For hundreds of years; the history of the conquest of Mexico and the defeat of the Aztecs has been told in the words of the Spanish victors. Miguel León-Portilla has long been at the forefront of expanding that history to include the voices of indigenous peoples. In this new and updated edition of his classic The Broken Spears; León-Portilla has included accounts from native Aztec descendants across the centuries. These texts bear witness to the extraordinary vitality of an oral tradition that preserves the viewpoints of the vanquished instead of the victors. León-Portilla's new Postscript reflects upon the critical importance of these unexpected historical accounts.
#651552 in Books Beacon Press 2004-08-15 2004-08-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .69 x 5.50l; .99 #File Name: 080700233X344 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A must readBy lmpartinAs a Pedro Pan myself I lived this story. Maria Torres's book; however; brought it back home with new insights. Well researched; "The Lost Apple" describes a part of American/Cuban history that has been ignored for too long. As relations between the United States and Cuba continue to thaw; I hope that Torres's book receives the attention it deserves. The more than 14;000 children the program embraced owe gratitude to Dr. Torres for documenting the politics behind a program that affected their lives. Fifty years later; we; and our children and grandchildren; say thank you. We lost the apple but gained our freedom.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Ramon R. BelloV GOOD product and buy!21 of 24 people found the following review helpful. Too much blameBy J. SuarezThe author; a self admitted product of the 1960's left; keeps trying to attach evil intentions to those involved in the Pedro Pan operation. She dwells extensively on the pain of separation and points her finger at several groups that supposedly used us as pawns in a convoluted chess game. I am a Pedro Pan and I thank God every morning that I live in the United States. I know many of the participants in this book directly; Penny Powers was my sixth grade teacher; my mother was part of the underground involved in the "rescate de la niñez". This book reminds me of a hypothetical indictment of the crew of the Titanic for putting the children in life boats without their parents. We were in moral; physical and spiritual danger. Operation Pedro Pan; while not perfect; saved us from suffering that would have been several orders of magnitude greater had we stayed in Cuba. Read the book; but be aware of the bias.
