Few episodes in modern world history have attracted as much scholarly and popular attention as the Spanish invasion and occupation of central Mexico. Since the mid-nineteenth century, when William H. Prescott published History of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston, 1843) portraying Hernando Cortés as a romantic hero prevailing against great odds, scholars have drawn on a limited corpus of records and histories produced by Spaniards and native Mesoamericans for their understanding of these events. Nearly all these sources are retrospective, with the exception of Cortés’ letters to Charles I, the king of Spain, that were written as events unfolded. They were shaped by Cortés’ ambitions and his need to justify his illegal actions to his sovereign.
Notwithstanding the existence of an already substantial body of scholarly and popular work about the conquest of central Mexico, new publications about the topic continue to appear. In this book, Carballo draws from the...