Invading Guatemala: Spanish, Nahua, and Maya Accounts of the Conquest Wars

Latin American Originals

by Matthew Restall

After invading highland Guatemala in 1524, Spaniards claimed to have smashed the Kaqchikel and K'iche' Maya kingdoms and to have forged a new colony--with their leader, Pedro de Alvarado, as Guatemala's conquistador. This volume shows that the real story of the Spanish invasion was very different. Designed to be both an accessible introduction to the topic as well as a significant contribution to conquest scholarship, the volume presents for the first time English translations of firsthand accounts by Spaniards, Nahuas, and Mayas. Alvarado's letters to Cortes, published here in English for the first time in almost a century, are supplemented with accounts by one of his cousins, by his brother Jorge, and by Bernal Diaz and Bartolome de Las Casas. Nahua perspectives are presented in the form of pictorial evidence, along with written testimony by Tlaxcalan and Aztec veterans who fought as invading allies of the Spaniards; their claim to have done most of the fighting emerges as a powerful argument. The views of the invaded are represented by Kaqchikel and Tz'utujil accounts. Together, these sources reveal a fascinating multiplicity of perspectives and show how the conquest wars of the 1520s were a profoundly brutal moment in the history of the Americas.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Latin American History

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2008

About the author

Matthew Restall is a historian of Colonial Latin America. He is an ethnohistorian and a scholar of conquest, colonization, and the African diaspora in the Americas. He is currently Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. He is President of the American Society for Ethnohistory, a former editor of Ethnohistory journal, a senior editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review, editor of the book series Latin American Originals, and co-editor of the Cambridge Latin American Studies book series.

Reviews

[Claire Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it says on the tin: translated accounts of people who were involved in the Spanish invasion and conquest of Guatemala. This is not a narrative of the invasion, but rather a compilation of primary sources that give details of the events from various perspectives. The language made some of it a bit of a slog (it’s translated 16th century Spanish, Nahuatl, and Mayan after all) but the substance of the material itself is interesting and extremely valuable for understanding the conquest from people who were there.

[Jayme Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great selection of varying accounts of the Spanish invasion of Maya Guatemala. It highlights the ways differing accounts record history at times almost in opposition of each other. It also gives a great glimpse of the Post Classic Maya just right before the colonial period and the end of ancient Mesoamerica.

[José García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, I hope it becomes available in Spanish and introduced in the curriculum for primary schools in Guatemala. The books tells the story of the conquest of Guatemala from the point of view of the Nahua and Spanish conquistadors, the Kaqchiquel and the Tz'utujil people. A must read for anyone interested in understanding how Guatemala was founded.

[Nranger7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting with some really good primary sources.