Original subtitles

(adventurous music)

(tribal music)

- This city is really beautiful.

It's something to marvel at.

- Thank you.

I sometimes forget what talented builders our people are.

- The buildings reflect such a rich tradition of harmony.

- That's why our region is known as a unique world.

I think the name is well-deserved.

My brother left last night for the village.

His escort is big and travels slowly.

Everybody has been assembled

and is waiting for us on the beach.

- Oh.

- We'll have to stop on the way.

Our allies have handed two prisoners over to my brother.

They're foreigners that survived a shipwreck.

(dramatic tribal music)

Come with me, Pocahontas.

They're waiting for us.

My brother asked me to show you the two prisoners.

It's very strange.

Apparently, they never wash.

- Welcome, Princess Pocahontas.

- [Chief] Thank you.

- Follow me.

You have the honor of entering the Four Bay Caps' residence.

As you are already aware, we've taken two prisoners.

They concern me because it appears

that they do not want to have anything to do with water.

- Strange.

- [Chief] And since their arrival, an unknown sickness

has spread throughout my people.

None of our medicine men understand what it is.

- Have you tried to talk to them at least?

- I don't know how.

They speak a strange language that I've never heard.

One of our Aztec warriors speaks several languages.

He tried to talk to them but he got absolutely nowhere.

I just don't know what to do.

- We've been given the gift

of understanding what the white man says.

We could try.

- Be my guest, but you won't be able to stand it.

They smell so bad, it's impossible to stay close to them.

- My brother has ordered me to see them.

I demand that they at least wash their faces

before they enter my presence.

- We keep them isolated so the stench won't spread so far.

(gasping)

- Please, have mercy, let me go.

Please.

Please, leave me.

Have mercy.

Washing is terrible.

Please, have mercy.

- Water will make me sick, please.

(laughing)

Don't kill us, we are good men, have pity on us.

Why don't you listen?

You're going to kill me.

- The Mayas are right.

I've been around white men before

and they always smell terrible.

(sneezing)

- Who are you, what are your names?

- We are Spanish sailors.

We were on a big ship.

- Oh, what are you doing here?

- Our ship sank.

We drifted to the coast on a raft and here we are now.

- You killed our companions

and now you want to do the same to us

after torturing us with your infernal tubs of water.

- Your companions were killed?

You're the ones spreading death.

- Yes, they shot at us.

- Don't be afraid, you can be our interpreters

for the next Spaniards to land on these shores.

Before we kill them, we'll make them talk.

Your name will be Guerrero.

You're going to become a Mayan prince

who will fight to protect the Maya

from the Spanish invaders.

I know that in Spanish, that name means warrior.

That's what you'll be for us.

- I'm with Pocahontas, her words tell all.

(dreamy tones)

- We're going to bring the Spaniards deeper inland.

It's safer.

If they are indeed carrying a contagious disease,

they won't be able to spread it so easily.

- Welcome.

- Thank you, great priest.

- Thousands of people have come to hear your message

and after the ceremony, an Aztec delegation

will escort you to their territory.

- Oh.

(drums beating)

(gasping)

- Before hearing the message the Great Spirit

has sent us through this young girl,

we must rend a homage to all our gods

for their protection and benevolence.

(speaking in foreign language)

- No, please.

Stop.

(dramatic music)

Hear my message.

A message pleading to you for mercy and clemency.

Mayan people, the future has great changes in store for you.

Let peace and serenity rule your land.

Mayan people, though you may not realize it,

the future is already here.

The invaders are at your doorstep

and your civilization, once bright and refined,

will be swept away and become nothing but a distant memory.

(gunfire)

(neighing)

(intense music)

The period of destruction will be followed

by a period of humiliation.

It will last for centuries.

But after all that suffering, a time will come

when eternal laws will show you the path to take.

You will no longer spill blood to honor your cruel gods.

Instead, you will respect nature, the earth, and life,

no matter what form they may take.

- I must admit, I'm very sorry to see you go.

- I'll bet your priests aren't.

(laughing)

- The escort who will accompany you

to the Aztec territory is here.

He's awaiting your decision.

- We will leave tomorrow morning at dawn.

- I'm losing my new friends, but I am comforted

by the fact that my cousin, Hungry for Blood,

will be accompanying me.

