Description
On her death bed, Huitzitzilin, an old woman of royal Mexican heritage, tells young Father Benito of her life, what the Aztec culture was like before the arrival of the Spanish, and how an initial alliance between the two cultures resulted in the annihilation of a proud race
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Father Benito questions the forces that brought him to Huitzitzilin. She seems intent on chronicling her life. And hers is a tale that both intrigues and repels him. Distracted from his mission to confess and absolve Huitzitzilin, the priest presses her to tell her compelling story. He has heard the tales of the conquest: the accounts of atrocities, of barbarism, of despair suffered by the conquistadors in the quest for glory. Huitzitzilin speaks of the same death and destruction, but in her tale the roles are reversed. The natives are the victims.Her words are a revelation. The priest accepts Huitzitzilin's account because she was a witness to the events he learned of only second hand. As he listens to the song of Hummingbird, the priest beings to question his firmly-held convictions. Against his will, he is imbued with unexpected empathy for Hummingbird and all the Mexica people. A novel idea take hold of his consciousness: he begins to share Huitzitzilin's nostalgia for what is irrevocably gone.
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