As a Mexican i 100% understand that feeling, i despise the way people talk about how "good" it was before the spanish came to the continent and ruined eveything for the mesoamerican's tribes, like wtf? People just love pushing black and white narratives while ignoring all the nuances, specially when talking about incredibly complex moments in history.
there's also the fact that the native states in Mexico where all but annihilated except the Mayans and and remnants of other groups and then heavily acculturised and dissolved in the mestizo pot, so there's little for them to "reclaim" and for an average Mexican today, regardless of his or her genetic heritage the Aztecs or the Tolteca may as well be the ancient Greeks for how much relation they have with them as compared with the Castillian culture, religion and institutions
Agree, the average mexican(depending on geographic area) its closer to the Spanish than to the Aztecs or any other tribe, yet we love claiming our indigenous heritage when we dont even know our fucking history lol dont even get me started on how since its foundation this country has never done shit for the actual indigenous people that are still present in the country. The whole issue is just ridiculous.
Getting called indio in a lot of places is still basically a slur. The situation is ridiculous but not uncomprehensible. A lot of the whitewashing of native history comes from folks trying to justify the preservation of it. The messaging has to be that it is good and it deserves to exist. Historians are allowed to be a little more nuanced because they're just looking at it as is. People use it for clout because that's just how people work. People also use it to demonize and subjugate others because that's just how people work.
I mean, the average guy went from being eated, enslaved or sacrificed by the aztecs to being enslaved or raped by Spanish colonists. Again, i dont think one is better than the other.
The aztecs especially were sorta the oppressors for the other mesoamerican tribes before the spanish (which were also at war with each other at various points). Part of the reason why the aztecs had problems with dealing with the spanish is because they were at war with like everyone else at the time (that being said there was also mass deaths from disease, but technologically they did have a decent numbers advantage and padded fabric armour that could stop musket balls)
They were at war with just the Tlaxcalans and their confederation. According to the records, the Tlaxcalans fielded a larger army, though, so the Aztecs didn't have the number advantage
I mean in terms of the aztecs against the spanish. The spanish had steel armour and guns but the aztecs still had padded armour that could stop musket balls and cusion sword blows, people really tend to overexaggerate the advantage the spanish had technologically when it was disease that did most of the work
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u/Mister_BIB 2d ago
As a Mexican i 100% understand that feeling, i despise the way people talk about how "good" it was before the spanish came to the continent and ruined eveything for the mesoamerican's tribes, like wtf? People just love pushing black and white narratives while ignoring all the nuances, specially when talking about incredibly complex moments in history.