own fears led him to approve the torture and death of the last Mexica tlatoani.

Mosaic of what is considered the last speech of Cuauhtémoc as tlatoani in Nahuatl and Spanish

First there was the torment, arising from the greed for gold: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain, narrates in detail how mistrust spread among the Spaniards, as they stubbornly denied the reality of their dreamed-of riches. The gold that they had obtained in total (83,200 Castilians) was not enough to distribute satisfactorily among the entire Spanish troops, so the commanders began suppositions to obtain more gold.

Some Spaniards judged that after the Battle of the Toltec Canal, the Mexicas had recovered the booty and thrown it into the lagoon or it had been stolen by the Tlaxcalans or by the Spanish soldiers themselves. Hence, it was the officials of the Royal Treasury, and especially the treasurer Julián de Alderete, and not Cortés, who limited himself to consenting to it, who ordered —Bernal Díaz and López de Gómara so argue — the torment of Cuauhtémoc and Tetlepanquetzaltzin.

According to Díaz del Castillo's books, López de Gómara and the accusations made against Cortés later in his residency trial agree that they were tortured by soaking their feet and hands in oil and burning them. According to Bernal, Cuauhtémoc confessed that four days before "they threw him into the lagoon, as well as the gold as well as the shots and shotguns that they had taken from Cortés for dessert, and they went to where Guatemuz pointed out the houses where he used to live" 34;, from where the Spaniards took "from what looked like a large pool of water a golden sun like the one Montezuma gave us".

Later sources attributed to Cuauhtémoc without any support a full stoicism shown in that trance. The book written by López de Gómara refers that the "señor" who was accompanying him in torture asked permission to speak and cease the torment, to which Cuauhtémoc replied: "if he was in some delight or bath ". A historical novel written by Eligio Ancona in 1870 popularized the variant "Am I in a bed of roses?".

After the episode of torture, Cuauhtémoc was crippled and limped, Tetlepanquetzaltzin's injuries were worse. Doctor Cristóbal de Ojeda was the one who treated the tlatoani's wounds. Years later, the doctor declared, during the Cortés residence trial, that in the incident Cuauhtémoc was tortured "burning his hands and feet". The huey tlatoani returns surprisingly to his role as a respected and well-treated Mexica nobleman, but captive, whose prestige and authority Cortés uses for the government of the defeated.

Like all newly conquered subjects, attempts were made to convert him to Christianity, but they only succeeded until the day they killed him. If we follow Héctor Pérez Martínez, his Catholic name would have been Hernando de Alvarado Cuauhtémoc; other sources cite only that of Hernando or Fernando. The converts received the names of their godparents, and Pérez Martínez supposes that those from Cuauhtémoc were Hernán Cortés himself and Pedro de Alvarado.

Solemnly sad was Cuauhtémoc. One day a group of white men went down to him; and while the Empire of that was surprised, the ark filled with holes the brock.

There remained; and the Indian, who never smiled, a smile had to get rid of a hiel. -" Where is the treasure?" he shouted, "and answered a greater silence than the stumble."

The torment came... And someone of the imperial nobility complained. The hero said to him, chasing his head:

"My bed is not of roses!"—and it quieted again. In the meantime, when the pines shook the fire, which was shaken as a whim I beg, because they turned to tongues as they wanted to speak!

José Santos Chocano.

Expedition to the Hibueras and death of Cuauhtémoc

In 1524, Cortés set out on a journey to las Hibueras (Honduras), in search of one of his captains, Cristóbal de Olid. It is not a rescue trip, but one of persecution: Cortés is aware that Cristóbal de Olid may have colluded with his old enemy, the governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez, to populate, conquer and above all obtain gold or other wealth in the south, ignoring him. He knows Cortés that Cristóbal de Olid betrays him, in the same way that he betrayed Diego Velázquez six years earlier.

The expedition, huge and courteous, includes everything from minstrels (wind musicians of the time) to doctors and surgeons, including sumptuous crockery and cutlery, and a herd that closes the entourage, to ensure supplies. The military contingent is, as occurred throughout the conquest, more indigenous than Spanish, and in this expedition more Mexica than Tlaxcalan or other peoples. It is not surprising, therefore, that various Mexica notables travel on the expedition, surely as military commanders of that troop, and possibly also as ambassadors and facilitators of relations with the towns along the route: Cuauhtémoc and Tetlepanquetzal are two of them.

After a year of travel, Cortés makes a controversial decision, criticized by his soldiers according to Díaz del Castillo: rumors reach him that Cuauhtémoc is conspiring against the Spanish, determined to attack them. According to Cortés, a certain Mexicalcingo, ("honored citizen of this city of Temixtitlan" Cortés wrote to Carlos V, also clarifying that after his baptism he called Cristóbal) went to the Spanish captain to narrate a long, and somewhat fanciful, story of the Cuauhtémoc conspiracy, which would begin with the assassination of Cortés, would continue with the rebellion against the Spanish throughout the country, and would end with the blockade from Mexico... "this done, they would put strong garrisons of people in all sea ports so that no ship that came could escape them". It is not known if Cortés magnified the scope of the conspiracy in his fifth Relation card, to justify the execution once consummated. The fact is that feeling vulnerable, he decided to have Cuauhtémoc hanged and burn his feet, for that is not known, and the chief of Tacuba, Tetlepanquetzal, who again found themselves before the executioner.

