The Legend of the Swooping Eagle

Cuauhtémoc was the ruler of the Aztec city, Tenochtitlan. The name Cuauhtémoc means "One That Has Descended Like an Eagle", commonly rendered in English as "Swooping Eagle" as in the moment when an eagle folds its wings and plummets down to strike its prey. It is an Aztec name that implies aggressiveness and determination.

Cuauhtémoc took power in 1520, and was a cousin of the former emperor Moctezuma II, and his young wife, Isabel was one of Moctezuma's daughters. He ascended to the throne when he was 25 years of age, as his city was being besieged by the Spanish and devastated by an epidemic of smallpox brought to the New World by Spanish Invaders. Cuauhtémoc went to call for reinforcements from the countryside to aid the falling Tenochtitlán, after eighty days of continuous warfare against the Spanish. Cuauhtémoc was captured while fleeing Tenochtitlán by crossing Lake Texcoco in disguise with his wife, family, and friends. He surrendered to Hernan Cortez, and offered him his knife and asked to be killed.

At first, Cortés treated his foe chivalrously. "A Spaniard knows how to respect valor even in an enemy," he declared. However, he allowed the royal treasurer to have Cuauhtemoc tortured to make him reveal the whereabouts of hidden Aztec gold. Cuauhtémoc was tortured by having his feet put to a fire, but even so he refused to divulge information about the treasures the Spanish coveted. In the end, a shamed Cortés delivered Cuauhtémoc from the royal treasurers hands, without a single utterance of the location of the gold.

Eventually Cortés recovered some gold from a noble's house, but most of the tales about "Aztec gold" were a myth. Since for the Aztecs, gold had no intrinsic value, they did not have big solid pieces of gold, instead they preferred wood covered with gold. Cuauhtémoc was shortly thereafter assassinated by Cortez during an expedition to what is now modern day Guatemala. According to family legend, my great grandfather,  Cuauhtémoc Penaflores, is a direct descendent of the ancient Aztec emperor.