Mexico: A Story of Courage and Conquest

This well-written and consistently informative four-tape series provides the viewer with a coherent and visually detailed history of Mexico. The opening volume, which offers the most sweeping timeframe of the four parts, traces the arrival in North America of Asiatic people, via the Bering Sea land bridge, and their further migration into Central America, around 1500 B.C. Combining commentary from historians and anthropologists, along with pictorial art and on location video footage, the legacy of the Mayan and Aztec peoples is delineated, including some of the less salutary aspects of their civilizations (including their penchant for blood sacrifice). The program then moves on to the arrival of Hernan Cortes in the 16th century and the fatal confrontation between Spain and the Aztec empire, which resulted in the indigenous Mexican peoples losing their autonomy, and often their lives. Subsequent volumes chronicle Mexico's more recent history, which has probably been more exciting than most Mexicans would have wished. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)