Expert: Remains of Hernan Cortes at risk in Mexico | Science and Ecology | DW

Spanish historian Esteban Mira Caballos, biographer of Hernán Cortes, believes that the remains of the conqueror are “already at risk in Mexico,” where his character is increasingly antagonizing, so “it is time” for the Spanish government to demand that they return to the land in which he was born.

Esteban Mira, Doctor of American History, is the author of several books, the last of which is “Hernan Cortes, A Biography of the Twenty-first Century”, in which he tried to return this character “to the land of history, from where he never happened. He should have come out ” .

In an interview with the agencies, he recalls that Cortes’ remains were actually moved and hidden by Lucas Alaman in the 19th century to prevent their desecration. They are currently in Mexico City, in the church of Jesus Nazarino Hospital, which he founded himself and which is “still in operation after five centuries”.

According to Myra, although very few people know that the remains are found, in the priest, where the burial goes unnoticed, it is identified only by a small plaque, this year, with the celebration of the fifth centenary of the fall of Tenochtitlan, the access to the church was seized To avoid quarrels.

They are hiding the remains of Hernan Cortes

Therefore, although it was the will of the conqueror to rest forever in New Spain, the land he loved so much, the professor, who has been studying its historical character for more than thirty years, asserts that the time has come for the Spanish government to ask for his return so that he may rest in peace in your hometown in Medellin (Western Spain).

In his opinion, Cortes is very hated in Mexico because “a black legend has been created around him and the facts have been distorted, among other things because they claim that Spain invaded Mexico and speak in untrue terms”.

In this sense, he states that “it must be taken into account that 99 percent of the hosts or troops that entered Tenochtitlan were from Central America” ​​and “that the saying that the Indians conquered America and the Spaniards made it independent of the capital, therefore, is really a false and useful interpretation” .

For Esteban Mira, “Hernan Cortes was a very important person in history, who changed the world, for better or for worse.”

Although there were “actual massacres and atrocities” during the conquest of Mexico, he explains that “there was no genocide” because Cortes “wanted to rule a territory and needed labour.”

In his opinion, there are not many differences between historians around the world when interpreting this historical figure, but what happens “at the bottom of the street” is completely different, which can be considered a genocide or liberation of the indigenous tribes subject to the tyranny of the Aztecs and Mexico, and asserts: “Neither liberation nor genocide That history usually moves in intermediate tones.”

(efe)