"Itinerary of Hernán Cortés". This is how the exhibition is presented to the visitor Madrid dedicates, until the next 3 May, to the conqueror of Mexico, repairing a historical forgetfulness of almost five centuries. The exhibition is a praiseworthy attempt to dust off the memory of Cortés - a cursed character where there are, both in Mexico and in Spain– but, however, When I finished touring it, I left with the bitter feeling that he was missing the opportunity to honor his name and tell, above all else, the fascinating adventure of the conquest of Mexico.
The first thing that caught my attention was the penumbra prevailing in most of the rooms, perhaps a metaphor for the darkness to which history has condemned Cortés. cost, even, read some of the informative signs (they would do well to hand out lanterns to visitors), an added difficulty to the dwindling body of lettering on the panels.
I was struck by the gloom of the rooms, metaphor of the darkness to which history has condemned Cortés
In a small projection room a documentary about Hernán Cortés… filmed by BBC. A very revealing fact of the disdain with which Spain has historically looked at the conqueror. There is not a single Spanish documentary that can be exhibited in the largest exhibition on Hernán Cortés that is remembered in our country. The usual and surprising guilt complex regarding the old empire, the troubled contrition (transformed into saudade in our Portuguese neighbors) for having one day had the audacity to divide the world between us. Brand Spain, certainly.
It seemed to me that the exhibition had been organized in a low voice, as if asking for forgiveness for the unusual audacity of dedicating it to Cortés.
It seemed to me that the exhibition had been organized in a low voice, as if apologizing for the unusual audacity
Clearly, The most surprising finding is that of the remains of the Spaniards who were massacred along with their Tlaxcalan allies - women, children and injured included- in July 1520 by the indigenous people of the town of And then (renamed in the Nahuatl language as "place where they were eaten") when they were going to Tenochtitlan.
Brutal behaviors in brutal times, some tragic events that, as indicated on one of the information panels, "they should not be interpreted anachronistically as mere expressions of the violence of war". Rather, they document -he adds- «the harsh cultural conflict, religious and ideological that entailed that first encounter between two worlds». Very timely comment, that sweetens the slaughter of 550 People, 40 of them Spanish. The curious thing is that Cortés has been judged anachronistically in all his behaviors, passing its cruelest episodes through the sieve of a decalogue of human rights then, and many centuries later, nonexistent.
I trusted that, for once, Spain would be capable of facing the conquest with the legitimate passion of the proud mother of her children
I hoped that the exhibition would take me from the Yucatan peninsula to the beaches of Veracruz and then, via Cempoala, Tlaxcala and Cholula, to the old heart of the aztec empire, that in its journey the emotion and intrigues of one of the great episodes of History throbbed, to approach its protagonists first-hand and to go through the most controversial events with courage and rigor.
trusted, in the end, in what, for once, Spain would be capable of facing the conquest of Mexico with the legitimate passion of the proud mother of her children, without dodging dramatic episodes or acquitting brutal behavior, but fleeing at the same time from the Manichaeisms that have given her a complex for centuries.
Apart from these deficiencies, the exhibition is a wise first step to restore Hernán Cortés in History
"Itinerary of Hernán Cortés", and say, does not achieve that objective -beyond the undoubted interest of the exhibited pieces and the attractiveness of the audiovisual elements- and the attempt (if there was) it stays halfway. yes it is remarkable, however, the valorization that he makes of New Spain (What was the viceroyalty called?) illuminated by Cortés, which, as he rightly points out, "became the richest region, cultured and advanced of America», with a standard of living higher than many regions of old Europe. No wonder, the first “single currency” in history was put into circulation in its domains: the Mexican “duro” of silver. Despite Hernán Cortés, course.
Apart from these deficiencies, the exhibition is a wise first step to restore Hernán Cortés in History, "with all its greatness and all its defects", as he wished the Mexican Nobel Prize, already deceased, Octavio Paz, one of the most distinguished voices of modern Mexico. go see it, if you have the chance (Canal Art Exhibition Center, next to Madrid's Plaza de Castilla) and be amazed by the magnitude of the conquest of Mexico.
