>Why does the Mexican Flag has that particular eagle, standing on a cactus, devouring a rattlesnake? You can read your little ones about this in this book I read to my little one this week. Yes, it is a very good, little book that my 7 yo enjoyed from the first page to the last. I really liked it because, even though it is short, it is accurate and the illustrations are beautiful.

The book is entitled The Sad Night, by Sally Shofer Matthew. 

And a little extra information for you ….

Why did the Spaniards finally conquered the Aztecs if they were outnumbered?

I have read many opinions and I have come to the conclusion that there were three important factors:

First the Aztecs had a totally different mindset when fighting. In Europe the idea was to win no matter what, in the Americas once a tribe fought and clearly won in battle that was it, it was settled who was the strongest one. However, the  Europeans were not going to be defeated like that, their interest were much more bigger than winning a one fight, than showing who was the strongest one. An Empire with many interests was behind all this. So, when the Spaniards lost this important battle (the Sad Night is the result of that loss) and they left. The Aztecs never thought that in a year they will come back with a larger army  decided to crash their civilization; that was not the way things worked on this side of the Atlantic.

The other factor was that these people, the Aztects,  lost because of all their superstitions. Moctezuma (yes, with a “c” and no with an “n” is the way we spell it in Mexico) was a great, brave warrior. He had the control over all the area (very BIG area, I have to say) No tribe was strong enough to resist the brutality of the Aztecs, however, through all this encounter with the white-bearded men  Moctezuma was paralyzed because all the time he was sure he was dealing with gods. At the end the generals and the people in general realized that gods or not they had to kill these men (gods?). Moctezuma tried to protect them ’till the end and this was his fall. People stoned him to death. (keep in mind the desperation that had to be happening here, the people “knew” that Moctezuma, their Tlatoani, was their god, so this was not an easy thing to do!)

Third, and most important, the Aztecs lost because it was written! Because God is sovereign over the nations, over the course of history, He is Lord over all, and He directs the history of mankind like the course of a river according to His infinite wisdom.

Well… I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope you get to buy this little book with a great story and full of  beautiful illustrations.

Have a blessed weekend, dear friends!