Episode Details
Back to Episodes
The Noche Triste's Missing Piece: The Tacuba Causeway
Description
In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit the legendary Noche Triste — the night in 1520 when Hernán Cortés and his men fled Tenochtitlan under a hail of stones and arrows. But this time, they focus on the Tacuba Causeway, the narrow stone road that became the stage for one of the most disastrous retreats in military history. Drawing on the Florentine Codex and Bernal Díaz del Castillo's account, they trace the route, the panic, the gold-laden soldiers who drowned, and the crucial role of the Tlaxcalteca allies who fought alongside the Spanish. They also explore the aftermath: the battle of Otumba, the rebuilding of Cortés's army, and the psychological shift that turned a rout into a war of attrition. With careful attention to both Spanish and Nahua perspectives, this episode pieces together the human wreckage — the dead, the survivors, and the choices that shaped the fall of the Aztec Empire. It's a meditation on how memory, trauma, and military miscalculation converge on one ancient road.