Abstract

PASTOR, Marialba. Hernán Cortés and his faithful followers. Hist. graf [online]. 2016, n.47, pp.91-114. ISSN 1405-0927.

This text tries to prove how the account of the transcendental historical fact, the siege and fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, belongs to one, and only one eyewitness: Hernán Cortés, which is manifest in only one testimony: his third Carta de Relación. To support this assertion the text compares the content of this letter with the accounts of other 16th century chroniclers, and it emphasizes how the selection of events, the chronological sequence and Cortes’ interpretations are preserved almost intact, being added to each of them dialogues, speeches or digressions such as deeds, anecdotes or cases which took place in the Graeco-Roman, Christian or Spanish medieval past, all of which didn’t alter what came to be the “official version” of the siege and fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan; a version which will have to be carefully reassessed in the future.

Keywords : México-Tenochtitlan; Hernán Cortés; cartas de relación; 16th Century chroniclers; historical proves.

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