M A X I M O 1517: A Spanish Jew In The Last Days Of The Aztec Empire

By John Allen

This story follows a young Spanish Jew, Maximo ha-Levi Constanego, in the land of Mesoamerica. He left his homeland of Spain as the Islamic caliphate gasped its last collective breath of occupation. The Reconquista, the reconquering of Spain, was well underway.

Even as newfound freedom blossomed for some, it was not so for the Jews. Maximo was spirited out of the country by his anxious mother, on a ship captained by his Catholic uncle, Rodrigo Constanego. Rumors swirling through the Caribbean fleet of the arrest of Jews on Spanish vessels prompts the planning of an escape from his uncle's ship, the Asunto del Rey. He deserts his post after a shipwreck on the Yucatan.

His arrival in the New World, as a reluctant refugee, and now enemy of the crown, precedes other, more aggressive colonizers bent on an agenda of conquest.

He meets the cruel Aztecs, abhors their habit of human sacrifice, and allies himself to rebellious Amerindians outside the full control of the empire. Maximo becomes dismayed realizing one day he might be required to fight his own countrymen.

His beliefs are buffeted and challenged. Yes, at times he is precariously irreverent, but an enduring faith in the providence of God sustains him throughout.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886544145

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M A X I M O 1517

A Spanish Jew In The Last Days Of The Aztec Empire

John Allen

Copyright © 2023 John Allen

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88654-413-8 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-88654-414-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section 1: The Landing

Section 2: Pull Anchor

Section 3: The Cauldron

Section 4: Now and Then

Section 5: Fortunate Merger

Section 6: Their Ways

Section 7: Westward

Section 8: Upheaval

Section 9: End of an Era

The Landing

Shipwreck

A Porthole View

The Making of Maximo

Over the Edge

Search Out the Deserter

Found by a Friend

Pull Anchor

Report to the Captain

Goodbye del Rey, Goodbye Spain

Those Piercing Yellow Eyes

Trepidation and Hope

The Cauldron

Meet the Aztecs

They Take What They Want

Wheeled Carts, Damaged Goods

Stonemason's Daughter

Now and Then

Lockstep with Deities

Four Pillars Madness

Privilege

Fates Intersect

Samuel's Jerusalem

Fortunate Merger

The Two Meet

Hectōr's Farm

Adjusting to the Rigors

Chiik Naab and the Divine Lords of the Snake

The Avocado Bribe

Costly Rescue

Black Cat

Point of Honor

Westward

On to Acapulco!

The Uniform

Laughing with the Kan

El Requerimiento

Upheaval

Balboa's Men

Orders and Justice

Those Cloud Ships

Show Your Worth

End of an Era

Rendezvous at Sea

Sneak Attack

Sailor's Merriment

Palénte's Six-String

About the Author

To Noelle Maria Blassingame, who gave me such joy in life. Rest in peace, my dear daughter.

Introduction

My father, the late John S. Allen, MD, an avid reader, once said of the writer J. A. Michener's work as he handed me his copy of Caribbean : That third person in there is trying his best to derail my attention! I may as well disclose up front that I employ fly-on-the-wall narratives freely throughout this book to help set the story line and assist readers in understanding why my characters behave the way they do. These brief treks into history—some true, some fictionalized—contribute to what makes the individuals tick.

The pages of Maximo 1517 span just a few short years after our protagonist is marooned on the sands of Yucatán. He had boarded a ship in Cádiz, Spain, and landed in Mesoamerica by way of the Spanish viceroyalty in Cuba. The world was in turmoil. The Reconquista in Spain was in its final stages after centuries of Islamic rule; the new Spanish rulers subjected Jews and many Gentiles alike to the fires of Spanish Inquisition cruelties; the Ottoman Turks nibbled away at Eurasia's southern flank; and the Muslims ruled over Israel, Maximo's ancestral homeland.

Great Britain, France, Italy, and the Norsemen of Scandinavia had all mounted expeditions across the Atlantic to the North American continent. Some of their colonies stuck while others sputtered and died. The Russian czar, Ivan the Great, gazed across the North Pacific with dreams of expansion to North America. In an audacious move, blessed by the Catholic pope in Rome, the Spanish and Portuguese split the entire globe between themselves.

When Maximo arrived in Mesoamerica in 1517, the Aztec Empire extended from modern-day Tucson to Guatemala in the south but was well in decline even before dangerous Spanish colonizers arrived from the east.

Fearing persecution as a Jew, Maximo escaped the Spanish ship, Asunto del Rey. Now a deserter, a criminal sought after by the crown of Spain, he confronts the terrors of a strange land, fighting wild beasts and brutal natives and enduring life-threatening injuries and imprisonment at the hands of the Aztecs. Amid all these, he finds romance with a Maya girl in a fuchsia-colored dress.

