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The Spanish chronicler Fray Diego Durán¹ traces the history of Hueyapan back to 902 AD, when settlers from Xochimilco took up residence in the village and the surrounding area, introducing a higher level of civilization to the local population than the one that had previously existed in the region.² About 600 years later, the Aztecs arrived, probably in the early 1500s; then the Spaniards, sometime between 1522 and 1524.³ As Fray Diego tells the story, a Spanish woman by the name of María de Estrada rode at the head of the conquering party and she quickly subdued the Indians.⁴ Having participated earlier in a number of campaigns across the highlands of Central Mexico, María de Estrada wanted to lead one herself. Cortés responded generously to her request and gave her the honor of taking Hueyapan. Offering the reader a swashbuckling account, Durán describes María de Estrada racing off into battle on horseback, brandishing a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Uneasy at first about following a woman, Cortés's soldiers held back, but when they heard her cry out to Saint James for protection, a few gallant souls fell into line and accompanied the lady warrior into combat. Startled by the sight of a woman on horseback galloping toward them, the Indians of Hueyapan panicked and fled, hurling themselves blindly into the gorges that surrounded the village.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230601659_4

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