CORTES: A Mexican’s perspective

I’m Mexican and really enjoyed seeing that the newspaper had an article on Hernan Cortes. It was a good read but it just seemed to paint the Spanish conquistadors as terrible people and made no mention of the cruel religious practices of the indigenous people of Mexico. Yes the Spanish were cruel and did come to Mexico for glory, God, and gold but they did end the cruel practice of human sacrifice.

Human sacrifice was a staple in Mesoamérica religions and often involved child sacrifice. Historians estimate that 1 out every 5 children were sacrificed. Before these poor children had there hearts carved, they were tortured because it was believed to be a good omen if the children cried. One form of torture was yanking out their finger nails, then a group of men would hold the screaming child down while the priest carved out their heart.

It’s sad how a lot of the Spanish treated the indigenous people but the culture in Mesoamerica was stained with mass human sacrifice and they also had plenty of slaves that were treated very harshly.

A lot of us Mexicans (I mean real Mexicans not American Hispanics of Mexican descent) don’t view Hernán Cortés as a villain. We see that his actions were not perfect but they had some good positive results like the end of human sacrifice and Christianity was introduced to the country.

RAUL IVAN BLANCO BENCOMO

Coeur d’Alene