Who conquered Mexico?
I’ve discovered it wasn’t the Spanish.
Have I been drinking a coco loco?
(Coconut water with tequila.)
No. This is un punto de vista diferente de la historia—a different point of view on history.
Elena’s dad, Roman, always used to tell me:
Los españoles no conquistaron México.
Then who did?
Seven Spanish-speaking countries celebrate their independence from Spain between September 15 to 18.
Let’s celebrate along with them by giving you the freedom speaking Spanish brings to your life.
Payback time.
The imperial Aztecs violently dominated their neighbours. When the Spanish arrived and offered a coalition to overthrow them, the neighbouring peoples jumped at the chance.
The army that defeated Tenochtitlan—now Mexico City—was mostly Indigenous warriors from Tlaxcala, Texcoco and beyond.
The Spanish led it.
But they didn’t win it alone.
So, as Roman used to say:
Los mexicanos conquistaron México.
The Mexicans conquered Mexico.
And to complete his refrain:
Los españoles ganaron la independencia.
The Spanish won independence.
The sons of Spaniards born in the New World had second-class status compared with those born in Spain. They were known as criollos.
Many of the men who instigated the War of Independence were criollos.
Los mexicanos conquistaron México. Y los españoles ganaron la independencia.
The Mexicans conquered Mexico. And the Spanish won independence.
Roman’s way of turning history upside down and making you look at it again.
Now it’s your turn to claim a little Spanish independence.
Between September 15th and 18th, seven countries celebrate their independencia from Spain:
Costa Rica. El Salvador. Guatemala. Honduras. Mexico. Chile. Nicaragua.
For the next four days, I’m offering Master Keys to Spanish at half price.
Eight Master Keys that strip away the complexity of Spanish verbs—the thing that stops most people from speaking freely.
That’s the independence that comes from speaking Spanish.
Not just ordering from a menu.
The freedom to understand—and be understood by—the people who live it every day.
The kind of conversations that shift how you see the world.
The kind of connection I had with Roman—who showed me a way of seeing Mexico I’ve never forgotten.
[Claim Your Spanish Independence—Half Price for 4 Days]
Offer closes September 18th.
Tienes hasta el 18 de septiembre para aprovechar esta oferta.
Seven Spanish-speaking countries celebrate their independence from Spain between September 15 to 18.
Let’s celebrate along with them by giving you the freedom speaking Spanish brings to your life.
Thank you Marcus. I always enjoy your emails. I have taken Your Spanish Synergy class. I am so indebted to you. I have taken classes from teachers in Spanish. But, it was your Spanish Synergy that helped me to be able to finally converse with other Spanish speaking people. Thank you.
Hello, Mr Santamaría.
Your knowledge of Spanish AND history of many Hispanic countries is very extensive and your email messages are fascinating.
I speak Castellano, as my father and all his family were born and raised in Castilla la Vieja. But he went to Cuba and married my mother there, the daughter of two Spaniards. I was born there and came to the US as a child. We always spoke proper Spanish with the grammar, syntax and pronunciation (not the Z) and now I understand many of my students who are from Latin American countries.
If we learn the verbs and stay away from the formal VOSOTROS and the Z sound, we pick up the regional nouns and soon blend in. Now, if we listen to Pachuco Mexican, Argentinian Lunfardo or some of my Cuban pronunciation, we can get in trouble and not learn correct Spanish if we imitate the informal, less standard Spanish.
By the way, are your readers aware that Castellano is no longer the official language of Spain?? There’s Catalan, Gallego, Euskera to name just the major ones that the government considers official languages.
By the way, a lot of “Americans” opt to learn Spanish in Costa Rica, Colombia or San Miguel de Allende instead of Spain. I encourage them to do so. Those places are very welcoming and they speak the language gracefully
Great to remember.
I do two and a half hours of Spanish a week, on Mondays with three others an the teacher from Chile, the other hour on Skype with a lady from Barcelona. I‘m 84 and love languages. I speak high German, Swiss German (a different language) and French and a smattering of Italian. I appreciate your mails very much. Muchas gracias!
Valerie (a Brit living in Switzerland)
You are correct, except for this part: “The coalition had thousands of European soldiers, but it also had ten times as many indigenous warriors”. There weren’t thousands of European soldiers, Cortez had only a few hundred. According to the account reportedly written by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, which may have actually been written by Cortez himself, the indigenous warriors numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Thank you for posting your lessons via email.
Creo que tiene razón (I think you are right). I recently read that Cortez had less than 300 soldiers.
I live.in San Miguel de Allende. The purely Spanish (no Indian blood) who live here are considered as a group pretty snobish, as I am sure you know. Everybody has a rank somewhere it seems.
I would think the ones who won the independence from Spain would be considered Mexicans since they may have been the sons of Spanairds but their mothers were Mexican.
Hey, I could understand the phrase even though I didn’t know all the words in Spanish.
Thank you for continuing to send your emails. One of these days I will sign up for your classes. Not having the continuous time at the moment to get into it, I look forward to doing so in the future.
You are a treasure, Muchas Gracias!
You rocked it again! Thanks
The simple explanation; and easily translated.