Gangland (4 page)

Returning to Tenochtitlan, Cortés was shocked to see the Spanish who had been left behind being held prisoner by the Mexica. In an effort to calm the situation, Cortés arranged to have Moctezuma appear on a high balcony and give a speech imploring the Mexica to let the Spanish leave peaceably. The crowd started to shout insults and throw stones at Moctezuma. He was hit by some and badly injured, dying a few days later.

Cortés joined his men under siege and started to make a plan. Since the Mexica had removed large sections of each of the causeways, Cortés had his men construct a wooden platform they could use to bridge the gaps. Using both darkness and rain as a cover, the Spaniards snuck out of the palace where they were being held late in the evening of July 1, 1520. They were detected after having crossed the first gap, where the platform got stuck. The Spaniards and their allies were unable to dislodge it before they were set upon by thousands of Mexica soldiers. Cortés and other nobles on horseback (and at least one man on foot) were able to leap over the second gap to safety, but the remaining Spaniards and their allies had to jump into the lake and try to swim to safety. Many of the Mexica were armed with
atlatls
, a spear-throwing device that could accurately send a projectile the length of a football field and, at close range, could penetrate armor. More than 600 of the Spanish, many of their allies, their guns and almost all of their loot were lost in the escape.

What remained of Cortés' army returned to Tlaxcala. After appealing to King Charles I of Spain, Cortés received reinforcements from Cuba, and he and the Tlaxcala again turned their attention to the Aztecs. Over the next year, Cortés managed to subdue—usually, but not always, by force—the entire Aztec nation except for the residents of two cities, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan and nearby Tlatelolco, which was smaller and largely dependent on Tenochtitlan.

When Cortés returned, he launched several ships in Lake Texcoco and cut the causeways that were the only dry-land links Tenochtitlan had with the mainland, as well as the aqueduct that brought in fresh water from the hills because the lake's high salt content made it non-potable. The Mexica held out for eight desperate months, sacrificing 70 Spanish prisoners to their gods, but were no match for the Spanish cannons, starvation, dehydration and a smallpox epidemic that claimed one-third of their population. Finally, on August 13, 1521, the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, surrendered Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco to Cortés.

The Spanish legacy

Cortés destroyed the city, expelled the Mexica, and built a new one, Ciudad de México (Mexico City), in its place. He was appointed governor of what was named
Virreinato de Nueva España
(the Viceroyalty of New Spain), banned the Mexica from living in Mexico City and demanded the destruction of all statues of the Aztec gods, replacing them with Christian saints.

The story of how Cortés conquered the Aztecs is valuable today not just because it explains how modern Mexico began, but also how many of the factors that were put into play have had a profound effect even today. Many indigenous Mexicans have retained their ethnic identities, particularly in southern states like Oaxaca and Chiapas, which have experienced independence movements and even armed rebellions since the 1990s. Cortés established a strong Christian religious presence and Spanish customs and legal traditions, which still hold to some extent today.

The most important of traditions the Spanish brought was a social system called the
encomienda
(parcelling). Under this system, each Spanish immigrant was assigned a specific number of indigenous people that he was obligated to protect, teach Spanish and instruct in the Roman Catholic faith. In return, they would pay him in crops, gold and other things of value. This custom established a harsh class system based on ethnicity.

Cortés had a mixed-ethnicity son, perhaps the first person born of half-European/half-indigenous American descent. Soon after he was born, Martín Cortés was separated from his mother and sent to live with his father's relatives back in Spain. When he was about 6 years old, his father petitioned the pope to legitimize all three of his illegitimate children, which was granted.

But when he returned to New Spain with his half-brothers (one from a previous marriage and two more from later marriages), Martín Cortés did not enjoy the same legal rights as them. The crown-appointed viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, had installed a strict caste system that went farther than the
encomienda
. The five basic castes were (in declining order of prestige and rights):
Peninsular
, a person born in Spain to Spanish parents:
Criollo/Criolla
, person born in New Spain to Spanish parents;
Mestizo/Mestiza
, a person born in New Spain with one Spanish parent and one indigenous parent (later, anyone of mixed European-indigenous ancestry);
Indio/India
, a person of indigenous descent; and
Negro/Negra
, a person of African descent. Martín Cortés is still referred to in Mexico as the “first
Mestizo
.”

It was a harsh system. No one but
Peninsulares
could hold public office and the vast majority of New Spain's prosperity that wasn't shipped off to Spain was in their hands, even though they were very few in number. And as time went on, they were relatively fewer in number—in the United States and Canada, the vast majority of immigrants from Europe arrived as families, but in Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America, the bulk of immigrants from Spain were single men.

The few who married other
Peninsulares
had children who were
Criollos
(as did those who married
Criollas
), while those who married
Mestizas
or
Indias
fathered
Mestizo
. Aside from the hunters and trappers of the frozen Canadian North and Alaska, this phenomenon didn't happen in English-speaking North America where indigenous people were segregated, first by law and then by social and economic factors. That difference has led to very different ethnographics. Today Native Americans make up less than 1 percent of the total population of the U.S. and people of mixed indigenous/European roots are fewer still; in Canada, those numbers are 4 percent and a little more than 1 percent. In both countries, indigenous or part-indigenous people generally live away from major population centers and are rarely assimilated into mainstream culture. In Mexico, however, they
are
the mainstream culture:
Mestizos
now make up about three-quarters of the nation's total population, with what used to be known as
Criollos
and
Indios
both at about 12 percent, and others accounting for less than 1 percent.

