Audio sepisch nemerpet gza da nyudwa Listen to the first part of the interview with Mr. Phillips and complete the statements in your workbook.0:00
An interview with Mr. Phillips, part one.0:10
Mr. Phillips, you are an expert in Mexican culture and history.0:13
How long have you been investigating Mexico?0:17
My first research paper about this country was published in 1965.0:22
What are the things that strike you most?0:27
Its people, their culture and history, and certainly the facts linking the past and the present.0:29
What can you say about the population of Mexico?0:35
They are a blend of Spanish and Indian cultures.0:38
This mixing of cultures can be seen in all aspects of Mexican life.0:41
The culture of the two Indian groups, the Mayas and the Aztecs, could be traced in modern Mexican customs and traditions.0:45
Descendants of these and many other Indian tribes still live on the territory of Mexico.0:53
Where did the Mayas live?0:58
These ancient people lived in what today is southern Mexico and had a very developed culture.1:00
Around the year 350ad, the Mayas began to use the system of writing and mathematics.1:06
They studied the moon, the stars, the sun.1:13
So they had a profound knowledge of planets and other elements of the universe, didn't they?1:16
Their knowledge enabled them to fix the length of the year almost accurately.1:22
The Mayan calendar was much more accurate than anything known in Europe at the time.1:29
The Aztecs were also a very powerful Indian tribe, weren't they?1:34
They ruled many other groups of Indians.1:39
When Spanish soldiers came to Mexico soon after Columbus, they were struck by the Aztec capital city, whose name was Tenochtitlan.1:42
It stood where the capital of modern Mexico is now, on the central plateau of Mexico.1:50
It was a wonderful place.1:55
Built on an island in a lake.1:57
The city had more people and riches than any city at home in Europe, in Spain.1:59
But how did a small group of Spaniards manage to defeat the powerful Aztecs?2:04
Historians say there were several reasons.2:09
First, an old Aztec legend promised a God would return to them from the sea one day.2:12
And the Aztecs thought the leader of the Spanish invaders was that God.2:17
Then the Spanish soldiers had horses and guns which were not known to the Indians.2:21
But that was not all.2:28
The Aztecs had many enemies who helped the Spaniards, and the last factor was smallpox.2:29
Do you mean the disease?2:35
It's a serious, infectious disease.2:37
At that time unknown in Mexico, it spread over the capital city and many Aztecs died.2:39
The Spaniards destroyed Tenochtitlan and built a new city upon its ruins.2:45
Many people from Spain came to live in a new capital.2:50
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