History - The Indians' Point Of View
The moan extends, tears flow there in Tlatelolco.
Over the water left the Mexicans;
Like women; the flight is general
Where are we going? Oh, fiends! Then it is true?
Mexico City is being abandoned:
Smoke is rising; the fog extends...
With much weeping are greeted the Huiznahu�catl Motelhuihtzin.
The Tlailotl�catl Tlacotzin,
The Tlacatecuhtli Oquihtzin ...
Weep, my friends,
Understand that with these events
We have lost the Mexican Nation.
The water has been corrupted, the food has been spoiled!
This is what the creator has done to Tlatelolco.
Sin recato son llevados Motelhuihtzin y Tlacotzin.
Without pudor Motelhuihtzin and Tlacotzin are taken.
With songs they heartened each other at Acachinanco,
Ah, when they went to be tried at Coyoacan...
And all this happened to us.
We saw it,
We beheld it.
With this regretful and sad fate
We have been burdened.
On the roads lie broken arrows,
Hair spread around.
Roofless are the houses,
Reddened are their walls.
Worms creep on streets and squares,
And on the walls are splattered the brains.
Red are the waters, as if te�idas,
And when we drank them,
It was as if we drank agua de salitre.
We stroke, meanwhile, the adobe walls,
And all our legacy was a web of holes.
With the shields they sheltered, but
Not even with shields could they hold it alone.
We have eaten color�n sticks,
We have chewed salitrosa grass,
Adobe pebbles, lizards,
Mice, dirt, worms.
We barely ate meat,
On the fire it was put.
When the meat was barely cooked,
From there they snatched it,
On the fire itself, they ate it.
A price was put on our heads.
Price for the young, for the priest,
For the child and for the maiden.
Enough: The price for the poor, it was
Only two handfuls of maize,
Only ten mosquito cookies - tortas;
Our price was only twenty cakes of salty grass.
Gold, jade, rich clothes,
Quetzal feathers,
Everything that is precious
Was taken, and not appreciated...
Anonymous from Tlatelolco, 1528. (Biblioteca Nacional de M�xico.)
Strive, fight, Oh, Tlacaltecatl Temilotzin!:
The men from Castilla are leaving their ships and the chinampas
The Tenochcan is surrounded by war,
The Tlatelolcan is surrounded by war!
There comes to block the way Coyohuehuetzin the armero;
The Acolhua has left for the great way of Tepeyac.
The Tenochcan is surrounded by war,
The Tlatelolcan is surrounded by war!
The fire blackens,
Burning explodes the shot,
The fog has already spread:
�They have seized Cuauhtemoctzin! *
�Se extiende una brazada de pr�ncipes mexicanos!
An arm of Mexican Princes extends!
The Tenochcan is surrounded by war,
The Tlatelolcan is surrounded by war!
After nine days they are all taken to Coyohuacan
Cuauhtemoctzin, Coanacoch, Tetlepanquetzaltzin:
The kings are imprisoned.
Tlacotzin tried to confort them and told them:
"Oh sobrinos m�os, tened �nimo: con cadenas de oro atados.
"Oh, my nephews, have courage: with golden chains you are tied,
The kings are prisoners."
Responds the king Cuauhtemoctzin:
"Oh my nephew, you are captive, you are loaded with iron!"
"Who are you, who sits next to the Capitan General?"
"�Ah, it's Isabel, my little niece!"
"�Ah, it's true, captive are the kings!"
"For certain you will be a slave, you'll be somebody else's person:
The neckpiece will be forged, the quetzal will be weaved, in Coyohuacan."
"�Ah, it's true, captive are the kings!"
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