Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limon

CTQ# 6

Ms. Land

3/29/17

James Ortiz

        The Book “Song of the Hummingbird” by Graciela Limon is a Novel where in ch.11-13 shows that the war was just not great. Spaniards brought so many diseases "It was the disease brought to us by your soldiers, and it became more terrifying than your weapons."(146) Hummingbird explains how the diseases brought by the Spaniards gave the Aztecs terror since they couldn't fight the enemy which in this case it was the disease.

        This Novel also argues with how the Spanish had no reason to fight. It was more for fighting for Tenochtitlan. Limon discusses how the women did as much as they could to win the war. She says “we women helped by preparing weapons for the warriors. We also went out to battle, throwing stones and debris at the enemy from roof tops and hidden places. It eve happened that we didn’t eat or drink so that the men could nourish their bodies with the little food that was left” (154). This explained how important the Spaniards thought the war was.

        The Mexicas were not thinking correctly about what was most important.  Quoting “ the decaying bodies of our dead reminded us that something much more precious than a city had come to an end” (154) I can tell by this part of the book the Mexicas were contemplating on what they had thought was important to them other than the city. This carries on to another part in the book where giving up had to be the option. “ Cuauhtémoc and the other nobles became prisoners. The rest of us were dispersed in different directions, dying along the way from starvation and sadness. “ (155) This explains how Spanish understood that things had to stop and that it wasn’t really worth the fight. This argues with how violence isn’t the best option. Violence builds up problems. One will do the same to the other, but nothing gets solved.