In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, a former drug trafficker who had worked in cooperation with La Linea said it was not uncommon to see abducted women at the gang's parties. And when he did not see the women again, he simply assumed they had been killed. He explained his logic by telling the reporters: “Sometimes, when you cross a shipment of drugs to the United States, adrenaline is so high that you want to celebrate by killing women.”
While all of the factors that would appear to contribute to the wholesale violence against women in Juárez also occurs in other border cities, the women in them have not be subjected to anywhere near the same amount of terror. Tijuana has more factories, a largely corrupt police force and just as many entrenched gangs. The conditions in places like Nuevo Laredo, Calexico, Matamoros and other cities are much the same as they are in Juárez, but the women there are not nearly as likely to be victims of rape and murder.
I asked the Mexicans I knew if they had a theory. Only one of them—Miguel G, a journalist who has fled Mexico to work in the U.S. as a graphic designer—did. He told me: “Juárez is just a bad place.”
Chapter 2
The Eagle Eats the Snake
Mexico is not like the United States or Canada. Of course, it has a different official language, but it also has a state religion, different legal and political systems, and a much more violent history. It is also what economists refer to as a developing nation, what we used to call a third-world country.
And it has a different way of thinking. When the Nobel Prize-winning Mexican poet and diplomat Octavio Paz was asked about the difference between Mexicans and North Americans, he put it bluntly: “The Mexican tells lies because he delights in fantasy, or because he is desperate, or because he wants to rise above the sordid facts of his life; the North American does not tell lies. The North Americans are credulous.”
More importantly, Mexico has a long history of unstable governments being replaced by periods of corrupt, one-party rule. It has withstood several violent coups, at least one full-scale revolution, been invaded several times by foreign powers and has even had two emperors. From the time the Mexica nation defeated the Azcapotzalco in 1428 (and probably before that) until the election of Vicente Fox as president in 2000, Mexico had not experienced a single transfer of power to the opposition without violence. A knowledge of the Mexican history that helped incubate it is essential to the Mexican Drug War.
The Mexica
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1519, the territory that now forms Mexico was home to anywhere from 6 million to 25 million people (it is still difficult to estimate populations of pre-contact indigenous people). There were dozens of languages and ethnic groups, but much of the area was dominated by a loose alliance of Nahuatl speakers now referred to as the Aztecs. They arrived in Mexico from the north about 1,500 years ago, pushing the hunter-gatherer Otomanguean people farther south. The Aztecs' advanced agriculture, technology and social structure allowed them to establish a very large territory, spanning much of modern-day Mexico from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific coast.
One group of Nahuatl speakers who arrived in Aztec territory in the late 14th century and became one of its confederates identified themselves as the Mxihtli, and are known to history as the Mexica. They asked the permission of the area's dominant people, the Azcapotzalco, to settle in the valley surrounding Lake Texcoco in central Mexico. The Azcapotzalco agreed. According to legend, the Mexica saw an eagle eating a snake on a prickly pear cactus, decided it was a message from above telling them where to settle, and set up their homes at the spot. This image is now reproduced on the Mexican flag. On a marshy island in Lake Texcoco, the Mexica founded the city of Tenochtitlan, and the area they dominated was called Mxihco or Mexico.
About 100 years later, the Mexica had grown in power and prestige and began to rival the Azcapotzalco as the dominant Aztec group. After an Azcapotzalco murdered the Mexica leader, the Mexica aligned with two other Aztec nations and defeated the Azcapotzalco in 1428. The survivors assimilated into the Mexica.
By the early 16th century, the Mexica had easily grown more powerful than any other Aztec people and were considered the dominant people. Their leader (or “Huey Tlatoani”) was a bellicose king who put into effect many laws designed to elevate the noble class above the commoners, including one that forbade commoners from watching nobles eat. His name was Motehcuzma Xocoyotzin, but he is referred to by historians as Moctezuma II. and is more commonly known as Montezuma.
