#15 What if Hernán Cortés never conquered Mexico City?
What is the reparations program when 15 million people die from salmonella?
On Friday, I picked up Pablo from his hotel and we drove two hours from Mexico City to Tlaxcala, a city I knew nothing about and struggled to properly pronounce. Pablo is one of those friends I only speak with every few months, but when we do see each other we pick up right where we left off and the conversation continues for hours without a pause. Over the past few years we’ve managed to align our work travels to squeeze in a few backpacking adventures: first in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and last year in California’s Trinity Alps. This time we were headed to La Malinche, Mexico’s 6th highest volcanic peak at 14,500 feet.
But first, we would visit our friend Antonio, who was a 26-year-old blogger when we first met in 2010 and now is the Secretary of Culture for Tlaxcala State. More than 50 countries have ministries of culture. But not the United States (even though in 2009 Quincy Jones campaigned for President Obama to appoint a cabinet-level secretary of culture). For American artists, the National Endowment for the Arts is not that important because most funding for the arts comes from philanthropy, not the government. Few people have heard of Maria Jackson, who oversees the endowment’s $200 million annual budget, and there wasn’t much protest when Trump tried to eliminate the agency. But in Mexico, the vast majority of funding for the arts and cultural production comes from the government. In other words, Antonio is kinda a big deal. I hadn’t seen him in over six years, and so it was a relief to see that he was the same old Antonio: open, big-hearted, self-deprecating, and hyper-eloquent.
After eating some fried worms and drinking pulque, Antonio and his boyfriend Victor gave us a tour of Tlaxcala and its museums. What a fascinating history! Would Hernán Cortés have managed to conquer the Aztecs and Mexico City were it not for the participation of indigenous soldiers from Tlaxcala? It doesn’t seem likely. After all, fewer than 1,000 Spanish soldiers died in the battle, but over 20,000 Tlaxcaltecs perished fighting against the Aztecs. When Cortés and his army were pummeled by the Aztecs during the “Noche Triste” siege on June 30, 1520, they narrowly escaped to Tlaxcala to regroup and plan a new strategy. By the time they finally arrived five days later, they had lost over 1000 Tlaxcaltec soldiers and 800 Spanish soldiers. No sane person would have bet in July 1520 that one year later Mexico City would be under Spanish control.
But Hernán Cortés was a master coalition builder and a pretty good liar. Here is how Wikipedia describes it:
It was necessary for Cortés to rebuild his alliances after his escape from Tenochtitlan before he could try again to take the city. He started with the Tlaxcalans. Tlaxcala was an autonomous state and a fierce enemy of the Aztecs. Another strong motivation to join forces with the Spanish was that Tlaxcala was encircled by Aztec tributaries. The Tlaxcalans could have crushed the Spaniards at this point or turned them over to the Aztecs. In fact, the Aztecs sent emissaries promising peace and prosperity if they would do just that. The Tlaxcalan leaders rebuffed the overtures of the Aztec emissaries, deciding to continue their friendship with Cortés.
Cortés managed to negotiate an alliance; however, the Tlaxcalans required heavy concessions from Cortés for their continued support, which he was to provide after they defeated the Aztecs. They expected the Spanish to pay for their supplies, to have the city of Cholula, an equal share of any of the spoils, the right to build a citadel in Tenochtitlan, and finally, to be exempted from any future tribute. Cortés was willing to promise anything in the name of the King of Spain and agreed to their demands. The Spanish did complain about having to pay for their food and water with their gold and other jewels with which they had escaped Tenochtitlan. The Spanish authorities would later disown this treaty with the Tlaxcalans after the fall of Tenochtitlan.
Just think: what if the Aztecs had sent more capable negotiators to convince the leadership of Tlaxcala to put an end to the Spanish invasion? What if Cortés and all of his men were killed and never returned to Spain? Would Charles V have continued to push for more colonization of the Americas beyond Cuba and the Dominican Republic? After all, he was a pretty busy Roman Emperor around 1521 — starting a five-year war with France over their competing possessions in Italy and declaring Martin Luther an outlaw to squash the Reformation. Maybe invading Mexico would have been one project too many?
Then again, did it even matter? After all, it wasn’t battle that killed off the Aztecs, but disease. Smallpox killed at least 5 million of them. And only a few years ago did DNA analysis uncover that the Spaniards brought over a form of salmonella that killed another 5 to 15 million Aztecs between 1545 and 1550. Was there any way at all for Europeans and Indigenous Americans to meet each other without the diseases of the former killing off the vast majority of the latter?
These are some of the questions I was asking myself while Antonio gave us a tour of an epic mural by Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin, which depicts Tlaxcala from its earliest history to the 20th century.
The next morning, we fueled up on the Holiday Inn breakfast buffet before setting out to the volcano. It was a beautiful drive with the fog and mist lifting off the vegetation as the morning rays of light filtered through the trees.
The trail to the summit is straight, short, and steep. Local teenagers sailed up effortlessly in their skinny jeans and Converses while listening to reggaeton on their phones. Meanwhile, wealthy 30-somethings from Mexico City hired guides and wore ridiculous helmets as they gasped for air. Eventually, we made it to the top and fell into conversation with our fellow summiteers while enjoying 360-degree views of Puebla, Veracruz, and Hidalgo.
On the drive back to Mexico City, we spoke for over an hour about Pablo’s involvement in the campaign to reform Chile’s constitution — and also about what a constitution is for in any case. But more about that next week.
A useful tool
My buddy Dave pointed me to SwimmersGuide, a crowdsourced directory of swimming pools around the world. Over the past month, I’ve used it to find lap pools in Washington DC, Latvia, and Mexico City. Users have added information about costs for a day pass, reviews about the best times to go, and even the water temperature (which is way too high in Mexico City!).
Kudos
Kudos to Carlos Acosta, who I met at a dinner party over the weekend. Next September he will attempt to become the first Mexican to swim across the English Channel not just once … but twice! That’s right, he plans on swimming from England to France and back — 42 miles in 30 hours without a wetsuit and without a break. This will be his second attempt — he first tried in 2020, which he wrote about on his blog (in Spanish). Meanwhile, his husband tried to convince me to join him for a 24-hour cycling race in Borrego Springs. Yeah, thanks, but no thanks!
Have a great week!
David
What certainly would have happened is that the Aztecs would have continued with their barbaric human and specifically child human sacrifices that were on a scale not seen by other natives. Human suffering as a whole would have been significantly worse. It's no wonder the Tlaxcala's, being neighbors, were unrelenting in their push to fully eliminate the Aztecs from the world...as any human with basic human decency, upon seeing child sacrifices, would want as well. One could even argue, in the face of such atrocities, that the Spanish were a god sent! Queen Isabella would certainly have said so!