>>51936216>>51936133>>51936617cont:
>>51949077This is something that's hard to really convey/address:
Like, yes, the Spanish burned thousands, if not tens of thousands of mesoamerican documents and books, cities like Tenochtitlan and Texcoco had huge imperial libraries that were all destroyed, and that does mean basically an entire cradle of civilization's records got wiped out: Imagine if not just the Library of Alexandria was burned, but every Library across Europe and the Near East.
At the same time, it's also not like we have absolutely nothing left, with the Aztec in particular I've actually seen it argued we have more sources in Nahuatl/the Aztec language with known authors then we do from Ancient Greece, for example: There's less then 20 pre-contact Mesoamerican books that survive, but there's maybe like 100 if you include sources made post-contact by Aztec scribes, nobles, etc working with/under Spanish friars: EX The Florentine Codex for example is like a multi-thousand page, 13 volume compendium on Aztec society and culture. The Maya also have thousands of surviving stone inscriptions.
What we have is a small, tiny % of what we could have had, but we also have way more then most people realize if only because most people are taught jack shit about mesoamerica. But the pickings really, REALLY get small when you're looking into lesser known meso civs like the Otomi, Totonac, Huastec, etc.
>>51949172I don't think any Zapotec states played a role in the Cortes expedition, though? You may be thinking of Cempoala, the captial of one of 3 major Totonac kingdoms, which made a sob story about an Aztec fort nearby terrorizing them which was really Tzinpantzinco, another rival totonac captial they just tricked Cortes into taking out for them. The Zapotec also did have their own pantheon, though obviously with some gods/archtypes shared with the Aztec, Maya, etc.
