This isn’t just a hoodie. It’s a history lesson, a street memorial, and a statement on the cost of stolen legacies.
When Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlán in 1519, the Aztecs welcomed him. Emperor Moctezuma II offered gifts and peace, hoping for diplomacy. But Cortés saw opportunity, not respect. He took Moctezuma hostage, used his trust as a weapon, and unleashed violence that fractured an empire. His betrayal came to a head during La Noche Triste—the Night of Sorrows—when Aztec warriors rose up. As Cortés’s men tried to flee under the cover of darkness, the stolen gold they clung to pulled many of them into the lake’s depths. According to legend, the gods cursed that gold—ensuring that anyone who profited from it would suffer for it.
That legacy of greed, violence, and colonization is what this design aims to bury.
The image on the hoodie shows Cortés hanging from a telephone wire—a modern version of being retired. Where we come from, when someone passes, we throw their shoes over the wire so no one else wears them. It’s how we honor people. This time, the shoes—and the legacy—aren’t being honored. They’re being ended.
The gold frame around the graphic isn’t for glory. It represents the same greed that made Cortés sink his own ships, burn his way through cultures, and drown his men in pursuit of stolen wealth.
This hoodie is a reminder that not every legacy deserves a statue. Some deserve a wire. And silence on the other line.
Sources:
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. (1568)
Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford University Press, 2003.
Townsend, Camilla. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. Oxford University Press, 2019.
León-Portilla, Miguel. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Beacon Press, 1992.
"La Noche Triste." Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Noche-Triste
National Museum of the American Indian. “Resistance and Survival: The Fight for Indigenous Lands and Cultures.” https://americanindian.si.edu
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