1. The Buried Mirror Episode One “The Virgin and the Bull” Carlos Fuentes is a renowned author of many historical novels and has taught at many prestigious colleges and narrates each episode. He sheds light on the sometimes, infamous, tradition of bull fighting and why the Spanish consider this tradition to being more than just a man killing a scared animal. The bull has been revered in Iberia since the beginning of its people. The Bull represents nature and the fragile balance between them. Fuentes also introduces the dance, the Flamenco, and how it is another form of Spanish tradition of expression. The Easter festival in Seville, Spain is an elaborate example of how the “Virgin” is worshipped during the holiest of days. The festival has numerous residents partake in marching through the streets with a statue of a Byzantine type figure that represents some Asian influence, and has members of either a guild or brotherhood dressed in their hooded attires. As spectators watch they yell words such as “beautiful” in honor of the Virgin.

2. The Buried Mirror Episode 2 “Conflict of the Gods” Carlos explains the origins of the indigenous people of Central America and how they lived. Although some of the Indian traditions from such tribes as the Aztecs could be considered brutal and primitive, for example, the mass sacrificing of humans in order to please the Gods; they still had extensive evidence of a civilization responsible for studying the stars and creating a Lunar calendar and built pyramids that represented these discoveries. This idea of how important the Gods were to these Indian civilizations led to the coming of the Spanish conquistadors having an advantage because they were perceived as Gods. Montezuma, the Aztec leader, thought Hernan Cortes was the coming of the Blue Serpent God who had come back to his people. Cortes and his 500 conquistadors comprised of such men as farmers, merchants and lower noblemen who were seeking glory and gold. The conquest of Mexico meant the defeat of the Aztec Empire and its leader Montezuma. Cortes quickly allied with the Indians who despised their Aztec rulers and together they vanquished the Aztecs. Upon Cortes’ arrival, Montezuma had given him gold and 20 slave women. Among these women was, “La Malinche,” an Indian woman who would give birth to the first Mexican with both Indian and European blood. She would also be Cortes’ translator.

3. Medieval Spain:When the Moors Ruled in Europe This video uncovers the truth about the impact of the Moors on Western civilization. Although much of the archives from the Muslims were burned during the inquisition, proof of the Moors still remains at the palace of Alhambra. This palace presents to us how advance the Moors were compared to the Europeans at the time because they could not have built a building as elaborate and beautiful as this one if it were not for the Moors. Along with this advancement in knowledge of structural buildings came mathematics, agricultural, and the idea that education was for everyone. The sentiment that the Moors and Muslims came to the Iberian peninsula with force and forced the people to convert is not always true; they were welcomed in some areas with open arms because of their vast new knowledge of technology to improve their quality of life. This meant that they had established things such as sewer and water systems for major cities that European cities were not accustomed to having. The city of Cordova is an example of all these Muslim ingenuities.

4. Medieval Spain:When the Moors Ruled in Europe The fact that the Arab world had been able to have libraries that consisted of roughly 500,000 books compared to libraries in France that only contained 900 books shows that the Muslims were far more advanced in the making and usage of literature. European medicine and medical practices were primitive compared to what the Arab world’s knowledge based on an account of a Muslim doctor observing a European doctor’s practices. In this case, the Muslim doctor recommended practical solutions to medical problems, whereas the Frankish physician used more barbaric methods that resulted in death instead of a cure. This video helps disprove the sentiment of how this time period was an insignificant era in history that is easily forgotten because it wasn’t important. But instead this video reveals all the accomplishments that the Arab world had brought to Europe and how it can still be seen in today’s Spain. Ideas such as education being available to all people, no matter status or gender, was completely opposite of their European counterparts. This period of history should be taught more to our students in every level curriculum because it shines a new light on how we view the Arab nations/world. We should be thankful that they were actually tolerant rulers in this period of history and brought to Western civilizations.

5. Cracking the Maya Code This film introduces the individual scholars who helped us decipher the Mayan hieroglyphic language. These scholars and great historians were spread around the world and even studied in different years. Each person built on the previous person’s discoveries and sometimes took complete different paths in their own methods of deciphering. Although some of these scholars bickered over the other’s legitimacy, each scholar was able to bring something new to the table that either modified our understanding of the language or brought a new perspective.

