Translation Rights TQE / Hernan Cortes, Inventor of Mexico

Everyone is familiar with the figure of Hernan Cortés, almost every reader probably has an opinion about his role in history, which is usually seen either in a very negative light (above all in Mexico) or with uncritical admiration. Both versions are far from the truth of the man’s life. Juan Miralles has spent nearly thirty years researching the person behind the conquistador and has now finally handed over this exhaustive biography of Cortés for publication. This new work contains the finest distillation of first hand accounts and rejects doubtful or apocryphal elements to present a thoughtful and critical portrait of this historical character.

Miralles has tried to recreate all of the aspects of Cortés’ life from the copious information to which he has had access. There is no leaf left unturned in this search to get at the historical truth through available documentation. It is all here, from the historical context of Spain at the time (his nobility, his education during the Castilian renaissance or the obsession of those times with the purity of blood) to a blow by blow account of the conquest itself, seen from a heroic, military and human perspective. Nor are the most private details of the man ignored here, such as his emotional or love life, and this biography reveals an unhappy end, despite his achievements, which moves the reader to sympathy if not commiseration. Reading this book will also change our stereotypical images of the people and events that surrounded him: the Aztec Kings, his officers, the disputes between different indigenous peoples and even of Bartolomé de Casas “The Apostle of the Indians”, who is revealed to have been a capricious and obnoxious person.

Juan Miralles was born in 1930 in Tampico (Mexico). After studying Political Sciences at the UNAM in the Mexican capital, he joined the Mexican Diplomatic Corps in 1955. Within the service he carried out various duties. Later, he studied English Literature in Tokyo and was the director of the Seminary on Mexican Diplomatic Relations in the UNAM. He has edited and lengthened Crónica de la Nueva España -Chronicles of New Spain by Francisco de Cervantes Salazar and the Historia de la conquista de México- History of the Conquest of Mexico by Francisco Lopez de Gómara. He is also the author of several articles on the Spanish conquest and a contributor to the Efe agency in Mexico