The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Visión de los vencidos is a selection of texts written in Nahuatl that recount the conquest of Mexico from the perspective of the Mesoamerican peoples. It was first published in Spanish in 1959 by the Mexican historian Miguel León-Portilla, who gathered and arranged fragments of indigenous sources, most of them translated by Ángel María Garibay Kintana. The English edition, titled The Broken Spears, appeared in 1962.

The book arose from a basic concern: until then, the most widely known accounts of the conquest were those of Spanish friars and chroniclers, such as Bernardino de Sahagún or Diego Muñoz Camargo. León-Portilla wanted to give a voice to those who lived these events from the other side. His main sources include the Florentine Codex, the Annals of Tlatelolco and the Cantares mexicanos, among other documents. Many of them were written by indigenous informants years after the fall of Tenochtitlan, something the author takes into account when presenting them.

The work is organized into seventeen chapters and an appendix, which follow in chronological order the period between the first sighting of the Spaniards off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in 1519 and the final defeat of the Tenochca in 1521. The narrative covers omens later read as warnings of the foreign arrival, the march toward Tenochtitlan with its friendly and hostile encounters, the massacre at Cholula, the meeting with Motecuhzoma, the massacre in the Great Temple precinct, the Noche Triste, the final siege and the surrender of the city.

One of the most striking aspects of the book is what it leaves in the background. The texts barely mention the decisive role of the indigenous allies of the Spaniards, such as the Tlaxcaltecs and the Texcocans, nor that of interpreters such as La Malinche. The different accounts also do not agree in their interpretations, and several show fear and rejection toward the foreigners, which allows the reader to appreciate the diversity of positions within the indigenous world.

The book has become an essential reference for the study of Mexican history. It has been reissued many times and translated into numerous languages, and it is widely regarded as a gateway to a viewpoint that has traditionally received little attention from the general public. Some specialists have pointed to editorial and scholarly limitations, but it is still considered a useful introduction for anyone wishing to explore the subject further.