Customer Reviews

Our Lady of Guadalupe: And the Conquest of Darkness

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This book represents a refreshing departure from the polically correct historical revisionism that passes for history, especially regarding the Age of Discovery and the conquest of the Americas. Since the 60's we've been inundated with an alternative historical view that enobles the native peoples of America at the expense of their humanity, which likewise demonizes anything or anyone of European origin.

This book does not tip toe around the fact that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice on a massive scale to the tune of 50,000 victims per year; and that the Aztecs conducted wars against their neighbors aggressively, for the sole purpose of of obtaining sacrificial victims to their God. Unlike many histories of that era and place, Dr. Carroll does not waste space attempting to 'get inside the minds' of the Aztec hierarchy. His purpose is not to be an apolgist for Montezuma et. al., but to relate the facts. Nor does he let the conquistadors off the hook. We hear in excruciating detail of the cruel and brutal treatment accorded the natives by the likes of the four commissioners appointed by king Charles to govern Mexico. Dr. Carol, likewise faults the Spanish for not allowing the natives to study for the priesthood and for oppressive policies kept the natives poor.

He doles out praise and blame to individuals, both native and Spanish without prejudice and with a committment to the truth. He states unabashedly that his loyalty is to the Christian world view.

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would!!

War, Human Sacrafice, Courage, and A Fight Against All Odds! This books brings to life the struggle against the evil one in Aztec Mexico with the arrival of the Spanish, just after having defeated the Muslims forces in Europe, under the mission of Mary, Mother of God, to bring Christ to millions onto millions. At the same time so many rebelled against the Church of Christ's founding in Europe, so many found it as their salvation against brutal death in the name of pure evil -- the actions of the Spanish guiding the natives to Christ through Mary. And through her, Juan Diago was able to bring full sight in this amazing story and truly conquer evil in a spiritual war (following the actual war) with the victory in baptism of millions. If I could recommend any book to my friends, this would be one of the first!

The riveting history of a great man, Hernan Cortes, who with 300 men conquered the demonic empire of 14 million Aztecs who had ritualistic human sacrifices of ripping out live human hearts on top of their pyramid in Mexico City. Naturally he had circumstantial Divine help and great courage. What man destroys his own means of escape (he sank his vessels) and turns to face odds of 46,000 to 1? Then a few years later the miraculous appearance of Our Lady and huge conversions. Some were still carrying on human sacrifices in secret til Our Lady came. Greatest book I've found in years, excellent for young men to read about heroism and faith. Some ladies may be turned off by the barbaric cruelty and cannibalism of the Aztecs, but it gives great perspective as to the evil that had to be conquered. It is also one of my wife's favorite books and we have gone through 4 as I continue to give it to others.

It is time that our young folk at college start getting the facts right, if not at college then thru the original sources. This book is a compedium of wisdom. It is a summary of the Conquest (physical & spiritual) of Mexico by the Christian kingdom of Spain. Whether you like it or not not is not the point... they are FACTS! History is not to be liked or disliked, it's past and there's nothing to do about it. Those who consider the Christianization of the Aztecs (along with their subjugation to a new people) wrong, they ought to tell me what they would have done if they were among the Spaniards of those times! You cannot tell because, in the first place: you don't know enough history to blame or defend anybody; and second: it's impossible to put ourselves in the position of folks 500 years ago while living in the sedative & government-subsidized world of today (unless you're a hypocrite to dare).

I am only half thry this little book, a little more than a 100 pages. How can this excellent historian condense all the adventures and facts of this history in so few pages is something that I haven't seen before. The result is that not only every page, but every line and every word is pecisely chosen and situated. I am savoring every page of it, going back and re-reading to fully grasp the implication of the scenes described.

Mr. Warren H. Carroll's catholicism doesn't diminish the accuracy or objectivity of this account; we are talking History, not politics or religion, and Mr Carroll is a historian of top-notch quality. He uses Aztec as well as Spanish sources that, either were themselves witnesses or recuperate testimonies from witnesses. Mr Carroll knows the contemporary accounts of the Conquest, and he specially uses the version by Salvador de Madariaga (if anybody knows him he can be reassured of his qualified status among historians).

Facts: In 1487 during the rulership of a Tlacaellel among the Aztecs, and when he was 89 years old, he dedicated the new pyramid-temple in the center of Tenochtitlan. He dedicated with the greatest mass sacrifice of his "reign". The sacrifice went on for 4 days and 4 nights killing 80,000 people from the hostile provinces and the swollen ranks of slavery. It took only 15 seconds to kill each victim (they were that expert).

