Overview
- Ayuso and composer Nacho Cano moved their homage to Hernán Cortés to the Frontón de México after the Archdiocese canceled a planned Metropolitan Cathedral ceremony for missing permits, with Ayuso speaking Monday in Mexico City.
- Ayuso praised what she called five centuries of mestizaje between Spain and Mexico and said the tribute pushed back on discourses of hate.
- The event’s messaging rejected the idea that the conquest was simple plunder and invoked the phrase “purity of blood” in its portrayal of mestizaje.
- Nacho Cano described Cortés as a founder of Mexico and said he invited President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexico City’s leader Clara Brugada, who did not attend.
- Backlash in Mexico included a peaceful protest near the Cathedral that denounced a “Spanish genocide,” while opinion writers condemned the homage as an affront to national history.