aguavodka submitted:There was a very compelling Mexican feature film called The Other Conquest (1999) that touched on the codices and the traditional knowledge that either transformed or went underground with the arrival of the Spanish.
The film focuses on a Mexica scribe named Topiltzin (Damian Delgado) who witnesses the violence of the conquest and struggles to makes sense of his upturned world. It’s a good contrast to the impression given in most popular culture that Cortez showed up and all the native people just fell over dead. Yes, the Mexica civilization (i.e. empire) was destroyed, but the people of Mexico carried on. Their struggle was and is quite heroic.
The full film is available in full online in Spanish and Nahuatl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Fv2fpizcw
Wow! It looks pretty interesting from the description:
Topiltzin (compellingly played by Damián Delgado), the illegitimate son of Moctezuma, is one of the few survivors of Hernan Cortez’s invasion. An earnest priest makes it his personal mission to convert the recalcitrant Topiltzin, renaming him Tomas.
Topiltzin’s half-sister Tecuichpo (Elpidia Carrillo) plays along with the Europeans, learning Spanish and accepting Cortez as her conquering groom, but Topiltzin resists, enduring torture and brainwashing to preserve his own faith and identity, and he secretly prays to his old gods.
This is one of the most popular films in Mexican history, and was nominated for six Ariel Awards (won for Best Makeup). Damian Delgado is spectacular, as he was in Men with Guns (Guatemala), and Elpidia Carrillo is also excellent. Her other Indian roles are in La hija del puma (Guatemala) and Nuevo Mundo.
