We visited another archeological site of a Mesoamerican city just outside of Veracruz. It is called Cempoala which would stand for the “place of twenty waters”.

It perhaps got its name because the city, which was founded in AD 1,200, had many aqueducts and irrigation channels.

In the past it was one of the biggest cities on the Gulf of Mexico with about 30,000 inhabitants and was the capital of the Kingdom of Totonacapan.

When the Spanish came in 1519 reaching the mainland of America, the Totonacs got the first ally with the well-known conqueror and colonizer Hernán Cortés.

The truth is, that the people of Totonacapan were heavily taxed by the Spanish. They were even forced to send hundreds of people as a tribute for sacrifices and as slaves.

However the leader of the Totonacs named “Quauhtlaebana” tried to cement the so-called alliance in giving one of his daughters as a kind of gift to Cortés.

It is hard to think about that Europeans “invaded” these countries in a very brutal way in order to expand the Empire and missionize native American people.