The omens were many: the devastating destruction of the temple of Huitzilopochtli by fire, Lake Mexico boiled over and flooded homes, a comet soared across the sky, some fishermen discovered a bird with an oddly strange mirror on its head and when the Emperor looked at its reflection, he saw a vision of future destruction and war. The Aztec Emperor Montezuma II , born (circa 1466), demanded meaning from the soothsayers, who said that the events prophesied the end of his kingdom. And, in fact, this would come true, starting with the appointment of Hernán Cortés, Chief Magistrate of Santiago, on October 23, 1518 , as “captain-general” to command an…