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| THE HEROIC
DEFENSE OF MEXIKO-TENOCHTITLAN Our story begins here. On the night of August 12, 1521, Uey Tenochtitlan has withstood 79 days of siege. Two thousand five hundred mercenary invaders, 300 horses, 12 artillery brigantines, barges for unloading with cannons, hundreds of canoes, 30 mastiff dogs that eat human flesh, 40 pieces of light and medium artillery, war machines like catapults, assault towers. The invaders began their final offensive in the month of May. Today, August 12, 1521, they have taken the main plaza and the great teokalli. Fields of cadavers remained, like that they remained. The aqueducts of Chapultepek and Tepeyakak exploded with gunpowder. Also the drinking water channels. Neighborhood after neighborhood was blasted with cannons, was burned. They attack from the lake, from between the canoes. With their horses they continuously raze and flee. The Mexicans stand their ground in Tlatelolko and its neighborhoods. The isle is bombarded by cannon fire day and night. Throughout the city wrecked corpses rot. They float in the causeways, the streets, the canals. All of this happened to us. The odor is unbearable. We saw it. They are thousands of cadavers. All of this happened to us, children, women, warriors, enemies. We, we saw it. The war of extermination decimates the population. Now there is no water, there are many who are mutilated. Epidemics increase. It is not possible to attend to the sick, nor to burn the cadavers. They are thousands, thousands of cadavers. Each Mexican faces ten or more invaders. On our side, the whole
population enters combat: women and children, Ocelotl
warriors, Kuauhtli warriors. More than two months of resistance;
with each assault there are fewer of us. Tonight, August 12, 1521, the Supreme Council of Anahuak, Uey Tlahtokan in Anahuak, meets. They know well that it will be their final accord. Kuauhtemok, the young Uey Tlakatekutzintli, comes to present his military report:
By order of the Supreme Council of Anahuak, Kuauhtemok makes known his final decree. His words contain a message for the Mexicans then and of the future.
The Supreme Council of Anahuak decides to propose a duel between the chief of the invaders and the leader of Anahuak, Kuauhtemok--chief against chief, with the aim of sparing the civilian population. So, at sunrise on August 13, 1521, the leader Kuauhtemotzin with his captains: Koyoueuetzin, Tzompantemotzin, Temilotzin, Tetlepanketzaltzin, Tepoztitolokzin, Koanakochzin, and the rowers Iztakchimal and Zenayautl, begin their trek. From the plazas and rooftops, the people observe, conscious of the end. The unarmed Mexican leaders navigate in two canoes through the canals. They head toward the neighborhoods of Amaxak and Koyonokazko in the North Plaza. They go to the tekpan of Señor Aztakoatzin, between the causeways of Azkapotzalko and Tepeyakak, which the invaders have occupied as their beachhead. There is the site of the meeting. The Mexican population, 200,000, crowded into eight or nine neighborhoods near Tlatelolko which is already lost; they have been there for at least a week, living in the streets, on the rooftops, under subhuman conditions. Moreoever, it is the rainy season. Worms swarm through the streets and plazas; the walls are spattered with brains. All of this happened to us. We, we saw it. The Mexicans know that this will be the last day. For this reason they show up armed and attired with what they have managed to conserve. Expectant, they watch the canoes pass through the canals. Their heart salutes the heroes. They emerge from a canal near the neighborhood of Atzkoalko. There they meet with the mercenary Holguín; as agreed upon, his boat escorts the Mexican nobles. They continue through the canal that since then has been called Tekichiuapan, “the place where forced labor begins.” In the neighborhood of Amaxak, inside the semi-destroyed palace of Aztakoatzin, the interview begins. The head of the mercenaries, with the airs of a great monarch, receives Kuauhtemotzin. Kuauhtemok states the Mexika proposal: Ximo kaua tikiza mexikah chanekan Now, in a judgment of combat, chief against chief, to decide the fate of the city. Chik azi in tepoz uan xinech mikti —he challenged in front of his troops. Hernán Cortés, the mercenary, refused combat and ordered the Mexican nobles taken prisoner. Dishonor and betrayal was the response. This is the oral tradition, in ueuetlahtolli. IN MEXIKAYOTL YELIZTLI AIK IXPOLIUIZ! MEXIKAH TIAUI! FORWARD, MEXICANS! (Translated and annotated by Elissa Rashkin)
NOTE:
Quotes from Díaz and Cortés are from the following sources:
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