Neal J Iacono

Cortés, Entering the Hummingbird's Nest Neal J Iacono

At age 19, Hernán Cortés, an only son, begins a journey from Spain to The New World to the east. After disappointing his parents while attending the university in Salamanca, his father gave him a choice; he could join in the war in Italy or leave to a 'New World' in the West Indies. The reader will take a journey to Hispaniola in 1504 where Cortés made a profitable new life. After 8 years as an accountant, he, with another Castilian fortune hunter, Diego Velázquez, moved from Hispaniola to Cuba where the native Taino were suppressed. After building resources and an apparently loveless marriage in Cuba, he planned and organized his conquest of México. Velázquez had been appointed governor of Spanish Cuba and he wanted to maintain sole control and power over the entire Caribbean region. After defying the wishes of Governor Velázquez, the 35-year-old Cortés departed Cape San Antonio Cuba in February of 1519, bound for the Yucatan Peninsula. Here, he meets Malinche, a bright attractive Méxican girl sold into slavery by her family to a Mayan chieftain. From Yucatan, he, with 400 conquistadores, fought his way into México from the coastal Mayan and Totonac lands. It was foretold; the avenging god Quetzalcoatl would return from the east to put a stop to human sacrifice in the new world. Cortés leads an insurrection against the hated Méxican overlords and goes on to meet the complex Emperor Montecuçuma, and The Blue Hummingbird on the Left [Huitzilopochtli]. The desire for riches and the aim to spread the word of Roman Catholicism remained his sworn task. By August 13, 1521, Lord Falling Eagle [Lord Quauhtemoctzin], the last Emperor of the Méxican Empire was captured. Cortés' had control of Tenochtitlán, the Méxican capital. He would go back to his family with riches and in triumph from his mission in New Spain.