1.1 The Colonial Encounter

Cultures in contact

This theme explores what happens when societies meet — through conquest, colonization, and migration. Key required texts include Hernán Cortés's 'Segunda carta de relación' and the Nahua accounts collected in 'Visión de los vencidos'.

Two perspectives

The conquest is told from opposing viewpoints: the conqueror's letter to the Spanish king vs. the vencidos (the conquered), whose voices reveal loss and resistance. Perspective (perspectiva) shapes the whole account.

Later echoes

Rosario Castellanos's 'Balún Canán' revisits the aftermath of colonization in Chiapas, seen through a child's eyes, exposing the ongoing tension between Indigenous and mestizo Mexico.

Key terms

'Segunda carta de relación'

Cortés — the conquistador's account to the Spanish king

'Visión de los vencidos'

the conquest from the Indigenous (Nahua) perspective

'Balún Canán'

Rosario Castellanos — colonization's aftermath in Chiapas

perspectiva

perspective — whose viewpoint shapes an account

Theme

las sociedades en contacto — societies meeting/colliding

Try an AP-style question

Hernán Cortés's Cartas de relación were written mainly to…

1. entertain readers as fiction
2. justify his conquest to the Spanish king
3. criticize Spanish colonial policy
4. record Aztec poetry faithfully