CARTAS DE RELACIÓN

Liliam Domínguez: Fe muerta, C-Print.
http://www.liliamdominguez.com./

Captain Hernán Cortés was designated to be in charge of the third expedition to Culhua. In the taking of this enterprise, he discovered himself as a great conqueror, governor, and politician. In his “Cartas de relación,” Cortés presents an account of his achievements that, of course, corresponds to the imaginary supported by the Catholic Church in connection with the political agencies of the time.

The book has a well-defined structure and content. When it comes to the format, the book encloses a large introduction written by Mario Hernández Sánchez-Barba, a professor of Contemporary American History at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid; a bibliography with the principal editions of Cortés’s letters from 1522 to 1963; the documents as such with their respective dates; and a glossary. In reference to the content, Hernández-Sánchez has written: “Cada día parece más necesario acometer desde nuevas perspectivas la dimensión cortesiana y lo que constituye su gran obra: la nueva modelación política del México indígena, que produjo el rescate de México de la frontera oriental, para producir su occidentalización.” There is a descriptive intentionality of the actions in Cortés’s letters and an ideological objective, in relation to his political views. One interesting thing mentioned by Hernández-Sánchez is the fact that Cortés socially belonged within a region that had free access to arms. He was a member of a family of “hidalgos pobres.”

His letters frequently mention the beauty of the city of Technotitlan, the social and political organization of the state, and the structure of the Mexican tributary system that he borrowed to design his own model of dominium (14).  Cortés developed the concept of “reino” that has been imbued with a great significance in all chronicles about the conquest. According to Hernández-Sánchez the notion of kingdom implies two meanings. One of them comes from a theological point of view linked to the question of mission, and the other has a political sense in which the “reino” is understood as representation. The two last letters of the book give the idea of a perfectly instituted political order that resembles the structure of state.

On the other hand, there is a strong subjective quality in the letters. Many of them are impregnated by a severe criticism of other people’s thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. Velázquez, for instance, becomes somewhat of a tragic character whose flaw (an insatiable greed) is constantly denunciated by Cortés throughout the progress of the book. There exists also constant reference to the insertion of religious symbols like the image of the Virgin Mary as a method that would help the natives convert to Catholicism. The Indians are portrayed as practitioners of exotic procedures like human sacrifices and the consumption of human flesh due to their lack of understanding and knowledge. Cortés compares the battles against the Indians with the battles carried out by the Israelites in the Old Testament. He always appears as the great hero who, in the name of the Catholic faith, assaults and defeats an enemy who lives only in his imagination. (Cortés’s representation of the conquest truly reminds us of Don Quixote!) The view of the provinces of Mexico and Temixtitan inspired him to write: “Y aunque hubimos mucho placer en verlas, considerando el daño pasado que en ellas habíamos recibido, representósenos alguna tristeza por ello, y prometimos todos de nunca de ellas salir sin victoria, o dejar allí las vidas.” The conquest of Mexico was for him a question of vengeance and honor, though it happened at the expense of people’s lives.