Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortés enters the city of Mexico. Emperor Moctezuma welcomes him, believing he embodies the fateful return of the God Quetzalcoatl.

FICTION IN FILM:
Captain Cristóbal Quijano arrives in Mexico along with Cortés’s troops.

Massacre of the Great Temple; a significant part of Mexican nobility dies.

FICTION IN FILM:
Topiltzin survives the Massacre of the Great Temple. He finds his mother, Emperor Moctezuma’s favorite courtesan, dead.

Emperor Moctezuma dies under shady circumstances. Cuitlahuac, to whom Moctezuma’s eldest daughter Tecuichpo is married, succeeds him.

Cuitlahuac dies of smallpox, a Spanish disease, and is succeeded by Cuauhtemoc, who marries Tecuichpo.

Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec ruler, is captured; the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan falls.

The first group of the Twelve Franciscans arrives in Mexico.

The first Franciscan church is built.

Cortés leaves for Las Hibueras (today’s Honduras), to pursue a rebellious captain, Cristóbal de Olid, and punish his treachery.

Cortés hangs Cuauhtemoc on his way to Las Hibueras, an act that will haunt him forever.

On the way back from Honduras, Cortés gets rid of Marina ⎯the famous Malinche, his mistress / interpreter and mother of his first child, the “mestizo” Martín Cortés ⎯ by giving her away to Captain Juan Jaramillo.

Cortés arrives in Mexico City and resumes his challenging rule, having amassed a great number of political enemies during his absence in Honduras.

FICTION IN FILM:
Fray Diego arrives in Mexico; Topiltzin draws his codex; clandestine human sacrifice; Cristóbal captures Topiltzin.

Cortés donates the Province of Tacuba to Tecuichpo, Moctezuma’s eldest daughter. This is Cortés’ last official act as Governor and Captain General of Mexico.

FICTION IN FILM:
Topiltzin is presented to Cortés; Topiltzin meets his alleged half-sister, Tecuichpo; Topiltzin’s ritual of abjuration and conversion to Christianity.

Cortés goes to Spain.

Cortés visits the Monastery of Guadalupe in Spain.

Friar Juan de Zumárraga, the Protector of Indians, arrives in Mexico.

FICTION IN FILM:
(The character of Friar Diego is partly based on Zumárraga.)

Cortés returns to Mexico (Veracruz), with his wife, Doña Juana de Zúñiga. The Queen of Spain forbids Cortés to enter Mexico City.

Cortés is in Texcoco, the closest he can get to Mexico City.

Cortés is allowed to re-enter Mexico City with Doña Juana. He faces political problems, power intrigues, disputes about lands and Indians, etc.

FICTION IN FILM:

Topiltzin and Tecuichpo attempt to forge a letter of Cortés to Charles V, King of Spain, which would further jeopardize Cortés’s uncertain standing;

Friar Diego discovers Topiltzin and Tecuichpo making love in the Monastery;

Cortés confines Tecuichpo in a dungeon;

Friar Diego resolves “to save Topiltzin’s soul”.

FICTION IN FILM:
Cortés visits a pregnant Tecuichpo in the dungeon.

FICTION IN FILM:
Topiltzin dies;

Friar Diego summons Cortés to witness the ambivalent “miracle” of racial integration.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have appeared to the Indian Juan Diego on the very same spot where the shrine of the Aztec Mother Goddess Tonantzin once stood.

Friar Juan de Zumárraga dies.

FICTION IN FILM:
Friar Diego dies in La Coruña, Spain.