Cortés lands on the Yucátan
At about that time, sailors from Spain made frequent trips to the Americas, particularly around the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. One of them—Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, commonly known as Hernán Cortés—visited Cuba and what is now the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. He was part of a group who called themselves conquistadores (conquerers) because their primary activity was claiming new territories for Spain, forcing the inhabitants to work for them and to accept their religion.
The governor of Hispaniola hired Cortés to colonize Mexico as the Spanish had Cuba and Hispaniola, but then changed his mind because he decided Cortés was undermining his authority and seeking to claim more glory than he deserved (the two had been rivals in school back in Spain). Defying the governor's orders, Cortés went into considerable personal debt to collect 11 ships, 100 sailors, 530 men (including 12 with guns), a small but undetermined number of women, at least 100 slaves, 13 horses and a few small cannons for his expedition.
He landed on the Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico. Unlike the high, dry plateau inhabited by the Aztecs, the jungly Yucatán was home to the Maya, a loosely knit and constantly bickering group of self-determined nations with a common language, but one—unlike the Aztecs—who lacked a dominant group or capital city.
Cortés and his men were not the only Spaniards in Mexico when they landed. An earlier expedition had arrived by accident, lost in a storm and shipwrecked on the Yucatán coast. The survivors were quickly captured by the local Mayans, who distributed them among the area's important families as slaves. By the time Cortés arrived, disease and other fates had killed all but two—Gonzalo Guerrero, who won his freedom from the Maya by showing bravery in battle, and Gerónimo de Aguilar, a Franciscan friar who escaped and was accepted as a free man by a neighboring group of Mayans who had a grudge against his captors.
Cortés and his men lived in relative peace among the Mayans there. Before long, he was told stories of two other white men in the vicinity. He eventually met with both Guerrero and Aguilar and told them of his plan to colonize Mexico for Spain. Aguilar agreed to be his guide and translator, while Guerrero rebuffed him, choosing instead to return to his group of Mayans to fight against the Spanish.
While exploring the Yucatán, Cortés fell in love with a Mayan slave. He was told she was a captured Aztec princess, but modern historians doubt that. Her exact name is also disputed—she is usually called Malinche, Malintzin or Mallinali—but Cortés named her Doña Marina. She would stay with him in Mexico and later had a son by him.
Aware that he had to succeed in Mexico or face the governor and potential execution, Cortés asked the Mayans if they knew of any big cities, preferably those with gold. He was told of such a place, farther north, called Cempoala. This was the capital of the Totonac nation and had about 20,000 people in what is now the state of Veracruz. The Cempoala townspeople welcomed the conquistadores and quickly agreed to allow them to build their own settlement nearby. Later, some decided to ally with the Spanish to invade the cities of the Aztecs, where they said the real wealth was. While there, Cortés learned of a conspiracy by some of his men to sail back to Cuba, so he destroyed his entire fleet, forcing his men to stay in Mexico.
Together, the Spaniards and the Totonacs made the long trip northwest. They first reached the territory of a nation called the Tlaxcala. Over the course of the previous century, the Mexica-led Aztecs had launched a series of conflicts later referred to as the Flow
er Wars, in which they conquered and absorbed most of their neighboring nations. The one exception was the Tlaxcala.
The Tlaxcala didn't trust the newcomers and attacked. They were excellent warriors and surprised the Spanish with their fighting ability, eventually surrounding them. This could have been the end of Cortés and his men, but for some tense negotiations which managed to change the minds of the Tlaxcalteca leaders. Tired of constant conflict and fearing they would be the Mexicas' next victims unless they acted, the Tlaxcala allied with the Spanish and Totonacs and agreed to send a thousand Tlaxcalteca soldiers to help invade the Aztec cities. As part of the deal, the Tlaxcalteca leaders would not pay tribute to the Spanish and would be allowed to build a fortress in Tenochtitlan, and rule it militarily. Fearing an alliance between the Mexica and the Tlaxcala, who shared a language and religion, if he did not acquiesce, Cortés agreed.
By that time, the Aztec leaders in Tenochtitlan had heard of the Spanish advance and sent emissaries with gifts and offers of peace. Cortés accepted and sent two of his own men to speak with the Mexica.
