Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1521)

Hello, my name is Malintzin. I grew up in a beautiful world full of bright colors and happy sounds. There were tall stone temples that touched the sky and pretty flowers that smelled sweet like honey. I loved to listen to the birds sing and hear all the people talk. Everyone spoke in different ways, with different words. It was like music. I learned to speak many of these languages. It was my special game, like a superpower. I could understand my friends who spoke Nahuatl, and other friends who spoke Maya. Using all my words to help people understand each other made me feel very happy. My world was full of wonderful words.

One day, something new appeared on the big, blue water. They looked like giant floating houses with big white wings. The houses came closer and closer to our shore. People with shiny clothes and hats came from the floating houses. They spoke with words I had never heard before. Their language sounded very different, like a new kind of music. Our great leader, Moctezuma II, wanted to understand them. My special superpower of knowing many words was needed. I helped the newcomers talk to my people. I listened carefully to their strange sounds and turned them into words my people could understand. It was very important work.

A big change happened in our land on a day we remember as August 13th, 1521. Our old city began to change into a new one. It was a place where my people and the newcomers would now live together. My work of sharing words helped everyone begin to understand each other a little better. I helped start a new story for our home, a story of people learning to live together. Learning to understand one another is the most important adventure of all.