Mexico City, August 13.—After the fall of the city of Tenochtitlan, no one could enter because it was filled with corpses. The vast majority of the population died in that war and in the preceding epidemic. Thus occurred the final defeat of the Mexica empire on August 13, 1521. La Jornada consulted specialists and intellectuals about the brutality of that event.
The thinker Enrique Semo, the Ayuujk (Mixe) linguist Yásnaya Elena A. Gil, the writer and journalist Pedro Miguel and the historian Pedro Salmerón spoke about that event that marked the beginning of the Spanish conquest in the territory that is now Mexico.
For Enrique Semo, after a struggle that lasted 11 months of daily warfare, eight months of isolating the city, and three months of siege, the vast majority of the population of Mexico-Tenochtitlan had died. Some died in the 1520 epidemic and others due to the war, lack of drinking water, and food.
After the surrender of Tlatelolco on August 13, it was impossible to enter Tenochtitlan, because "it was littered with corpses and there was a terrible odor. Only a small part of the population had fled. The human tragedy was enormous in the city, which was a marvel comparable to the finest European cities of that time."
