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As Hernan Cortes' small army neared the Aztecan capital of Tenochtitlan in 1519, they arrived at Iztapalapa, a hilltop village that gave the Spaniards their first panoramic view of the sprawling New World metropolis in the valley of Mexico. Cortes and his men numbered only 400. The city was the seat of the expansive Aztec empire, and had a population of a half million.
As one chronicler in Cortes' band described it, "We saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land . . . we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of Amadis, on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water . . . And some of our soldiers asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream . . . all was cemented and very splendid with many kinds of stone monuments with pictures on them, which gave much to think about."
It is in such moments of confounded awe-on the eve of great destruction-that Mexican art, as we know it, had its ambiguous birth. For finally, the conquest of Mexico was as much a triumph of the eye as it was a victory of the sword and gun.
For many years to come, the conquistadores' way of seeing the world would be the only true one, and they quickly set about remaking much of the fantastic, alien world they encountered in their own image, as a "New Spain."
The chronicler, writing 30 years after the events, concludes his account of the dazzling first sight of Tenochtitlan by noting that, "Of all these wonders that I then beheld today all is overthrown and lost, nothing left standing."
Now, 471 years later, at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, preparations are nearly complete for a new Mexican conquest. Opening Oct. 10 is "Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries," the most significant exhibition of art from Mexico to appear in New York in 50 years.
From New York City, the nearly 400 objects in the show will later travel exclusively to the two Chicano capitals of Mexamerica, appearing first at the San Antonio Museum of Art (April 6-Aug....