Against the advice of the Tlaxcalteca, Cortés advanced on the city of Cholula. The second-biggest city in Mexico after Tenochtitlan with about 100,000 residents, Cholula was a multi-ethnic religious center with a pyramid and 365 temples. Although greatly influenced by the Aztecs, Cholula was not aligned with any nation and had almost no military, depending instead on the help of the gods—and the goodwill of its neighbors—for defense.
The advancing army arrived peacefully, but not without tension. What happened next is in doubt. Cortés' side of the story is that Doña Marina heard from a Cholulan noblewoman of a plot to murder the Spanish in their sleep. The Tlaxcalteca version is that Cortés had promised them Cholula, and they were enraged when they found out that the Cholulans had tortured their ambassador. It may only have been a rumor. The Aztecs claimed that the Tlaxcala were angry at the Spanish for delaying in Cholula and were ready to attack them unless they did something.
Whatever the reason, Cortés and his men massacred the Cholulans. In his own account, Cortés claimed his men set fire to the city and killed 3,000 people in less than three hours. Another Spaniard who was there put the total number of dead at 30,000.
The massacre sent a shock wave through the area. Terrified of the Spanish and their allies, the local people did not oppose their march through their country. To add to the terror campaign, Cortés sent emissaries to the Mexica, telling them that because the people of Cholula hadn't shown him proper respect, they had had to be punished. He also added that gold would be an appropriate way to show respect.
Arriving at Tenochtitlan on November 8, 1519, Cortés and his men must have marvelled. With 300,000 residents, Tenochtitlan rivalled any European city except Constantinople. Tenochtitlan was built on an island and was accessible only by boat or by one of four narrow causeways. Moctezuma greeted Cortés personally with a great celebration and dressed him in a floral robe, the highest honor his people could bestow.
Moctezuma housed and fed the 3,500 invaders in his brother's palace. Cortés demanded gold, and Moctezuma gave it to him. Cortés insisted on more. Again he was given what he wanted. He demanded that the two most important idols in the main temple pyramid be destroyed and replaced by statues of the Virgin Mary and St. Christopher. Again, to avoid war with the well-armed Spanish and their allies, his will was granted. Sensing tension among the locals, Cortés then took Moctezuma prisoner, telling the Mexica that his life would be spared as long as they did not revolt.
Word then arrived that another, much larger group of Spaniards was in Mexico. Pánfilo de Narváez had been sent by the governor of Hispaniola to arrest Cortés and colonize the Aztecs. Desperate, Cortés led 260 of his soldiers to meet de Narváez and his 900 men. Catching them by surprise, Cortés won a brief but intense battle and took de Narváez (who lost an eye in the fighting) prisoner. Upon hearing about the gold of Tenochtitlan, most of de Narváez's men joined Cortés.
Returning to Tenochtitlan, Cortés was shocked to see the Spanish who had been left behind being held prisoner by the Mexica. In an effort to calm the situation, Cortés arranged to have Moctezuma appear on a high balcony and give a speech imploring the Mexica to let the Spanish leave peaceably. The crowd started to shout insults and throw stones at Moctezuma. He was hit by some and badly injured, dying a few days later.
Cortés joined his men under siege and started to make a plan. Since the Mexica had removed large sections of each of the causeways, Cortés had his men construct a wooden platform they could use to bridge the gaps. Using both darkness and rain as a cover, the Spaniards snuck out of the palace where they were being held late in the evening of July 1, 1520. They were detected after having crossed the first gap, where the platform got stuck. The Spaniards and their allies were unable to dislodge it before they were set upon by thousands of Mexica soldiers. Cortés and other nobles on horseback (and at least one man on foot) were able to leap over the second gap to safety, but the remaining Spaniards and their allies had to jump into the lake and try to swim to safety. Many of the Mexica were armed with atlatls, a spear-throwing device that could accurately send a projectile the length of a football field and, at close range, could penetrate armor. More than 600 of the Spanish, many of their allies, their guns and almost all of their loot were lost in the escape.
