The saga is filled with political intrigue and the quest for power. Surprisingly, the story is not ripped from today’s headlines. Instead, it is the tale of the Spanish conquest of Mexico nearly five centuries ago.
Bradley Benton, NDSU assistant professor of history, spent the summer as part of a team studying and translating the 75-page original manuscript of “Décimatercia relación” or “Thirteenth Relation” by historian Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. With funding from the University of Iowa’s Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Benton joined two other scholars in the intricate work.
According to Benton, the historical account is written in Spanish from the perspective of indigenous allies who aided the conquistadors. “Many people are surprised to learn that native peoples fought alongside the Spaniards. But, these native allies had strong economic and political incentives to do so. Historians are just starting to realize that and I find that really exciting,” Benton said.
“He writes more than a century after the Spanish conquest took place,” Benton said, noting Ixtilxochitl’s writings are from the 17th century. “He is a descendent of both Spaniards and Indians, and he acts much like a cultural go-between or intermediary. He makes the conquest palatable to a European audience, almost turning it into a sort of medieval chivalric romance. But the history itself is very much focused from the perspective of the Native people and their politics.”
The story tells of a divided Aztec kingdom and the struggles of two brothers to gain control of the throne. A brother sides with conquistador Hernando Cortés, deposes his sibling and threatens death to fellow Natives who do not convert to Christianity.
“Aztec culture seems so far removed from us, but when you dig down deeper, there are a lot of similarities. They were motivated by the same things as today – political ambition and the desire for wealth,” Benton said.
Ixtlilxochitl’s history of the conquest was last translated into English during the 1970s and is rarely found in bookstores or libraries. Benton and his colleagues – Amber Brian of the University of Iowa and Pablo Garcia Loaeza of West Virginia University – have submitted their completed manuscript to Penn State University Press for consideration. Benton’s hope is the new translation will become widely distributed for use by both undergraduate history students and specialists in the field.
The team of researchers may now seek a National Endowment of the Humanities grant to translate Ixtlilxochitl’s longest work, titled “History of the Chichimec Nation.”
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
