Andrea Martínez Baracs, historian: ‘Indigenous allies saved the Spanish on the Night of Sorrows’

Andrea Martínez Baracs (Mexico City, 69) is a historian with a doctorate from El Colegio de México, specializing in the Indigenous history of Mesoamerica and the processes of conquest and colonization. This week at Casa América in Madrid, she spoke about the political alliances between Indigenous peoples, specifically the Tlaxcalans and the Spanish Crown, offering a critical and rigorous perspective based on both Spanish and Indigenous sources. Historical enemies of the Mexica people, the Tlaxcalan rulers decided to ally themselves with the Spaniards led by Hernán Cortés after initially fighting against them. They participated in the entry into Tenochtitlan, its final siege, and other campaigns of conquest. In Mexican historiography, they have been portrayed as traitors, although this view is quite simplistic.

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