He is proud to have been chosen for this task.

Pocahontas, this is my cousin.

- Hello.

(chattering)

Oh.

- Don't be afraid, those are Aztecs.

- We are Aztec warriors.

We have come to escort you.

- What's wrong with the man who's running?

Everybody else seems so calm.

- He's an Aztec courier, carrying a message

on a papyrus scroll.

He brings it to another courier who hands it to the next.

A very efficient means of communication.

- Princess Pocahontas, I'm sorry,

but we have to camp here tonight on this open land.

Tomorrow, we have to go through a bandit-infested area.

But there is no need to worry, we'll keep watch over you.

- That's very kind of you, but there's no need.

Pocahontas has her own brave warriors.

- You see, you don't have to keep watch over me.

Oh, don't be offended, it's just that I feel very safe

under the watchful eyes of my own warriors.

Speaking of which, there's no need to call me princess.

Tell me, fine Aztec, what is your name?

- I belong to the order of the arrow warriors.

My name is Red Heron.

They say because I have a long neck, princess.

(laughing)

- What are those enormous heads, Red Heron?

Are they some kind of totem?

- No, they Olmecs who no longer exist sculpted these.

These heads represent the heads of giants

who populated the earth long before we did.

- That's nonsense.

Everyone knows there's no such thing as giants.

- That's what you say, but a few years ago,

we found a leg bone as tall as I am.

- [Moc] There are strange bones where we come from too,

but they belong to ancient animals.

- Sure, but there's no doubt those are human heads.

I, for one, am convinced giants used to live here.

(cawing)

Tomorrow you will sleep in an inn,

and the day after tomorrow we will finally reach

the capital Tenochtitlan.

- Is it as big and beautiful a city as Uxmal,

the one we just left?

- Bigger.

It's the biggest and most beautiful Mayan city.

Remember, in the past the Mayas were much more powerful.

The sacred city of Uxmal isn't as important anymore.

On the other hand, Tenochtitlan gets bigger

and more beautiful every year.

You'll see.

- You must've conquered a lot of tribes

to grow so big and powerful.

- We fought battles against many tribes,

but many others became our allies.

The tribes have their own organizational system and chiefs,

but they have to pay us a duty.

- Do you perform human sacrifices?

- My soldiers and I heard Pocahontas speak at Uxmal,

but neither the Mayas nor us Aztecs

can accept what she said.

Every nation in the world

offers human sacrifices to its gods.

To be chosen for sacrifice is an honor for us,

a tribute to the divine.

It's part of our religious tradition.

We call it the Blossom of Death.

It only exists at the heart of our unique world.

It's an ancient custom which is fundamental in our tribes.

- Are brave warriors given up as sacrifices too?

- [Red Heron] No, they have to stay in this world

and fight courageously.

- Then how do you find people to sacrifice

if you've already conquered all the neighboring tribes?

- That's exactly our problem.

We offer fewer and fewer sacrifices nowadays

and the gods are getting angry.

They unleash disasters and cause earthquakes.

- So, where do you find your victims for the sacrifices?

- We invented what we call the War of Flowers.

The tribes fight against each other

in order to take prisoners,

which they then offer as sacrifices,

receding the inauguration

of the new pyramid at Tenochtitlan.

20,000 prisoners were offered as sacrifices for three days.

(grunting)

- Oh.

(peaceful music)

- The king of Texcoco, the city we are coming to,

would like to host you and your escort for the night.

Texcoco is a powerful city whose king is an important ally.

A very wise and enlightened ruler

by the name of Nezahualpilli.

He offers lessons in his palace to worthy citizens

no matter what their social background.

- [Hopi-Ho] How do you know all these things?

- [Red Heron] I come from a family

of peasants near Tenochtitlan.

One day, the king of Texcoco sent for me

to be schooled in his palace, because someone had told him

I was bright.

- Wow.

- Moc.

Come and see the bathroom.

You better find out how it works before you use it.

Come on, get up, follow me.

- Huh?

- Come here.

Look.

- It's dishonorable for an important citizen

to try to run away from death.

Dishonorable for him, his family, and his city.

The Blossom of Death is a possibility for all of us

every day of our lives.

