Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica / eds, Laura E. Matthews & Michael R. Odjik / 2012

Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies in the Conquest of Mesoamerica / eds, Laura E. Matthews & Michael R. Odjik / 2012 

A necessary volume of essays on the history of indigenous conquest especially in Mexico and Central America, I recommend this book to anyone interested in better understanding mestizaje and indigenous and Latino identity in the Americas. Banished are the white supremacist myths of Cortes and the Spanish defeating the Mexica on their own, as well as progressives’ lingering romantic flattening of Native Americans as purely vanquished and victimized. I first encountered this book in grad school and I’m glad I returned to it. While the chapters got more redundant and less interesting as Matthews and Odjik’s arguments became more and more solidified, they remained fascinating in their particularity and the underlying mysteries. 4/5