After 500 years, Cortés still looms large on both sides of Atlantic

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Invoked by politicians in Mexico and Spain, the conquistador remains divisive

Sword at his side, banner in hand and left foot resting on the head of a vanquished Aztec deity, Hernán Cortés looks out over his hometown, as resolute in death and bronze as he must have been in life and steel.

Beneath the statue’s lion-studded plinth is the square that bears his name and the stone that marks the site of the house where he was born in 1485. On the wall outside the mayor’s office hangs a tapestry commemorating the 450th anniversary of the conquistador’s death.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/35ayoh9

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