We are brought up to accept what life gives us

with honor and grace.

- Have you always had this tradition of human sacrifices?

- No, there weren't many human sacrifices

before the Mexicas or Aztecs came.

The Mexicas or Aztecs were the last people

to come to this land for refuge.

- But if they came to seek refuge,

then surely they had to obey the rules

of those here before them.

How did they come to be the rulers?

- When they first came, we gave them a little island

in the middle of a lake.

Since they didn't have enough food to feed their families,

they invented a new way of growing corn.

They floated enormous rafts on the lake,

covered them with earth, and planted their corn.

The did it again for several years,

and that's how they not only survived, but prospered.

(pleasant music)

As the years passed, they went on

to become fearsome warriors and shrewd politicians.

Soon, all the tribes in the region

were forced to become their allies.

They made up stories of a glorious past

and destroyed our books to rewrite new ones

about their greatness.

But it was impossible for the Aztecs to destroy

every trace of the civilizations

that had existed long before their arrival.

- You're talking about something

in particular aren't you, Nezahualpilli?

- Mm-hmm.

I am thinking about the ruins at Teotihuacan and Tula.

Those two cities were bigger

and more populated than Tenochtitlan.

Now, the Aztecs call Teotihuacan

the place where the gods gather.

But Teotihuacan and Tula were built by the Toltecs.

We know from their wall paintings

that they never offered human sacrifices to their gods,

just flowers, butterflies, and birds.

There's only one picture with fighting in it,

there's a warrior playing at war

and his spear is decorated with feathers.

The Toltecs' gods were peace-loving.

One of them, Quetzalcoatl, is still revered by many tribes.

Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake,

symbolizes both strength and grace,

two characteristics you don't usually put together.

Look, that's a reproduction of a Toltec painting

showing the feathered snake.

- [Hopi-Ho] That's no god with the snake, it's a white man.

- [Moc] A Spaniard.

He's wearing the same kind of helmet.

- I've heard something about white men

living among our neighbors, the Mayas.

That's probably why we thought the prediction came true.

- What prediction was that?

- Allow me to tell you the story of Quetzalcoatl,

whom the Mayans named Kukulkan.

We know the Toltecs were very different from us.

They wore beards and tilled the earth so well

that there were no more deserts.

Quetzalcoatl was a good king and a wise man

who invented the calendar, charts of the stars,

numbers that we still use, and many cooking recipes.

It is said that during his reign,

different colored cotton grew,

as if it had already been dyed.

As for the corn, each year was almost too big

for one man alone to carry.

- Well, then what happened?

This is a great story,

but something must've happened since then.

- Legend has it that one day, Quetzalcoatl did something

contrary to his noble behavior.

He went to the shores of the eastern ocean,

built a raft, and sailed off, promising to come back.

From that day on, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake,

was worshiped by all the tribes.

- So when the Spaniards landed,

you all thought that Quetzalcoatl

and the Toltecs had returned.

- No, I never thought that.

When Ahuitzotl, the Aztec chief, died,

his son, Cuauhtemoc, wasn't chosen to succeed him.

His nephew, Montezuma, was chosen instead.

Montezuma was indecisive and obsessed with the future.

And Montezuma was the one who thought that Quetzalcoatl

and the Toltecs had returned when the Spaniards landed.

This conviction led him to make some bad decisions.

(epic tribal music)

- Goodbye.

We were very lucky to have a scout here

and met such a great chief on our way to Tenochtitlan.

Now we know all about Mayan and Aztec history.

- I agree.

I'm glad we got to meet the great chief Nezahualpilli too.

- From the way he described it,

Tenochtitlan is gonna be really amazing.

- I wonder why the chief wasn't wearing anything

to describe his rank.

- He told me.

It's because their tradition says

that a man can only show off something he achieved

by his own hand.

- I'll always remember the poems he recited

and his father's stories.

- Me too.

I'll always carry them with me.

I already know them by heart.

The circle of life keeps going

each time the sun rises in the morning.

Let us remember the lessons our ancestors taught us

to respect nature, and all living creatures.

Each clear sparkling stream is blood in our veins,

the sea reflects the grace of the gods,

which showers down on men,

blessing them with strength and courage.