For many years, scholars of the conquest worked to shift focus away from the Spanish perspective and bring attention to the often-ignored voices and viewpoints of the Indians. But recent work that highlights the “Indian conquistadors” has forced scholars to reexamine the simple categories of conqueror and subject and to acknowledge the seemingly contradictory roles assumed by native peoples who chose to fight alongside the Spaniards against other native groups. The Native Conquistador ― a translation of the “Thirteenth Relation,” written by don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl in the early seventeenth century―narrates the conquest of Mexico from Hernando Cortés’s arrival in 1519 through his expedition into Central America in 1524. The protagonist of the story, however, is not the Spanish conquistador but Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s great-great-grandfather, the native prince Ixtlilxochitl of Tetzcoco. This account reveals the complex political dynamics that motivated Ixtlilxochitl’s decisive alliance with Cortés. Moreover, the dynamic plotline, propelled by the feats of Prince Ixtlilxochitl, has made this a compelling story for centuries―and one that will captivate students and scholars today. “This excellent translation accomplishes a ‘decentering’ of the conquest of Mexico. It makes available a text with an alternate indigenous view of the fall of Tenochtitlan that not only reveals the social, ethnic, and regional divisions in preconquest society but also makes clear the religious and political imperatives in the creation of the new colonial regime. No one who reads this will be able to explain the conquest any longer as a simple matter of winners and losers.” ―Stuart B. Schwartz, Yale University “Amber Brian, Bradley Benton, and Pablo García Loaeza have made an invaluable contribution to the field. We have long needed a state-of-the-art English translation of any of Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s works, and these three have chosen one of the most revealing of his texts. Their thoughtful introduction and careful explanatory notes will render the text especially useful for teaching, but even scholars who are not planning to teach with the book will want to have it and read it, reminding themselves of the extraordinary richness of this colonial mestizo historian’s mind.” ―Camilla Townsend, Rutgers University “The conquest of Mexico once again. But this time the history of the Spanish invasion is related one hundred years after the fact and from the perspective of the inhabitants of Tetzcoco, the second-in-rank polity in the infamous Aztec Triple Alliance. Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s ‘Thirteenth Relation’ exalts his ancestors, especially King Ixtlilxochitl, for never was there a more exemplary ruler, a more devout Christian, a more stalwart enabler of the Spaniards, or another Nahua leader who participated in all the many conquests and lived to tell about it. This is ethnopatriotism at its finest, and this splendid scholarly translation into English is a welcome, invaluable contribution to the new conquest history genre.” ―Susan Schroeder, Tulane University “The editors of this valuable new volume bring an undeservedly neglected perspective on the so-called conquest of Mexico back to life. The Native Conquistador is not the first modern English translation of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s (b. 1578) Thirteenth Relation ―there is a long-out-of-print edition from 1969―but it is the first one based on an original manuscript rather than a defective nineteenth-century Spanish-language transcription. Brian, Benton, and García Loaeza have crafted a compelling edition of this mestizo historian’s account of the fall of the Mexica and of the subsequent implantation of Spanish overlordship and Catholic faith. Prefacing Alva Ixtlilxochitl’s history with a concisely informative introduction, their translation of this story is smooth and accessible. “Proudly tracing his lineage to Tetzcoco’s legendary pre-contact rulers Nezahualcoyotl and Nezahualpilli, Alva Ixtlilxochitl emphasizes his own illustrious native heritage while at the same time trumpeting his and his conquest-era ancestors’ voluntary embrace of what became his own Spanish legacy. He constantly boasts of his ancestor Fernando Cortés Ixtlilxochitl’s constancy in the service of God, the Holy Faith, and the king (roughly in that order) as a key ally of the invading Spaniards. At the same time, his somewhat unexpected and only slightly muted criticism and complaints about the less than upright character of Hernando Cortés and the Spanish conquistadors (as well as the famous Tlaxcalteca) speak volumes. For Alva Ixtlilxochitl, the Tetzcocans were the real conquistadors; he writes at one point that ‘if it had not been for Ixtlilxochitl and his brothers, kinsmen, and vassals, the Mexica could have killed every single Spaniard on many occasions. . . . [T]his prince was the greatest and most loyal ally [Cortés] had in this land and whose aid in winning this land