Montezuma's indecision cost him first his kingdom and then his life. He let the Spanish into his city without a fight.
One of the conquistadors, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, wrote a history of the conquest before my lifetime. A manuscript of it has circulated widely among the clerics of New Spain, and Fray Antonio had me read it so that I would learn the true story of how the Spanish had come to New Spain. Diaz's description of the city was the final fulfillment of the dream of Cortes and his men that he could find a fabled kingdom as had the hero of
When we saw so many cities and villages built in the waters of the lake and other large towns on dry land, and that straight, level causeway leading into Mexico City, we were amazed and we said that it was like the enchanted things related in the book of
After permitting the Spanish to enter his city, Montezuma, held prisoner in his palace by his 'guests,' tried to address his people. While many fell to the ground in awe of his august presence, some began to taunt him as a man who had been turned into a woman by the white men—that he was only fit to suckle babies and knead maize! Rocks and arrows loosened from the crowd and Montezuma fell.
He was as mortally wounded in soul as in body for the way his people turned on him. He knew he had failed them. The Spanish tried to treat his wounds but he tore off the bandages. He refused to survive his disgrace. Dying, he rejected baptism into the Christian faith, telling a priest kneeling at his side, 'I have but a few moments to live and will not at this hour desert the faith of my fathers.'
Catastrophic disasters erupted in the wake of the Spanish conquest. First came the destruction of the fabric of indio society as almost everything they had ever known and worshipped was trampled by the conquerors. It wasn't just stone edifices that were torn asunder, but the very fabric of society—just as birth and marriage and death revolve around a Christian Church, so was almost every aspect of the indio's life caught up in the priests and temples of their faith. Those temples were torn down and ones of the new faith erected, administered by priests who spoke a strange language.
The second great catastrophe was the plagues that descended upon the indios in the footsteps of the Spaniards. Terrible epidemics of diseases that caused the indios' flesh to boil and insides to wither was the vengeful gift of the Spanish god. The Christian priests said that the diseases that struck down nine out of every ten indios in New Spain within a few generations of the conquest were fire and brimstone from God, punishing indios for their heathen ways.
The third disaster was greed. The Spanish king divided the most favorable parts of New Spain into feudal domains called encomiendas: grants of tribute from indios to each of the conquistadors.
Somewhere along the twisted road in which the entire structure of their society was destroyed, the indios lost their image of themselves as a great and mighty people.
Now I saw people who had once built dazzling cities and perfected science and medicine sitting with dull eyes in front of thatched huts, scratching the dirt with sticks.
SIXTY-SEVEN
Mateo became convinced that the naualli was not the leader of the Jaguar cult. 'We have been watching him for weeks. If he was up to something, we would know it by now.'
I did not agree. Mateo was prejudiced against investigating the naualli because he was tired and bored of being in the back country. I slowly learned more about what had happened to bring him within the grasp of the king's law. Jose confided that Mateo was not caught selling profano libros as the members of the acting troupe had been. Rather, Mateo's difficulties arose from gambling. In a heated moment he had accused a young man of cheating at cards. Swords were drawn and a moment later the young man's life poured out onto the cantina floor. While there was an official ban against dueling, it was commonly ignored; but in this case the dead man was the nephew of a member of the Royal Audiencia, the High Court that resided in the City of Mexico but had power over all of New Spain.
Jose told me that Mateo ran a risk of the gallows if he showed his face in the capital.
As for the naualli, I had taken a great dislike to him. He had nearly killed me once, and I had been humiliated by the pig incident. I also did not want to fail for another good reason: I did not know how I would be treated by Don Julio if I failed. Would he ship me off to the northern mines? The hell of the Filipinas? Or simply have me hanged and my head cut off afterward and impaled on a city gate as a warning to others?
Pondering the undesirable fates I was being swept toward, I nearly stumbled into the young girl I had previously seen with the two men who followed the naualli into the jungle. She had been kneeling picking berries and I nearly fell over her.
'Perdon,' I said.
She did not reply but got up with her basket of berries and slowly walked into the dense forest. As she disappeared in the bushes, she looked back, with an inviting expression.
India women were washing clothes along the rocky riverbank and two men were smoking pipes and playing a dice game outside a hut. No one seemed to be paying any attention to me. Pretending to be just sauntering about, I moseyed into the bushes.
She followed the riverbank for ten minutes. When I caught up with her, she was sitting on a large boulder with her feet in the water.
I sat down on another boulder, kicked off my sandals, and cooled my own feet in the river.
'My name is Cristo.'
'I am Maria.'
I could have guessed that. Maria was the most common Christian name for females among the indias because it was a name they heard when they went to church. She was perhaps a couple of years younger than me, fifteen or sixteen. She struck me as a little unhappy.
'You don't look happy, muchacha.' She was too old to be called muchacha and I was too young to be calling her that, but being around a pretty young woman caused me to inflate into an hombre macho... at least in my own eyes.
'I'm getting married in a few days,' she said.
'Eh, that's a time to celebrate. Don't you like the man you will marry?'
She shrugged. 'He's neither good nor bad. He will provide for me. That is not what is making me unhappy. It is that my brother and uncle are such ugly men. I am not lucky like some of the other girls in the village who have handsome men in the family.'
That brought up my eyebrows. 'What do you care about your uncle and brother? You will not be marrying them.'
'Of course not. But my father is dead and I will be making ahuilnema with them.'
I nearly fell off of the boulder. 'What? You will be having ahuilnema with your own uncle and brother?'
'Si. They follow the old ways.'
'I know of no Aztec ways that permit incest,' I said hotly. Such an act would be considered sacrilegious among the Aztecs.
'We are not Mexica. Our tribe is older than the one you call Aztec. And here in this village, our elders make us practice the old customs.'
'What old custom is this that you would bed your uncle and brother?'
'I will not bed both of them. Because I have no father, the act must be done by a male relative. The elders will decide whether it will be done by my uncle or brother before the wedding ceremony.'
'Dios mio, you will bed your uncle or brother after the wedding? When will you lay with your husband?'
'Not until the next night. You do not have this custom among your people?'
'Of course not; it's blasphemous. If the priests found out about it, the men of your village would be severely punished. Have you ever heard of the Holy Office of the Inquisition?'
She shook her head. 'We have no priest. To attend the Christian Church, we must walk for nearly two hours.'
'This custom from the old ways, what is the purpose of it?'
'To ensure that our marriage does not offend the gods. The gods enjoy virgins, that is why maidens are