Working through his own Jewishness, Maximo tries to sort out and understand cultural nuances and the religious beliefs of others. He combats personal doubt and despair and overcomes adversity through his fractured-yet-intact faith, unshakable pride in his family roots, and raw perseverance.

The brutality of the Aztecs and their henchmen may be only slightly exaggerated. Hatred by the Chiapas and other Amerindian native rebels of their Aztec overlords in the early 1500s is well-documented. Maximo is haunted by torn loyalties; circumstances compel him to choose sides in the brewing civil war and impending European invasion.

I am a Norte Americano with reputed Spanish roots in Navarre. My middle name, Sevier, was changed from de Xavier after my ancestors escaped the Spanish Inquisition and fled to France, or so say my family's conscientious genealogists. As a geographer and amateur historian intrigued with Amerindians and their culture, it is with profound respect for these ancients and their descendants, the Mexican people, that I offer this story.

Fiction and fact

Weaving fantasy with facts can cause confusion. My brother warned, If you're not careful, you may find your ‘historical accounts' written into Wikipedia! The reader should not have to wonder what is fact and what is fiction.

Section 1: The Landing

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's 1517 expedition to the New World is rooted in the historical record. The expedition's fourth ship, the Asunto del Rey, and each of its onboard characters are fictional. The storm El Tormento Diablo Rojo is imagined in time and place, but the phenomenon of Saharan dust is real. The general history of Spain is rooted in truth, as are the dire circumstances facing the Jews in Spain in those early years of the fifteenth century.

Viking raiding parties are known to make their way down from Scandinavia and sail up the rivers of Iberia during the Ottoman Empire's occupation of Spain, but Maximo's ancestral connection is purely fictional. Quotes from historians are as exact as possible.

Section 2: Pull Anchor

Spanish ship protocol and cultural norms of the day are presented close to reality. The pyramid at Chumkoko where Maximo finds shelter is fictional, but references to the surrounding cities and geography of Yucatán are true. The imperial Aztec jaguar warriors Océlotl and the Muslim mercenary Janissary Troops in Spain are presented honestly.

Section 3: The Cauldron

Spain's final victory over Muslim occupation—the Spanish Reconquista—is factual. Portrayals of the Toltec and Olmec, those civilizations between the Maya and Aztec, are historically correct. Mizipaní and the entire Zapata family are fictional, as is the use of wheeled carts for tribute transport in the actual Yucatán city of Tulum.

Section 4: Now and Then

Montezuma and his uncle Ahuitzotl are historical figures. The Monument of Sacred War is real, but Montezuma's Four Pillars decree and its enforcer, Priest Pōtum, are fictional. The place of Aztlan is the mythical ancestral home of the Mexica, predecessors of the Aztecs.

Section 5: Fortunate Merger

The Chetumal Iztapan saltworks are real, but Hectōr's Farm and all the characters associated with it—both Maya and Aztec alike—are fictional. Chiik Naab is a factual place, and the Divine Lords of the Snake held power there.

Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, is real and spoken throughout the realm; however, empire outliers, those found deep in the Maya lowlands of Yucatán, most likely would have spoken one of many Maya dialects.

Section 6: Their Ways

The Chiapas people are real, but the village of Desconodido and all its characters, including the warlord Black Cat and his lieutenant Zoltec, are fictional. The Avocado Bribe is entirely fictional, but no doubt methods are devised by the natives to placate the Aztecs. The great city of Palenque and its famous historical figures Pakal the Great and Princess Oktán are real, but Black Cat's archenemy Lord Baakal is fictional. The Yopitzinco kingdom and its people, the Yopé, are factual, but all character interactions are fictional.

Section 7: Westward

The Polynesian-inspired Alii-kan kingdom and all its characters are fictional. But there is a possibility that seafaring pacific islanders could have been blown off course in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as they traversed the Polynesian Triangle of Tahiti, Hawaii, and Rapanui, making it to the west coast of Mesoamerica. El Requerimiento is a religious document employed by the Spaniards to subjugate Amerindians, but its uses by various characters have been fictionalized.

Section 8: Upheaval

Vasco Núñez de Balboa and his discovery of the Pacific Ocean are historical, as is his transport over the Isthmus of Panama of at least two dismantled ships, which are built near Darién on the Caribbean and remanufactured on the pacific side. Balboa is indeed convicted of treason and beheaded. The Queen of Spain and the Sea Pearl are fictional ships, as are their crews.

Section 9: End of an Era

References to Cloud Ships are fictional, but the Amerindians were quite intrigued with the massive sails of early European ships, even ascribing mysticism to them. Geographic placemarks along the pacific coast and the noted inhabitants of the region are as close to the historical record as possible. The Tlapan people are real, but their attack upon the Spaniards and Alii-kan navy, fictional. Hernán Cortés and his incursion into the Aztec Empire from the Bay of Campeche is relayed as closely to the historical record as possible.