There is no certainty of the site or the exact date of when Cuauhtémoc died. The two eyewitnesses to the events who left written testimonies, Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz del Castillo, did not specify both data. Four years had passed since the end of the siege of Tenochtitlan, and perhaps the same since he tortured himself by burning the feet of the caciques who were now being executed. Both Spanish (Bernal Díaz) and indigenous sources question the motives put forward by Cortés. According to Prescott, Mexicalcingo himself later denied having told the story of the conspiracy as reflected by Cortés in his fifth letter to the emperor.

Illustration Execution by Saving Cuauhtémoc Book The conquest of Mexico

Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, a historian from New Spain from the XVII century, endorses the reality of the conspiracy. Diego López de Cogolludo recounts in his work & # 34; Quauhtemoc confessed to being like that, as the others had said; but that he was not the beginning of that consultation, nor did he know if everyone participated in it or it would take place, because he never had the intention of going out with it, that only the aforementioned conversation had happened, Without further proof, says Bernal Díaz, that D. Hernando Cortés ordered Cuauhtémoc and the lord of Tacuba, who was his cousin, to be hanged; but Herrera's Historia General says that a sentence was given by legal process, and Cuauhtemoc, Couanoctzin and Tetepanquetzal were sentenced to hang."

...in order to hang the Cuauhtemoc, he said these words: "O captain Malinche, days have I understood, he had known your false words: that this death you had given me, for I did not give it to me, when you delivered it into my city of Mexico; for you kill me without righteousness?"

Conquest of Yucatan, Diego López de Cogolludo.

Cuauhtémoc is one of the characters most recognized by Mexicans as a national hero. In all corners of Mexico his name is used in toponymy and onomastics, and his imagined effigy appears on monuments, which allude to his courage in defeat, when asking for death by Cortés' dagger, or in torment, when demanding stoicism to his fellow torturers. On February 28 of each year, the Mexican flag flies at half mast throughout the country, commemorating the death of the hero. From the XIX century, his figure was used for nationalist purposes, having the greatest example at the inauguration of the Monument to Cuauhtémoc, a work of Miguel Noreña during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz.

The Mexican poet Ramón López Velarde calls him the young grandfather of Mexico, and qualifies him as the only hero worthy of art.

The Leftovers

In 1949, the archaeologist Eulalia Guzmán, through falsification of data and an incorrect archaeological methodology, discovered human remains that she attributed to Cuauhtémoc, under the floor of the church in the town of Ixcateopan de Cuauhtémoc –the name it received in 1950– in the state of warrior. In addition, the discovery was based on a series of documents from the XVI century kept in the same town by the Juárez family that would prove the transit of the remains from the southeast of Mexico to Ixcateopan, some of them even with the signature of Motolinía.

The event was precipitated by official pressure. On September 26, 1949, the archaeologist announced the discovery in the atrium of the church. The following day, then Governor Baltazar R. Leyva Mancilla endorsed the fact. Since then there have been voices for and against the discovery. The criminologist Alfonso Quiróz Cuarón was the first to contradict Guzmán that same year, to which the archaeologist responded with a commission to support her truth made up of José Gómez Robleda, Luis Chávez Orozco, José A. Cuevas, Alejandro von Wutheneau, Carlos Graef Fernández and Marcos Moshinsky. Even the painter Diego Rivera advocated the authenticity of the remains and accused those who contradicted the version of being traitors.

In 1950 it was ruled that there was no scientific evidence to determine that the remains belonged to the tlatoani. The State Committee for the Alliance of Indigenous Communities of the State of Guerrero expressed its outrage at the ruling, and the commission determined that the remains and the documentary sources that allegedly supported the authenticity could leave the door open for future investigations.

In 1976 the controversy was reopened and a multidisciplinary commission of physical and social anthropology, entnohistory and archeology was formed, which again analyzed all the available evidence. The then governor of the state of Guerrero, Rubén Figueroa Figueroa, declared during team visit:

“Everything falls for its own weight. That is why we hope that they will soon do their work and say that here is Cuauhtémoc so that they can return to the capital, but with a head...”

Rubén Figueroa, former governor of Guerrero.

