Is a collection of texts and paintings about the conquest of Mexico - Tenochitlan - from the point of view of the natives
of Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Tezcoco, Chalco and Tlaxcala. The editor makes use of the following sources: poems about the conquest; the anonymous Tlatelolco account (1528); evidence from (Bernardino de) Sahagún''s informants; the Linen of Tlaxcala; the Aubin Codex; the Ramirez Codex; other brief native accounts like the Mexicáyotl and testimony from Cortés''s native allies, like the History of Tlaxcala and the Chichimeca History. The book presents, in chronological order, different versions of the events, from the omens of the Spaniards'' arrival up to the destruction of the Mexican people. It tells how Montezuma''s mesengers brought presents to the Spanish, thinking that they were gods, but witch-doctors were also sent on a mission to try to prevent their arrival in Tenochtitlan - the news of the Spaniards'' greed and belligerence having already begun to worry Montezuma. It is told how the nobility of Tlaxcala and Tezcoco joined with the Spanish with the aim of destroying the Mexican Empire, the slaughter at Cholula and at the Templo Mayor; and finally the awakening of the war-like people who decided to defend their culture, and how new leaders lead the struggle and the resistance, the so-called "Sad Night" and the seige of the city with details of the smallpox epidemic, the famine, and the flight, during which the women, trying to be undesirable to the conquistadors, muddied their faces. León Portilla goes so far as to compare some texts with the epic poem of the Illiad. The translation of the Nahuatl texts is by Angel Maria Gariby, the copies of the illustrations of the codices are by Alberto Beltrán. Published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México at its University Student Library.