"We are crushed to the ground; we lie in ruins." (Victors and Vanquished, Stuart Schwartz, 213)

   Tenochtitlan.  Once the biggest city in the Pre-Columbian New World.  Its Aztec citizens thrived; they possessed not only necessities but luxuries.  In my own words, they were on top of their game!  Then, on a fateful November 8, 1519, Hernan Cortes arrived to the great city and would eventually destroy it. 

Many massacres and battle led up to this great event.  Once the city was sieged, it was all over for the Aztecs and this great city.  There are writings on what occured there so long ago, including poetry.

Flowers and Songs of Sorrow

(Victors and Vanquished, Stuart Schwartz, 213)

We know it is true
That we must perish
For we are mortal men
You, the Giver of Life,
You have ordained it
We wander here
and there in our desolate poverty
We are mortal men
We have seen bloodshed and pain
Where once we saw beauty and valor
We are crushed to the ground
We lie in ruins
In Mexico and Tlatelolco
Where once we saw beauty and valor
Have you grown weary of your servants
Are you angry with your servants
Oh Giver of Life

Sorrow, hopelessness, grief, melancholy, death, sadness, woe, pain, distress.

All these things come seeping through the text in this poem.  When the Spanish conquistadors came marching in, i wonder if they thought it could possibly end well.  With all the battles looking a lot like this:

mexicolore.co.uk

I don't see how they could.

   The way these bodies lie on the ground is just as the poem states, "crushed".  I don't think it is any coincidence that the author of the poem would use such a specific word to capture the scene of the aftermath of the conquest so well.  Not only were things physically crushed (monuments, flowers, corpses, etc.), but I'm sure the spirits of any survivors were as well.  To crush is to pulverize and grind down into nothing; after being defeated, how could anyone feel anything but "nothing"?

   Although the poem seems to allude to the fact that the Aztecs knew they must perish, this was a tragic event.  Sometimes, the fall of an object can be a good thing: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of an evil regime or a powerful dictator. 

The Berlin Wall (floridapundit.com)

   The fall of the walls and buildings of Tenochtitlan did not quite yield the same results as that of the great wall in Germany.  There was no celebrating on the Aztec side.  There were only cheers and excitement from the Spanish.  The collapse of this great Aztec empire reminds me of a song we all used to sing as children while holding hands and going around in a circle...

Ring-a-round a rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall

DOWN.