[hanamizu]

“this is confusing to me. Why celebrate a cannabalistic death culture that decimated native slave populations to obtain human sacrifices...”

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Mexico treats Hernando Cortes as the great villain of their history and Cuauhtemoc, who succeeded Montezuma, and fought against the Spanish as the great hero. Mexican historians dare not acknowledge that the Aztecs were, in fact, cannibals on a huge, perhaps unprecedented scale.

The Spanish did the world a favor destroying them.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Mexico still celebrates Columbus Day and October 12 is a National Holiday.
Every major city has a street named 12 de Octubre.

They do more than we do in that respect for western history.

[PUGACHEV]

“Mexico treats Hernando Cortes as the great villain of their history…

You only have to know that Cortez is portrayed as a syphlitic criminal lunatic in the murals which decorate the Mexican Presidential Palace, while Cuauhtamoc is on their currency, like George Washington is on ours, to see that this is true. But something else is at play here: Mexicans are too proud to judge their culture. They may gripe privately, but to do so in public, especially to a foreigner, is inexcusable. This is so different than what’s popular here, where to apologize for our history and shortcomings is seen as elevating.

[wildcard_redneck]

When my daughter attended 5th grade at a private school in Phoenix she was asked to do an assignment for Spanish class "Who is your favorite Mexican?" I talked her into choosing good old Hernan Cortes because he ended human sacrifice in Mexico.

Aztec blood sacrifice from the Codex Magliabechiano

I'm also ashamed to admit that I also planted in my daughter's essay the fact that Mr. Cortez Concord Mexico with just a few hundred Spaniard Conquistadors and about 100,000 Indian allies from tribes that hated the Aztecs. my daughter is a lefty liberal now because she's 26 and I'm sure she has fun memories of the experience.

Cortes conquering Tenochtitlán