SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

This book (222pg) edited by the well known Indigenous Scholar Miguel Leon-Portillo is one of the rare books to tell the story of the rape and genocide of mexico from, not only the perspective of the victims, but actually in their words. The book contains several extracts from rare Aztec testimonies of the genocide of mexico, with short introductions by Leon-Portillo to explain the background and peculiarities of the given text.

Unlike most accounts of the genocide of mexico, this one shows the great Aztec people with their full dignity, beauty, and culture, and shows them as a dignified, noble people even after the genocide and the enormous suffering and despair that that caused them. It also shows the european conquistadors accurately as blood thirsty savages who killed people for no reason at all, brutally tortured innocent people, including children, and who's main reason for doing anything was an incredibly greedy desire for rocks and stones. Also, unlike most accounts of the genocide of mexico, which show the Aztecs as stupid savages who were killed immediately as soon as they tried to resist the europeans' genocide, this account shows the Aztecs as they were: very cultured, with advanced forms of organization and religion, and a complex island city that was surely beyond the meager intelligence levels of the europeans at this time. It also shows the Aztecs resisting the european genocide bravely and fiercely, and far from the battle being one-sided, the Aztecs actually slaughtered and beat back the invading brutal colonial murderers many times. In the end of course they did lose to the murdering colonialists, but not before exacting a heavy price on them and fighting them to the death.

However we also see the faults and failures of the Aztecs, from the average Aztec's perspective. Like the Aztec leader who chose not to fight the europeans from the very start, when he already knew they were brutal murderers who had massacred all the inhabitants of several villages on the way to Tenoticlan. The same leader that was later imprisoned by the europeans and issued orders to the Aztec people on their behaf, and was later executed by the Aztec people for his treachery and selling out. We also see the collaborationist leaders from other tribes who acted as willing allies to the europeans, completely selling out their Aztec brothers, and in the end even their own people, to foreign white savages. On the hand, we see the radicalism and rebeliousness of the Aztec people who did not hesitate to rise up and take the fight to the colonialists, and execute their former leader, when their brothers were murdered in cold blood by the european savages. As during many other times in history, when a critical movement came, the leaders didn't hesitate to betray their people and sell out, and it took the people rising up and seizing power and initiative in their own hands for any proper response to the situation to be carried out.

Besides Aztec texts and testimonies, this book also includes many reproductions of Aztec art that was made shortly after the genocide, and they definetly add an excellent touch and help recreate the story even better. As you are reading this book, please remember our indigenous sisters and brothers in the americas who are still struggling for their rights and dignity against repressive and racist white/mestizo society. Enjoy comrades:

Liberation:

Vision of the Vanquished, or The Broken Spears by Miguel Leon-Portilla.pdf