Matthew Restall > Quotes

“It is about something much larger -the pernicious prevalence and insidious ubiquity of traditional narratives that justify invasion, conquest and inequality.”
― Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History

“The parallel is inescapable: General Scott is Cortés, and General Santa Anna is Montezuma; the two acts of surrender in Mexico City echo, illuminate, and legitimize each other, representing resonant moments in the march of progress that is “American” history.”
― Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History

“Do we prejudice our discussion and privilege traditional answers by styling the invaders as "explorers", th einvaded as "Indians", and their war as "the Conquest of Mexico" ?”
― Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History

“The origin myth of the Mexica included a tale of descent from seven lineages, who emerged from seven caves in a mythical location in the Mexican north.”
― Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

“Collective achievement, of course, is less appealing both to the participants and to those later reading about it as the human impulse is to look for the heroes and villains.”
― Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

“The clash of civilizations, the conquest wars, the protracted process of colonization are all eclipsed and elided into a single symbolic moment.”
― Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History

“To distinguish between the curved and the straight. —Horace (ca. 30 B.C.)”
― Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest