From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial
revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.
One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of
Tenochtitlan - today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the
emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two
languages, two possible futures.
Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two
translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a
strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the
steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish
nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting
with Moctezuma - who is at a political, spiritual, and physical
crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day
and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods - the Spanish are
ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés's captains,
Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to
question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and
wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the
empire.
You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and
reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets
afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a
restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so
unique that it feels like a dream.