The Landing

Chapter 1

Shipwreck

The hurricane spun counterclockwise, as all storms do that originate in the Atlantic Ocean near the island chain of Cabo Verde off the coast of West Africa. The behemoth churned its way through the Caribbean, slamming the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba, clipping the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula on its way into the Gulf of Mexico.

Fifteen days before the storm hit, famous fleet captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba was preparing to embark on an expedition to the New World from Havana, the seat of Spanish viceroyalty government in the West Indies. Within days of departure, his three ships—two galleons and a brigantine—were joined by a fourth: a shallower draft, lighter-armed caravel, the Asunto del Rey, captained by Rodrigo Constanego.

The flotilla set off to follow the coast of Cuba down to Cape San Antonio then head west to open seas. But just weeks into their voyage, outer storm bands closed in as crosswinds conspired to blow the ships off course. In the tropical bedlam, swells kicked up; fierce winds and pelting rain made communication between the vessels unfeasible. As the hurricane intensified, the fleet spread apart; each captain was on his own to make the command decision whether to turn back or persevere.

Ordering sails furled and all hands on deck, the captain of the Asunto del Rey struggled to hold course toward the Yucatán. As the storm worsened, fearing loss of life and limb, the captain ordered the rudder lashed into position and all personnel below deck.

Four men gathered in the surgeon's cabin, grasping whatever was rigid in the heave and pitch. Doctor Celtớn Belmonte, the bellicose and irreverent but kind and funny career-shipboard physician, lifted the grog bottle and announced, Maties, this is my cab… I say, my cabin…all who enter will give due deference to my excellent opinions! He was already three sheets to the wind.

Captain's mate, Califano Palénte, university educated but a bit uncoordinated, constantly banged his head on the cabin headers. He, like the good doctor, had made the royal navy home. He could hold his own in an argument and did not shrink from the likes of Belmonte.

The youngest member of the group was sixteen-year-old Maximo Constanego, apprentice scribe and Captain Constanego's nephew. The foursome was not complete without the ship's cook, known only as Taquito, the only Brit onboard.

Taquito was born in Cádiz of a Spanish mother, but his father was a hardened English ships provision master from London's East End, imprisoned for five years by the Spaniards for running contraband along the Portuguese coast leading up to the Anglo-Spanish War. Though deciding to stay in Cádiz rather than return home after his release from prison, his father remained a passionate Englishman, insisting his Spanish-born son never lose the ability to speak the king's English. By that, he meant his own cockney version. That accent, even some English vulgarisms, now infected Taquito's Spanish.

Taquito kept his political and religious views to himself, choosing to sit back, drink, and listen to his mates debate their points of view. His shipboard cooking ability, however, was no secret; captains vied to get him onboard their ships for he was well known across the fleet for plating up an appetizing meal. Few knew precisely how Rodrigo Constanego had secured him as cook for the del Rey, but one thing was certain, his crew was glad. To the delight of the men, Taquito often prepared his specialty plate: corn tortillas stuffed with salted tomatoes in vinegar and smoked beef jerky, rolled and fried to a golden brown. The meal kept mutinous spirits at bay.

The men discussed Spanish politics in their normal boisterous manner, voices increasing in volume as the storm intensified. Palénte, as watch commander, was under strict orders to limit his grog, so he took only short swigs.

Dr. Belmonte, under no such restriction, did not hold back. Maximo, considered not yet of age for the grog, watched the jug pass between his mates.

As the topic turned to religion, the men automatically lowered their voices and tightened the spaces between them, always on alert that someone could report heretical talk. They passed the jug with more frequency, not forgetting the quiet Taquito in the corner.

They may have killed the Lord Jesus, but at least the Jews aren't out 'n' about to cut my throat, the doctor said, taking two extra-long swigs in turn. Those infernal Mohammedans, he cursed. Well, that's another story.

But, Doctor, young Maximo inquired in a cautiously muted tone, barely heard above the storm's tempest. What about our King Ferdinand burning other types of Christians?

The doctor got up from his chair, struggling to steady himself, and patted young Maximo on the back, perhaps a bit too hard. Grog sloshing from his mouth, eyes darting side to side, he replied in a slurred speech, Now you're thinking, young protégé. Didn't expect such a…schmart observa…observation, no, not from someone so inexperienced. He wiped his sleeve carelessly across his mouth and staggered forward, nearly bumping heads with his compatriots, only to fall back into the same seat as the ship rolled.

Chief Mate Palénte pulled the jug to his chest then up to his waiting lips. You're only half right about the Jews, Doctor, he said with conviction. The Hebrew Pharisees may have instigated the crucifixion of Christ, but the dastardly Romans did the deed.

So went the banter through the night leading up to the shipwreck of February 25, 1517.

Chapter 2

A Porthole View

The Asunto del