The Other Conquest (1999)

Damián Delgado is Topilzin, a writer who just happens to be the bastard spawn of Aztec ruler Moctezuma himself, in The Other Conquest (1999), a historical drama from down Mexico way. Damián is having some trouble with the new boss, being the only Aztec survivor of the massacre at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan and all. He's awakened to find piles of bodies—including that of his ma—and mean old Hernán Cortés throwing his weight around and acting like he owns the place. Damián won't play nice—he refuses to go along with the new state-imposed way of things. Rather than converting to Catholicism, he goes the unorthodox route and throws a rock at a friar. To each his own! But the Spaniards don't see it that way, and no one less than his own brother turns him over to the police. He's arrested in the presence of Cortés himself—whose lover, Tecuichpo (Elpidia Carrillo), is another of Moctezuma's Mocte-kiddos. Damián's life is spared, but the alternative to death is to be flogged in public and subjected to conversion under the tutelage of Friar José Carlos Rodríguez. Refusing to surrender to the conquerors, Damián struggles to preserve his own beliefs in the face of Friar José's teachings . . . and the face of colonialism itself.