Those liberals, pre-marxists and socialists of yester-year killed about 50,000 folk a year. Do our college professors and minority rights advocates consider this a legitimate part of their ancient culture?

There's many, many amazing and eloquent stories to be read here. But I want to finish by mentioning Mr Carroll's point about how the Conquest of Mexico (and by extension of all Hispanic America) got a bad name. I bet the hypocrite liberals of our anti-American campuses know well Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. This monk would become such an "advocate of all the Indians that he tried to pretend that the horrors of human sacrifice in Mexico were only a tiny fraction of what they actually were ... there can never be an obligation to stand by while thousands of innocent people are being killed because of state or "religious" policy, if one has the power and the means to prevent it without causing still greater evils." Says the author of this little book, and I agree, although this is still in our day a great debate.

But I recommend this great book also because it is one of the greatest stories in human history, condensed and viewed from a very interesting point of view, specially if you believe that God knows it all and that nothing falls short of His plan. If so, one has to start accepting that Cortés had something more than talent and courage in his sack to take like he did such an immense empire. Could it be that God was with him? Well, this should'n't scandalize the liberals since they don't even believe in God, but to us Christians, it is more than a possibility. And not just because a bunch of coincidences and fortunes kept the conquistadors alive and winning against all imaginable odds... maybe God really answered their prayers: because they really and honestly (in the face of enormous dangers to their lives, one believes they prayed honestly) looked to our Lord and Savior for protection.

And every time the conquistadors arrives somewhere and established themselves, the Cross had always to be present, and the name of Christ in they lips ready to shield them from evils. This man Cortés may not have been a saint, or even a good Christian (nobody could say) but there is no doubt that he trusted the Lord for his protection, and that he procured with all his heart to abolish idols and human sacrifices straightfowardly.

If Cortés had always been a heroe to me, now I see him in a new and even greater light.

I had to add this: When Cortes was beaten out of the Aztec capital, during the Night of Sorrow, he saught refuge among the Tlaxcalans, a people who were enemies of the Aztecs. Then...

"Blind old chief Xicotencatl, and his fellow chiefs greeted Cortés with these words: Oh, Malinche, Malinche, how sorry we are about your misfortunes and that of your brothers, and the many of our own people who have been killed along with yours! ... Now it has happened and no more can be done at present but to attend you and give youfood. YOU ARE AT HOME; REST AND SOON WE WILL GO TO OUR TOWN AND PUT YOU UP. Do not think, Malinche, that it was a little thing to escape with your lives from that strong city with its bridges. I tell you that IF BEFORE WE TOOK YOU TO BE VERY BRAVE, NOW WE TAKE YOU TO BE MUCH MORE SO."

All indigenous Mexicans should read this story and think for themselves if it was worth it. Actually they have done so, for only liberals and phony intellectuals pretending to be the protectors of their rights still wish they kept their cults of death and darkness.

I am a practising Catholic, and Carroll's partiality suits me just fine. But even if you disagree with Carroll's viewpoint you still have to respect the information in this book.

Having said that, I have never been keen in seeing the hand of Satan on every bad thing done by humanity. But after reading this book I have made a big exception: there can be no question now that the Aztecs did indeed worship the devil, whether the PC crowd likes it or not. Never before had I read such a clear exposition of the inherently evil organization of the Aztec Empire and its' association with devil-worship. I now find truly revolting to think of having read PC apologists chastising the Spaniards for not "respecting" the Aztecs' "legitimate" religious beliefs. Indeed, it would have been unforgivable for the Spaniards, or whoever had the means, not to put an end to the savagery of the Aztecs.

One must also give weight to Carroll's apology of Cortes' and his Conquistadors. Native allies outnumbered Spaniards at least 50 to 1 when they stormed Tenochtitlan (I loved his observation that Cortes' detractors claim the Spaniards' victory would have been impossible without European-borne diseases which ravaged the Aztecs, yet somehow those diseases spared the Native allies). By simple mathematical probability, therefore, most atrocities would have been committed at the hands of the natives (who clearly were looking for payback), and Spaniards would have been too few to stop them if they had tried. The wholesale conscription of Indians to work for Spaniards occured when Cortes was away chasing Cristobal De Olid, and when Cortes returned he was stripped of his authority. The author also dispels many myths regarding the Spaniards' obsession for gold as their sole motivation for the conquest. In a typical example, mainstream history portrays Spaniards insanely weighted down by loads of gold even as they retreat from Tenochtitlan in desperation. It is therefore rather revealing when Dr Carroll quotes eyewitness Diaz Del Castillo stating that most Spaniards during the retreat carried no gold whatsoever but only the utter fear of being caught prisoner and sacrificed (I now can't wait to get my hands on Diaz Del Castillo's full account). Carroll makes also very clear that the Spaniards in Mexico did not engage in a policy of forcible conversion.

