El Conquistador (''The Conqueror'', in Spanish) is a novel from the awarded Argentinian writer Federico Andahazi, an inversion of the common topic of the Discovery of America. Here, a brave and bold Aztec explorer wants to discover the lands beyond the seas, in an attempt to find the mythic city of Aztlán to redeem his people, whom he sees as living in an overly brutal and rigid society. Off course, he stumbles his way to Europe in the Middle Ages.
He visited Spain and sees the "barbarians", dirty and smelly, very eager to sacrifice people in the pire to his dead god, and finds out that they believe him to be a Chinese or Japanese ambassador, a position that he takes advantage of (China is believed in the novel to have the vastest army in the world). One Japanese girl notices the lie, but being a sex slave freed by him, she became the great love of his life. Here he finds Christopher Columbus, and recognizes him as an equal, and lives a series of adventures prior to his return to Tenochtitlán.
Tropes:
- Bold Explorer: Quetza is an explorer so bold and clever that he even discovers Europe several years before Colombus even ships. He even recognizes that he isn't where he expected to be, and recognizes the threat that the Europeans impose on his people and culture.
- Cassandra Truth: When Quetza returns from the new world, he tries to explain the existence of Europe and the urgency to build an army and explore/invade this new world. His tales aren't believed by the leaders of Tenochtitlán.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Almost every teacher in the Calmécac (the Aztec High School, actually a Deadly Training Area) behaves this way. It's only expected that the bravest and boldest of all people survives the school.
- Mayincatec: Cautiously averted. Andahazi is well known by his thorough investigation prior to the confection of a novel. The main characters are clearly Aztec people, even from Tenochtitlán.
- Medieval Morons: When Quetza discovers the Spanish port of Huelva, he first notices the bad smell, then the idiocy of the people that are willing to believe anything he says as a representative of "Cipango" (Japan). The only one that sees through his lie is an actual Japanese maiden, who became a prostitute due to her kidnapping by a pirate ship.
- The Mentor: Tepec. He saves Quetza of being sacrificed in the Temple, and he is a wise and intellectual teacher, a sage whom achieved his position in the Elders Council by his own sapience, not by his age or connections. He is a tutor of the golden age, as he misses the Toltec wisdom over the Aztec warmongery.
- Rock Beats Laser: The Aztec "primitive" macanas with Obsidian edges cut through the best Toledan steel swords.
- The Savage Indian: The usual depiction of Native American and Aztec peoples as savages is inverted. When Quetza first arrives in Spain, he sees the Europeans as technologically superior, but nevertheless barbarian savages who burn people at the stake.