Institute of Latin American Studies

Professor Matthew Restall (Penn State University)

SLAS 2014, 50th Anniversary Conference - Keynote:

Turning Cortés and Moctezuma Upside Down

The first meeting of Cortés and Moctezuma in 1519 is famous and familiar, generally taken to be the act of surrender that the conquistador claimed it was. But what if Moctezuma did not surrender? What if the events of that day, and those that surrounded it, have been depicted in ways that created a false image of the conquistador and emperor? How might our understanding of the entire Spanish Conquest be altered if we turn upside down the stereotypes that comprise the mythical Cortés and Moctezuma? Might our assumptions about all well-known historical moments be thereby challenged?