Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

The infamous meeting between Hernán Cortés and the Mexica emperor, Moctezuma, is often represented as a “great encounter” bringing together the “Old” and “New” Worlds: “For the very first time, a Native American emperor greeted a representative of the Europeans who had come to conquer and settle in his lands” (77). This encounter thus brought together two cultures that were soon embroiled in a violent war.

Interpretations of this meeting, and others between conquistadors and Indigenous people, have emphasized superior communication on Cortés’s part while others have centered the problem of miscommunication as leading to Indigenous downfall. Both interpretations are flawed, as the truth lies somewhere in between these presentations.

Surviving primary sources present conflicting accounts of Moctezuma and Cortés’s meeting. Bernal Díaz, for example, claims Moctezuma refused the conquistador’s handshake and instead extended his own. Neither the Nahuatl nor the Spanish versions contained in the Florentine Codex mention a handshake. Instead, the Nahuatl account says that Moctezuma bowed and then looked directly at the Spaniard, breaking with the Mexica traditional taboo that one must not look directly at the ruler, thereby offering Cortés a “cultural halfway point” (80). The Spanish version recounts a similar tale but emphasizes Cortés’s superiority and the submissive nature of the emperor’s bow. Communication thus happens with each man expressing his superiority and some “mutual respect,” but miscommunication also takes place, since “the two struggle to find common ground between two different cultures of lordly address and treatment” (82). Similar miscommunications and culture clashes occurred when Francisco Pizzaro met the Incan emperor, Atahuallpa.

Translation matters, too. Cortés, in keeping with Conquest tradition, relied heavily on Indigenous interpreters in his negotiations with Moctezuma, particularly a Nahua woman called Marina or La Malinche. She was an enslaved woman from Yucatan who spoke a Mayan dialect as well as her native Nahuatl. Malinche was thus able to translate Moctezuma’s words into Maya, which she then passed on to a Spanish interpreter who understood Maya. He in turn translated the speech into Spanish for Cortés, who spoke to the emperor using the same process in reverse. Thus, Malinche’s (and therefore Moctezuma’s) original words are lost to history and known only through this chain of translation. Restall believes that cultural and linguistic nuances of Moctezuma’s speech must have been “lost in translation” (85), thus making instances of miscommunication more likely.

The Spanish and Nahuatl accounts of the encounter between Moctezuma and Cortés exemplify the problem of misinterpretation and miscommunication. The Spanish account portrays the emperor’s speech, in which he alludes to Cortés as “a long-anticipated returning lord,” as “deferential” (97). However, this interpretation misses the Mesoamerican tradition of “polite speech” that was not meant to be taken literally. Rather, Restall claims, Moctezuma’s reference to Cortés’s supposed “lordship” was “a rhetorical artifice meant to convey the opposite—Moctezuma’s stature and multigenerational legitimacy” (97). The meaning of his words was taken out of context and lost in translation, henceforth misunderstood in the centuries since.

The myth of communication was convenient for conquistadors because it supported their assertions that Indigenous Americans “were subjugated, co-opted, and converted” (85). Contemporary historiography interrogates this myth while also giving life to a “countermyth” of miscommunication (85). According to these two mythologies, the Spanish were “either disinterested in communication, or they are so good at it that their skill defeats the natives” (85). Regardless, Restall shows that Cortés was not distinct from his predecessors and that he followed established conquest measures. He could not have communicated effectively were it not for the contributions of his interpreters, including the Indigenous woman, Malinche. Indigenous people were crucial to the Conquest’s success— heaping praise upon Cortés’s supposed “genius” in communicating therefore minimizes Indigenous roles in the Conquest.