Mural of the Meeting of Moctezuma & Hernán Cortés

A Mural of the Meeting of Moctezuma & Hernán Cortés is displayed at the likely site of the 1519 meeting. This is in the City center today (at the corner of Pino Suárez and República de El Salvador streets) At the time, it was near to the culmination of the Iztapalapa causeway. Today, the causeway is preserved as the Calzada de Tlalpan.

The historic meeting of Moctezuma & Hernán Cortés took place on 8 November, 1519. Huey Tlatoani Moctezuma Xocoyotzin (1466–1520) is said to have met Cortés on the causeway leading into Tenochtitlan. According to legend, Moctezuma presented Cortés with an Aztec calendar, one disc made of gold and another of silver. Cortés melted both down believing them worth more as base metal.

The mural is a 2015 reproduction of a screen painting by Juan Correa. The original dates from 1684 and is part of the Banco Nacional de México collection.

• Juan Correa, (1646–1716) was an important painter of African-Spanish ancestry. He worked especially between 1671 and 1716 in Mexico City. Correa is often credited with having  imbued New Spanish Baroque painting with a new spirit and distinct style. Impressive works by Correa can be found in the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Franz Mayer Collection and in the Museo Virreinal in Tepozotlan, EdoMex.

The tile mural is 5.60 meters wide by 2.45 meters high just a few centimeters larger than the original screen painting. It’s made from 931 11×11 cm tiles. The work was realized by the Empresas Cantú, in San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Jalisco in a process that took more than six months.

The tile mural is installed facing the street at the rear of the Jesús Nazareno e Inmaculada Concepción Church, the former church of the famous Hospital de Jesus. The hospital was founded within just a few years of the 1519 meeting. It’s also caddy-corner from the Museum of Mexico City.