It’s been 500 years since Hernán Cortés and his band of Spanish Conquistadores set foot on the shores of a foreign land that would come to be known as México. Little did they know that their search for New World riches would lead to the birth of a nation.

Cortés led an expedition of the Yucatán peninsula in the early months of 1519. When he reached Tabasco, his troops defeated the Maya of Potonchan in battle, prompting their Lord to ply the conquerors with gifts. Included in the booty was the slave princess Malinali, later known as La Malinche and Doña Marina, who became Cortes’ interpreter and mistress. She bore him a son named Martín, widely regarded as the original Meztizo in the first generation of mixed Spanish and American Indian blood.

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