EPISODE 109: The Mesoamerican Godfather

History on Fire

Daniele Bolelli

Society & Culture

4.8 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2024

⏱️ 116 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” Mario Puzo “Grant me revenge!” from Conan the Barbarian, 1982 “I am immortal” Nezahualcoyotl I originally created this episode years ago, as I was researching the Spaniards’ invasion of the Mexica (aka Aztec) empire, when I run into this little nugget of a story, which predates the arrival of the Spaniards. This is the first time this episode gets to be released to the public outside of any paywalls. This is basically a real historical version of what would happen if we were to mix the plot of The Godfather with the plot of The Lion King in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Our key characters include Tezozomoc, a ruthless, Machiavellian genius power-player who ruled over much of the Central Valley of Mexico, and his nemesis Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco. This episode features political intrigue, Mafia-style hits, the surprise of seeing a beheaded enemy show up with a head on his shoulders, human sacrifice, an unyielding quest for revenge, and a glimpse at the early days of the Aztecs. With characters named Angry Stone Face and Hungry Coyote, you know this has to be a good story… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 109 of History on Fire.
0:04.3	This is an old new episode.
0:07.5	What I mean by that is that it's old for just a tiny percentage of you listening and new for most everyone else.
0:16.1	This is an episode that I had originally created many years ago at the time when I was doing the series on the
0:22.2	Spanish Conquest of Mexico. And I created this episode as a bonus. It was something that
0:28.9	was never available to the general public. It was only for supporters. I sold it as a mean to
0:37.4	support History on Fire in the early days, but I've decided,
0:41.4	let's put it out there for everybody now.
0:43.5	It has been long enough, and it's a really cool tale.
0:46.7	I remember really enjoying creating this episode, so it's now out here for everyone.
0:53.6	Speaking of ways of supporting History on Fire,
0:56.0	the primary way we stay in business is through listener support,
1:00.0	usually through either Patreon or Substack.
1:04.0	For about $5 a month, you get bonus episodes,
1:07.8	you get the fact that you allow me to keep making podcasts. Also, you'll get
1:12.3	no ads on the episode that I publish on Patreon or Substuck. As I mentioned, the bonus episodes
1:18.5	about once a month. I'm going to start doing chats with listeners and supporters where we have
1:25.3	done once so far on Zoom. I'm going to do a lot more in
1:28.3	the coming months. So if you feel like you have five bucks a month to spare and you do get
1:34.0	some value from History on Fire, I would definitely appreciate it if you decide to join.
1:40.0	There are a few folks who join at the highest possible level way beyond the $5 a month,
1:44.7	and I want to give them a shout out.
	...

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