Historian and biographer Hernan CortezEsteban Mira Caballos believes that the remains of the Extremadura conqueror “are indeed in danger in Mexico”, where his figure is increasingly disliked, therefore, in his opinion, “The time has come” for the Spanish government to demand their return. so that they return to the land where he was born.
Esteban Mira (Carmona, Sevilla, 1966), Doctor of American History, is the author of many books, the most recent of which Hernan Cortez, a biography for the 21st century, with which he tried to return this character “to a historical ground from which he should not have come.”
In an interview with Efe, he recalls that Cortez’s remains have already been transported and hidden by Lucas Alaman in the 19th century to prevent it from being defiled. They are currently in Mexico City, in the chapel of the Jesús Nazareno Hospital, which he himself founded and which “continues to function five centuries later with its operating and mobile uvises.”
According to Mira, although few people know that the remains are located there, in the presbytery, where burial goes unnoticed, only identified by a small plaqueThis year, in celebration of the fifth century of the fall of Tenochtitlan, access to the church was controlled to avoid possible quarrels.
Therefore, although the will of the winner was rest forever in New Spain, in the land he loved so muchProfessor Esteban Mira, who has studied his historical personality for over 30 years, argues that it is time for the Spanish government to request his return so that they can rest in peace in their hometown of Medellin (Badajoz), as requested. their mayor is Valentin Pozo.
In his opinion, Cortez is so hated in Mexico because “a black legend has been created around him and facts have been distortedalso because they claim that Spain has conquered Mexico and speak in terms that are not true. “
In this sense, he explains that “it must be borne in mind that 99% of the troops or troops that entered Tenochtitlan were Mesoamerican” and “that the claim that the Indians conquered America and the Spaniards made it independent from the mother country is true. Therefore, this is a really erroneous and interesting interpretation of what happened. “
For Esteban Mira “Hernan Cortez was a very important figure in history who, for better or for worse, changed the world“, therefore” we cannot hide it or hide it. “
While the conquest of Mexico “did take place massacres and atrocities,” the expert makes it clear that “there was no genocide” because Cortez “wanted to rule the territory and needed a manpower.”
In his opinion, there are not so many differences among historians around the world in the interpretation of the historical personality of Hernan Cortez; What is happening “at the foot of the street” is very different, which can be seen as genocide or as the liberator of indigenous tribes who were tyrannized by the Aztecs or Mexicans. “I say that it’s neither liberation, nor genocide, that history usually moves in intermediate tones,” he explains in this regard.
The author of biographies of other discoverers and conquerors such as Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto or Vasco Nunez de Balboa, this Andalusian professor, who has lived in Extremadura for more than 26 years, claims that Hernan Cortez was “a very unique case” because he was cultured person and “very broad-minded” and he was the only one who “thought about descendants.”
“He knew that he was starring in an exceptional scene, that the world was changing, and he was one of the few conquerors who knew about this and tried to pass it on to future generations,” through the Relationship Letters he wrote to Emperor Charles V.
Mira Caballos sharply declares that Spain should justify the discovery, conquest and colonization of America “without any difficulty” because it “laid the foundations for the globalization of the world.”
He admits that the Franco regime, with its rise, has caused a “rebound effect” that leaves Spanish democracy at the other extreme, “ashamed of those great conquerors and sailors who laid the foundations of the global peace we have today.”
“History must be accepted; this is not how we would like it to be, but how it was, ”insists Mira, who points out that“ atrocities really took place, as they have been for millennia, ”but urges“ not to with the destruction of the pre-Hispanic world, and with the creation of the mestizos of America, whom we all love and admire. “
In this sense, he also points out that while it is clear that cultural destruction occurred during the conquest and colonization of America, the incidents of genocide were specific, such as in the Lesser Antilles, which were declared useless by the Spaniards. Honduran Mosquito, where Fernando VI stated that all Indians should be exterminated, although this measure was never completed.
In this sense, he understands that Pope Francis and his predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, as deputies of God on earth, asked for forgiveness for this ethnocide, but he believes that this is something that cannot be demanded from the Spaniards. as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argues, because “we do not have this conscience, and we do not think we have any responsibility for what happened five hundred years ago.”
As a historian, he sees no point in “starting a whirlwind of apologies”where the Tunisians apologize to us for the Carthaginian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula or the Spaniards to the French for capturing Francisco I at the Battle of Pavia. ”