Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtémoc — his name means “one who descends like an eagle” — was the eleventh and last tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, the Mexica capital, born about 1496. He came to the throne in the final agony of his city, as the Spanish and their allies laid siege.

Amid war and the smallpox that ravaged his people, he led the defense of Tenochtitlan for some eighty days, calling in what help the countryside could give, until the city fell in August 1521.

Captured as he tried to cross the lake, he was tortured with fire by his captors, who sought the gold they believed he had hidden; he is said to have borne it without yielding.

In 1525 Hernán Cortés had him hanged on an expedition to Honduras, on a charge of conspiracy that later ages have doubted. He remains for Mexico a lasting symbol of dignity in defeat. Honored among the Great Ones of every civilization; kept here so the memory is never lost.