The rise of Miguel Hidalgo

As with many colonies, an independence movement emboldened by the revolutions in the United States (1775–1783) and France (1789–1799) emerged in New Spain. As they grew in numbers,
Mestizos
and
Criollos
became more vocal about their grievances.

The independence movement accelerated when Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, declared war on Portugal. Claiming he was allied with Spain, Napoleon moved thousands of troops into the country on the pretext he was surrounding Portugal. When he had established a full-size army in Spain in 1807, he dismissed King Ferdinand VII and proclaimed his older brother, Giuseppe Bonaparte, King Joseph I of Spain. After an initially unsuccessful Spanish revolt, Joseph stayed on the throne until Lord Wellington defeated his army in Vitoria, Spain, in 1813. He then moved to New York City (where he sold the Spanish crown jewels), then Philadelphia, before settling in New Jersey. His most notable acts while on the throne were to put an official end to the notorious Spanish Inquisition, and to sign the Spanish Constitution that limited the king's powers.

Joseph's usurpation of the throne caused an uproar in New Spain. The
Peninsulares
, who were loyal to Ferdinand and his Bourbon dynasty, were incensed. In September 1808, they unseated Viceroy José de Iturrigaray and installed a provisional government headed by one of their own, Gabriel de Yermo. The long-term plan was to restore Ferdinand to the throne in New Spain, and eventually in Spain as well.

The most prominent leader of the early independence movement was a
Criollo
priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mondarte Villaseñor, better known now as Miguel Hidalgo.

A parish priest from the small town of Dolores in the central state of Guanajuato, Hidalgo worked hard to help the poor people around him, teaching grape farming, bee-keeping and the cultivation of silkworms to help them improve economically. He was outspoken in his criticism of
Peninsulare
politics during the famine of 1808 caused by a drought in the grain-rich state of Durango, when they withheld grain from the poor, speculating that their hunger would boost the price of the staple.

Increasingly fed up with the oppressive
Peninsulares
, on the night of September 15, 1810, Hidalgo sent some of his armed followers to the Dolores sheriff's office to free 80 men he felt were unfairly imprisoned. Aware that he was now officially a revolutionary, the following morning at mass he gave a speech that is now reverently referred to as the “Grito de Dolores” (the cry of Dolores) and considered the first Mexican declaration of independence:

My children, a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen 300 years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once ... Will you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the
gachupines
!

Gapuchines
was a slang term for
Peninsulares
. Immediately, people, including some
Criollos
, but mostly
Mezitos
and
Indios
, rallied to his support and he soon had an army of 800 men. But Hidalgo had no military training, nor did most of his men. About half of them had horses but few had any weapons more effective than a shovel or hoe. Because Hidalgo was a priest and many of his followers, while uneducated, were deeply spiritual, the army had a religious fervor. A rumor started that they were fighting under Ferdinand's auspices, and many believed it, though the Spanish king was unaware of the revolt.

Hidalgo's plan was to march more than 200 miles southeast to Mexico City to confront the
Peninsulare
government. One of his first stops was the ornate Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Atotonilco (now a World Heritage Site frequently called “the Sistine Chapel of Mexico”). He took one of the chapel's portraits of the Virgin Mary, attached it to his lance and used it as a banner to rally his men. He encouraged his men to make their own banners with political statements like: “Long live Ferdinand VII!” and “Death to bad government!”

At first, it was a very successful operation. Hidalgo and his men would come into a town and convince the inhabitants to join them, frequently imprisoning
Peninsulares
and their
Criollo
supporters. By the end of September, Hidalgo's army had captured several towns and numbered 50,000.

But a lack of discipline led to problems. The men began to loot and terrorize the towns they entered. Prisoners were frequently executed without trial. When they reached Guanajuato, the terrified
Peninsulares
and their
Criollo
supporters holed up in the town's massive public grain storage facility. After two days of heavy fighting, Hidalgo's men overwhelmed the defenses and massacred about 600 people, including many women and children.

Hidalgo's problems magnified. Until then, Hidalgo's army had enjoyed a great deal of support from liberal
Criollos
, many of them comparatively wealthy, but the terrorism of the campaign turned a large proportion of them away from his cause. Hidalgo's second-in-command, a
Criollo
army veteran named Ignacio Allende (one of the few of the men with military experience) was outraged and demanded Hidalgo do something. While Hidalgo admitted the massacre was tragic, he excused it by citing historic precedent, pointing out that all revolutions have been encumbered by unnecessary violence.

In October, Hidalgo's men granted him two titles—generalissimo for his rank as military commander and His Most Serene Highness to show his political and religious leadership. He made himself a splendid multi-colored uniform laced with both silver and gold. He marched on Valladolid, a city bigger than any his troops had encountered before, and took it with little struggle. Hidalgo took advantage of his biggest audience yet and railed against the
Peninsulares
, calling them arrogant and accusing them of keeping the rest of the country oppressed economically, politically and spiritually. He said that the goal of his cause was to “send them back to the Motherland.” While he was there, Hidalgo settled an old score, forcing his old friend, the Bishop of Valladolid, to rescind the excommunication order against him for heresy, apostasy and sedition on September 24, 1810.

His army stayed in Valladolid for several days, preparing for an assault on the capital. He negotiated with the local priests and promised not to allow the violence his men had visited upon other cities if he could help it. While there, he declared freedom for all slaves and an end to tribute payments to the government by
Indios
and
Mulattos
(a small sub-caste made up of children from
Criollo-Negro
unions).

But when he found that the local cathedral had been locked to keep him and his men out, Hidalgo was outraged. He didn't let his men run wild as they had in Guanajuato, but he did imprison every
Peninsular
regardless of sex or age, replaced everyone in public office with one of his followers, and raided the city's treasury.