DVD "The Other Conquest"

[Kier Salmon]

I also got it from Amazon and had never heard it before.  I viewed it  
with the subtitles off, since I'd like to learn to "hear" nahuatl as I  
begin to learn it.  I find myself envying my friends who buy CDs of  
different languages and pop them into the player on their car.  They  
don't utilize them well!  As a fully bilingual person with smatterings  
of three other languages; there's a way to use them to get the best  
use out of them!  I want those CDs in Nahuatl.
I wish I had a script of the movie so I could listen to the nahuatl  
and see the nahuatl (in roman characters, albeit) as they speak.
As for the movie, I've been doing a lot of studying of stuff published  
on Cortés and the aftermath of the destruction of Tenochtitlan and I  
have to say that the historical inaccuracies sort of grabbed me by the  
neck.  In particular, Tecuichpo/Doña Isabel's role in the movie was a- 
historical to the nth degree.  As I remember my studies, her rape by  
Cortes happened in his house while Malina was still present; she was  
never an interpreter for him, by that time he spoke that language well  
enough and he used her as a prize for his upper class followers (three  
of them, I believe?)  The scene where she embraces her unborn child  
and tells HC that it is "her" child certainly doesn't square with the  
known facts... she bore the babe, refused to see it, and in her will  
that was the only child of her body never mentioned.
Cortés "giving" her the name of "Doña Isabel" in the middle of what  
was essentially a trial is ridiculous.  The naming thing happened  
during baptism.
Still, it's better than a lot of films I've seen trying to depict the  
amerind.  I couldn't bring myself to watch "Apocalypto."  THe reviews  
on the religious implications bothered me.
The "easy" interpretation of christian theology was wrong as well.   
Many of the concepts did not exist in nahuatl (grace? salvation? etc)  
and it was many years before the indio population had grown up with  
those concepts that they could be talked of easily.

On Dec 11, 2007, at 8:33 AM, ECOLING at aol.com wrote:

> From its reputation, I was much looking forward to seeing this film,
> made in Mexico, released in only a few cities of the Southwestern USA.
>
> It is in Spanish and in Nahua, with English subtitles and some
> Spanish subtitles also during Nahua portions.
>
> I had heard it presents the conquest from the point of view of an  
> Aztec
> priest,
> maneuvering simultaneously to keep his own people in their traditions,
> and to deal with the Spanish.
>
> I got a copy from Amazon.com, and took it to the Wayeb meetings
> of the European Mayanists, the first week of December in Geneva.
> We had a showing of the film there.
>
> There is a bit of what I had understood the film to be by reputation.
> But it is more a study of the psychology of one Friar and one Aztec  
> priest
> who is a captive in a monastery, supposedly being converted, but  
> explicit
> that the new religion can have his body, never his soul.
> Not much on the Aztec priest or the Nahua people as active agents
> successfully manipulating the Spanish within the limits of the kinds  
> of
> power they had available to them.
> No large and complex issues of social structure, no large scenes,
> not much about the management of daily lives.
>
> The film I had imagined still remains to be made, it is still a  
> distant goal.
> The audience for the showing in Geneva seemed to feel that
> "The Other Conquest" still has quite a lot of stereotyping.
>
> One Mexican woman commented that it was like other films made by
> Mexican directors.   When I asked if she meant
> a bit like Diego Rivera murals, the best analogy I could think of to  
> what
> she might be referring to, she affirmed that could be a good analogy.
> Though it is not as complex or great as those murals.
>
> I don't feel the need to see it again.   But the two main characters  
> are
> both sympathetic, and it is worth seeing once at least, to see what  
> one
> director has managed to do and has not managed to do.
>
> It may be one of a very few films to feature the Nahua language so
> extensively.
>
> Lloyd Anderson
> Ecological Linguistics
> PO Box 15156
> Washington DC 20003
> ecoling at aol.com
> 202-547-7683
>
>
>
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