Researchers determined that all evidence supporting the findings was tampered with. The documents claimed to be from the 16th century in They were actually forgeries made in the XIX century by Florentino Juárez. The pre-Hispanic remains in Ixcateopan had no relationship with Mexico-Tenochtitlan nor is there conclusive evidence that there was a relationship with the tlatoani. Finally, the remains alleged to be from Cuauhtémoc and which are still exhibited as such in the Ixcateopan church are actually eight different people even in temporality. The skull is of a mestizo woman who is not from the XVI century. The final report of the commission ruled as follows:

There is no scientific basis to support the claim that the remains found on 26 September 1949 in the church of Santa Maria de la Asunción, Ichcateopan, Guerrero, be those of Cuauhtémoc, the last emperor of the Mexicas, and heroic defender of Mexico-Tenochtitlan

Matos:1980 quoted by Johnson, 2014

As Anne W. Johnson points out, "the controversy surrounding the remains excavated at Ixcateopan in 1949 involved competing ideologies about the history and essence of the Mexican people, local, state and national interests, and philosophical and methodological conflicts between antagonistic visions of the past". Despite this evidence to the contrary, hundreds of people make a pilgrimage to Ixcateopan every year, the town itself retains the name of Cuauhtémoc and there are even official commemorative events.

Legacy and honors

Places

Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Oaxtepec, Morelos, Mexico.

Cuauhtémoc has been occupied in the following places:

• Cuauhtémoc, territorial demarcation of Mexico City;
• Cuauhtémoc, Metro Station of Mexico City;
• Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua municipality;
• Cuauhtémoc, municipality of Colima;
• Cuauhtémoc, town of Colima;
• Cuauhtémoc, Zacatecas municipality;
• Cuauhtémoc, town of Hidalgo;

On the other hand, Cuauhtémoc City has been occupied in the following:

• Cuauhtémoc City, Chiapas;
• Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, town of Veracruz;
• Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua town.

Coins and notes

The effigy of Cuauhtémoc has been used in the following banknotes:

• Bill of a thousand pesos from the AA family, issued by the Bank of Mexico and printed by the American Bank Note Company;
• Bill of fifty thousand pesos of the B family, issued and printed by the Bank of Mexico;
• Bill of fifty new pesos from the C family, issued and printed by the Bank of Mexico.

The bust of Cuauhtémoc has been occupied in the following coins:

• Fifty cent silver coin (law 0.300), circulating between 1950 and 1951;
• Coin of fifty cents of copper, circulating between 1955 and 1959;
• Coin of fifty cents of couponyl, circulating between 1964 and 1983.

Monuments

Nationals

Monuments to Cuauhtémoc

Mexico City.

In Cuauhtémoc (Chihuahua).

There are various monuments dedicated to Cuauhtémoc, including the following:

• Cross of Paseo de la Reforma y avenida de los Insurgentes en la Demarcación Cuauhtémoc (Mexico City),
• Cruce de Cuauhtémoc y avenida Constitución en Monterrey (Nuevo León),
• About Heroes Walking in Tijuana (Baja California),
• Cuauhtémoc Avenue in Veracruz (Veracruz),
• End of the avenue Cuauhtémoc corner with street Isauro Venzor in Victoria de Durango (Durango),
• Inside the homonymous park in Villahermosa (Tabasco),
• In the village of Canitzán, Tenosique, where one of the versions indicates that there it was hanged, (Tabasco),
• Usumacinta, municipality of Tenosique. Place where one of the versions points out that there are the remains of the last Mexica Emperor. (Tabasco)
• Cuauhtémoc Forest main park in Morelia (Michoacán),
• Jardin del Barrio de Analco in Guadalajara (Jalisco),
• Homon garden of Cuauhtémoc (Colima),
• Unidad Cuauhtémoc sobre la avenida Manuel Ávila Camacho de Naucalpan (Estado de México),
• Avenida de los Aztecas al Poniente de Ciudad Juárez (Chihua),
• 

  Proa mask of the ship ARM Cuauhtémoc (BE-01)
  Calzada Cuauhtémoc at the height of the crossing with avenue Bravo, opposite the Venustiano Carranza Forest in Torreón (Coahuila), previously the monument was on the cruise of Cuatro Caminos.
• Glorieta del junction de las avenidas 16 de septiembre y Morelos en Ciudad Cuauhtémoc (Chihuahua),
• Glorieta del cruz la avenida Insurgentes y los bulevares Francisco I. Madero y Gabriel Leyva Solano en Culiacán (Sinaloa),
• Heroes Avenue in Chetumal (Quintana Roo)
• Water park on Hidalgo Avenue in Toluca de Lerdo (State of Mexico).
• ARM Cuauhtémoc (BE-01) Buque Escuela Velero de la Secretaría de Marina-Armada de México. Where the mascaron of proa is the effigy of Cuauhtémoc, which takes pride in honor of the last Aztec emperor. The name of this ship represents the stirpe war of the Aztec emperor, who was also known for his courage and to be fond of poetry. He was sculpted by Juan de Ávalos, considered as one of the most passionate Spanish sculptors who have shown the human body.

Outside Mexico

• Argentina, Córdoba, village in the southeast called Guatimozín in his honor.
• Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Plaza Cuauhtémoc in the Flamengo district, with a statue in his honor.

In art

Cuauhtémoc is a character in the following operas:

• Guatemotzin, opera in an act of Aniceto Ortega de Villar