Mesoamerican Histories of Defeat: From Omens to Sacred Narratives

The defeat suffered by Mexica forces at the hands of Cortés and his indigenous allies called for explanations not merely military or political, but also cosmological. This essay tracks important changes in Mesoamerican memories regarding this defeat, focusing on three sources: the earliest reported omens of Mexica defeat, recorded in the 1530s--a tradition independent from omens listed later in the Florentine Codex; Chimalpahin’s reinterpretation of conquest as Christian predestination; and Zapotec narratives that tied the emergence of their communities to a sacred history of violence, defeat, and persistence.