What remained of Cortés' army returned to Tlaxcala. After appealing to King Charles I of Spain, Cortés received reinforcements from Cuba, and he and the Tlaxcala again turned their attention to the Aztecs. Over the next year, Cortés managed to subdue—usually, but not always, by force—the entire Aztec nation except for the residents of two cities, the Mexica of Tenochtitlan and nearby Tlatelolco, which was smaller and largely dependent on Tenochtitlan.
When Cortés returned, he launched several ships in Lake Texcoco and cut the causeways that were the only dry-land links Tenochtitlan had with the mainland, as well as the aqueduct that brought in fresh water from the hills because the lake's high salt content made it non-potable. The Mexica held out for eight desperate months, sacrificing 70 Spanish prisoners to their gods, but were no match for the Spanish cannons, starvation, dehydration and a smallpox epidemic that claimed one-third of their population. Finally, on August 13, 1521, the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, surrendered Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco to Cortés.
The Spanish legacy
Cortés destroyed the city, expelled the Mexica, and built a new one, Ciudad de México (Mexico City), in its place. He was appointed governor of what was named Virreinato de Nueva España (the Viceroyalty of New Spain), banned the Mexica from living in Mexico City and demanded the destruction of all statues of the Aztec gods, replacing them with Christian saints.
The story of how Cortés conquered the Aztecs is valuable today not just because it explains how modern Mexico began, but also how many of the factors that were put into play have had a profound effect even today. Many indigenous Mexicans have retained their ethnic identities, particularly in southern states like Oaxaca and Chiapas, which have experienced independence movements and even armed rebellions since the 1990s. Cortés established a strong Christian religious presence and Spanish customs and legal traditions, which still hold to some extent today.
The most important of traditions the Spanish brought was a social system called the encomienda (parcelling). Under this system, each Spanish immigrant was assigned a specific number of indigenous people that he was obligated to protect, teach Spanish and instruct in the Roman Catholic faith. In return, they would pay him in crops, gold and other things of value. This custom established a harsh class system based on ethnicity.
Cortés had a mixed-ethnicity son, perhaps the first person born of half-European/half-indigenous American descent. Soon after he was born, Martín Cortés was separated from his mother and sent to live with his father's relatives back in Spain. When he was about 6 years old, his father petitioned the pope to legitimize all three of his illegitimate children, which was granted.<
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But when he returned to New Spain with his half-brothers (one from a previous marriage and two more from later marriages), Martín Cortés did not enjoy the same legal rights as them. The crown-appointed viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, had installed a strict caste system that went farther than the encomienda. The five basic castes were (in declining order of prestige and rights): Peninsular, a person born in Spain to Spanish parents: Criollo/Criolla, person born in New Spain to Spanish parents; Mestizo/Mestiza, a person born in New Spain with one Spanish parent and one indigenous parent (later, anyone of mixed European-indigenous ancestry); Indio/India, a person of indigenous descent; and Negro/Negra, a person of African descent. Martín Cortés is still referred to in Mexico as the “first Mestizo.”
It was a harsh system. No one but Peninsulares could hold public office and the vast majority of New Spain's prosperity that wasn't shipped off to Spain was in their hands, even though they were very few in number. And as time went on, they were relatively fewer in number—in the United States and Canada, the vast majority of immigrants from Europe arrived as families, but in Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America, the bulk of immigrants from Spain were single men.
The few who married other Peninsulares had children who were Criollos (as did those who married Criollas), while those who married Mestizas or Indias fathered Mestizo. Aside from the hunters and trappers of the frozen Canadian North and Alaska, this phenomenon didn't happen in English-speaking North America where indigenous people were segregated, first by law and then by social and economic factors. That difference has led to very different ethnographics. Today Native Americans make up less than 1 percent of the total population of the U.S. and people of mixed indigenous/European roots are fewer still; in Canada, those numbers are 4 percent and a little more than 1 percent. In both countries, indigenous or part-indigenous people generally live away from major population centers and are rarely assimilated into mainstream culture. In Mexico, however, they are the mainstream culture: Mestizos now make up about three-quarters of the nation's total population, with what used to be known as Criollos and Indios both at about 12 percent, and others accounting for less than 1 percent.
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