Prof. Luis

I wrote the following in response to Camilla Townsend’s introduction in Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs.

History is written by the victors, the invaders, the dominant ethnic and/or cultural group. Voices like that of the “Aztec Princess” are spoken over in the conversations Townsend refers to. The method the Mexica used and that Townsend intends to use of collating multiples perspectives in order to give a fuller picture leads me to share her optimism that the content of those conversations can at least be approximated. This is only if there are enough perspectives to begin with and if those perspectives are varied enough, of course.

Here I can connect back to the danger of the single story. Even if one or a few of those perspectives are intentionally or unintentionally distorted, the presence of so many others will work to counteract that.

Corroboration!