Mexico Before and during the conquest

And then again many people would be resistant to the idea that during the conquest, the Mexicans(Aztecs) ate the españoles, their conquerors.

To anyone faint of heart, do not read beyond these words because I have quoted from Bernal Diaz del Castillo's History of the Conquest of Mexico.

Alicia

During the conquista while they were at war with each other the Aztecs would capture los españoles, cage them alive, fatten them and then carve out their hearts while they were still living and feed the warm hearts to their gods, the rest of the body they would eat. But then they complained that the españoles were too bitter to the taste and I quote from "The History of the Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz del Castillo.(page 342)

"We all directed our eyes thither and shocking to relate! saw our unfortunate countrymen driven by force, cuffs and bastinades to the place where they were to be sacrificed, which bloody ceremony was accompanied by the mournful sound of all the instruments of the temple. We perceived that when they had brought the unfortunate victoms to the flat summit of the body of the temple, where were the adoratories, they put plumes upon their heads, and with a kind of fan in hand of each, made them dance before their accursed idols. When they had done this, they laid them upon the bricks, on the stone used for the purpose, where they cut out their hearts, alive, and having presented them, yet palpitating, to their gods, they drew the bodies down the steps by the feet, where they were taken by others of their priests. Let the reader think what were our sensations on this occasion"

If at any time I begin to bemoan the Spanish Conquest all I have to do is read the history of the conquest and and it puts my mind at ease knowing that we were better off after the conquest, not perfect but better.

----- Original Message ----
From: Joseph Puentes
To: general@nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 1:04:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Vegeterian Mexican Cooking

I moved over to the general list.

thanks Arturo and Marge. Can you imagine how they must have been eaten
by the mosquitos if they were also eating them in quantities large
enough to form bricks.

Arturo if your memory triggers the names of those guest lecturers I'd
love to contact them to see if they'd be willing to do a podcast on that
subject for the http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com site.

thanks again very interesting reply from both of you.

dogs, huh, I betya a lot of Mexican folk would resist the idea that our
ancestors ate them. Then again a lot of folks are resistant to the idea
that the Mexican population has a significant African blood line mixed in.

joseph

====================

Joseph Puentes
http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
http://H2Opodcast.blogspot.com/ (Blog for above)
http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com (Latin American History Podcast)

arturoramos wrote:
> Joseph:
>
> I applaud you on your conviction and resolve to make the conversion. I tried vegeterianism for a while in college and converted back.
>
> My father, for health resasons, is largely a vegetarian as of several years back. He eats some fish and a bit of chicken but nothing else. He gets to eat nopales, frijoles, calabazas, elotes, huitlacoche, tunas and all sorts of other foods that he loves. The problem is more social since my mother and most of his acquaintances still eat menudo, pozole and tacos de carnitas. To my mother's credit she has started making chicken pozole.
>
> Anyhow, in college I had a course on pre-Hispanic Mexican history and anthropology and we had a guest lecturer for a couple of classes on the historic gastronomy of Mexico and given that turkeys and dogs were pretty much the only domesticated animals in Mexico... yes Mexicans ate dogs... little ones that looked like Chihuahuas but fatter because they force fed them corn... the diet was largely vegetarian.
>
> Beans, huitlacoche and fresh water algea and moss provided rich vegetarian protein sources.