Audiobooks by Camilla Townsend

After the Broken Spears: The Aztecs in the Wake of Conquest

"Following Hernando Cortés's conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Aztec empire became the center of the largest European colony in the Americas. It has long been assumed that Indigenous people's personal experiences of this cataclysmic era are inaccessible. Spanish records do not reflect how Nahuas and other Indigenous peoples spoke privately about the great changes, and accounts written in Indigenous languages mostly date from the latter half of the sixteenth century. Through close readings of Nahuatl sources, the contributors to After the Broken Spears illustrate that records of Indigenous experiences of the early colonial period are both more abundant than first appear and more richly detailed than ever imagined. Nahuatl songs, annals, tall tales, and legal documents offer a comprehensive vision of how Mexico's Indigenous people lived through the years after the conquest and negotiated the creation of their new world. Often originally circulated as oral accounts, these stories were later copied into Nahuatl script by those determined to preserve their people's history. Interspersed between the main chapters are commentaries written by contemporary Indigenous Mexican scholars, highlighting how historical themes relate to the present day. Just as their ancestors did five hundred years ago, these writers negotiate the ramifications of the Spanish conquest for their communities. After the Broken Spears offers fresh perspectives on a critical transition period in Mesoamerican, Mexican, and colonial history."

Camilla Townsend, Josh Anthony (Author), Gary Tiedemann (Narrator)

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Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico

"Malintzin was the indigenous woman who translated for Hernando Cortés in his dealings with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma in the days of 1519 to 1521. The Spanish called her doña Marina, and she has become known to posterity as La Malinche. As Malinche, she has long been regarded as a traitor to her people, a dangerously sexy, scheming woman who gave Cortés whatever he wanted out of her own self-interest. The life of the real woman, however, was much more complicated. She was sold into slavery as a child, and eventually given away to the Spanish as a concubine and cook. If she managed to make something more out of her life—and she did—it is difficult to say at what point she did wrong. In getting to know the trials and intricacies with which Malintzin's life was laced, we gain new respect for her steely courage, as well as for the bravery and quick thinking demonstrated by many other Native Americans in the earliest period of contact with Europeans. In this study of Malintzin's life, Camilla Townsend rejects all the previous myths and tries to restore dignity to the profoundly human men and women who lived and died in those days. She breathes new life into an old tale, and offers insights into the major issues of conquest and colonization, including technology and violence, resistance and accommodation, gender and power."

Camilla Townsend (Author), Ej Lavery (Narrator)

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Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

"In November 1519, Hernando Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story—and the story of what happened afterwards—has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars. For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured."

Camilla Townsend (Author), Christina Delaine (Narrator)

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