This is not a completely one-sided account, though. The author pulls no punches in condemning the subsequent mistreatment of Native Mexicans and the failure of Church officials to protect them.

The most compelling part of the book, however, was its' ironclad documentation of contemporary sources regarding the apparition of Our Lady in Guadalupe: sources which non-Catholic skeptics still deny exist.

Something which the author does not go into is the purported existence of a prior shrine to an Aztec goddess at Tepeyac, the present Guadalupe site. Detractors have alleged the apparition of Our Lady at Guadalupe was a ploy either by the Catholic Church using the goddess to win the hearts of the Aztecs, or by the Aztecs to secretly continue worshipping the goddess. If so, one of the Aztecs' major male gods impersonating an important male saint would have been a more effective strategy. As it turns out, that goddess was such a minor figure in the Aztec pantheon that it could not possibly account for the overwhelming devotion for Our Lady which developed among Native Mexicans, so probably Carroll did not feel like the subject was worth the effort.

The bottom line is we all know what happened then in Mexico defies rational explanation: Against seemingly impossible odds, an insignificant band of Spaniards brought down the most formidable military machine in America at the time, and Native Mexicans willingly and passionately embraced the Christian faith. If you are a Catholic believer you know what the explanation is.

If you would like a well-researced historical account of Cortes era in Mexico free of the historical revisionism that plagues the topic, this book is for you.

I said *one* of the best history books, but I believe it to be *the* best history book ever - Warren H Carroll has written masterfully and is not afraid to speak the truth in the world where it is no longer *politically correct* to support the conquering of a nation given over to a satanic form of pagan worship.

This book offers us all a great hope - after the Spanish rescued this nation from a barbaric and evil religion that degraded it's people to a most shocking degree, Our Lady of Gudadalupe then appears to a native man and simply tells him that she is their mother and she claims this nation, it's people, AS HER OWN.

A truly, must-read book.

Warren Carroll's book is by far the best historical account that I have ever read. For anyone who wants to appreciate the horror of the culture of the time, this is a must read. The background of human sacrifice must be put in place in order to fully appreciate the significance of our Lady's appearance to Juan Diego and the subsequent conversion of an entire culture of death. This was truly a culture under the Satanic grip of evil where innocent blood was offered daily, not unlike our own situation today. They viewed their human sacrifice as a form of worship, even though it was to the Serpent God. We simply offer our human sacrifice (abortion) in a form of self worship, but the end product is the same;innocent blood filled their land as it does ours through the sacrifice of our own children. Read for yourselves how our Lady of Guadalupe converted ten million native Aztecs to Christ and put an end to the horrors of human sacrifice.

I couldn't put this book down it was so gripping. The bravery of those who conquered against all the odds is a lesson in courage for us! This is a book about hope! Hope in a God who loved them so much as to miraculously intervene in history through the appearance of a loving Mother, who came to bring new life to an entire Nation! Even today they remain faithful to her and her Son! May she do the same for us.

Read this and see why we need the prayers and power of Our Lady of Guadalupe to intercede on behalf of her children in North America again! This marvelous account by Dr. Carroll is just as relevant today as it was in 1487. This is a perfect book for you who homeschool. This is edge of the seat history, and the perfect way to bring that culture to life. No such thing as "dead history" here!

I loved this book. Absolutely excellent story telling, and explains perfectly well the historical context of the Blessed Mother's famous appearance in Mexico.

Dr. Carroll's Scholarly Work shows through with his usual attention to scholarly research, footnotes and Bibliography (not to mention a good story). Here is historical truth told by an excellent historian from a Catholic perspective. Dr. Carroll has a gift of telling the true facts from an unabashed Catholic perspective while maintaining a basic fairness and objectivity. Dr. Carroll does not believe history needs to be dry or boring. His books tell some of the great and thrilling true stories of history in a very readable way.

As a former student of his, I was enthralled to hear many of these stories in his classes. He placed a great importance on historical Truth being objective, which we can come to know by scholarly research and study of History. His 5 words for the foundation for Catholic Historians: "Truth exists. The Incarnation Happened." Jesus Christ is the center of History. History has a beginning in the Creation, a center in God becoming Man in Jesus Christ, and it will have an end when Jesus returns in Glory.

I heartily recommend all of Dr. Warren Carroll's books. Prepare to not be bored.