6. Cracking the Maya Code This film shows the importance of this work because it allows us to take a “time machine” back into pre-Columbian Mayan civilization and what was important to them as a people. By deciphering these hieroglyphics, these historians were able to debunk previous sentiments that Mayans were mainly a peaceful people who gazed at stars and studied time and astronomy. They were a people inflicted with conflict and wars like many other civilizations. Included with that they found out that the Mayans were actually very interested in recording their history by recording important dates and names of their ruling dynasties. Also, we found out that this language was similar to Chinese where each symbol meant a word. But it was also like English too because it frequently had symbols that were used as syllables instead of whole words which was a major discovery. Now we could better understand these hieroglyphics and it showed how some of these monuments were built for some of their most prestigious rulers. At the end of the film, it shows how the indigenous people and ancestors of the Mayan people were ecstatic about this new discovery and relished at the fact that they could learn how to write and speak their forgotten language. It seemed as if they were excited to be able to reconnect with their ancestors and eager to learn their own history and culture further. The film also showed how truly complex the Mayan civilization really was contrary to what some of our history books might tell us today. Movies such as, Apocolypto, gives us a view of how some of these traditional sacrifices might have looked during their time.

7. The Columbian Exchange In this film is explains the impact of Columbus’ monumental discovery of the America’s was to various people around the world. Soon after the discovery, horses were brought back to the continent and flourished in the new luscious open plains. Horses became an essential part of life for the Indians and allowed them to spend time developing other parts of their society. Cowboys also had an intimate bond with the horse and helped them manage their cattle. Other things such as wheat were also brought by Columbus’ arrival. The combination of the abundance of food attracted and helped build the nation we know today.

8. The Columbian Exchange The Columbian effect helped create the plantation life in the Americas. This in turn helped create the slave trade and the need for manual labor. Columbus also brought corn/maize to the America and thus spread to far places such as Africa and helped feed millions of Africans. The fact that corn was easy to mass produce and adaptable and storable, it was a perfect crop to sustain life. A variety of livestock came along with Columbus and shapes the world we know today in the Americas. This video produces a bunch of tangible things that Columbus was able to bring along with him to the New World. This video shows Columbus as a man who had a massive effect on how we live our lives today, and I agree with that notion. There is not doubting that his discovery changed the world forever and is worthy of being considered a changing point in our history. Columbus and his direct and indirect effects are seen throughout the world from Ireland to Africa to the Americas and even Europe.

9. The Maya:Engineering an Empire This video shows how the great cities of the Mayan Empire were built and what they symbolized. It also introduces the king’s that battled for supremacy and who were responsible for the creation of these ancient structures. The video reiterates the lineage of rulers who ruled the Mayan Empire from the ruins in Palenque and how each used unprecedented techniques in building their empires. The hieroglyphs told the history of the succession of rulers throughout their time and it was evident that recording these facts and dates were very important to them. Mayan’s also were advanced in mathematics. They were early structural engineers, basically. The Mayan civilization is the only known people who were able to write in the New World.

10. The Aztec:Engineering an Empire Like the Mayan Empire, the Aztecs people used mass numbers of human labor to build their illustrious buildings and ingenuities. The Aztecs were the most ferocious people in their region and ruled with an iron fist as their inventions assisted their campaign of expansion. They also believed in human sacrifices to their numerous gods and thought that human blood satisfied their gods. Ingenuities such as aqueducts and roads were implemented by the Aztec engineers. Their buildings were also very soundly built although the land was not ideal to build on, due to the use of piers being embedded into the ground firmly in order to anchor the foundation. The Aztec’s hygiene was for more advanced than the Europeans because of these inventions to bring water to their cities. It also introduces the great rulers of this kingdom and how they left their own imprint on the region and people. Agricultural inventions were also use in order to sustain the large number of populous in the cities. Teotihuacan

11. Mission The collision between Christianity and native Americans religions and symbols. There is a Zuni (one of the Pueblo people) Catholic church that has both traditions from their native beliefs with Christianity mixture. Even some of their original rituals and costumes are mixed into church masses. The missions built all around the United States mirrored the buildings found in Europe and the same styles were used. Father Junipero Serra life is one surrounded by controversy, viewed as either a saint or exploiter. Soldiers were present at every mission in California and forced labor was a normal occurrence. This video points out how the two clashing lifestyles of Christianity and Native American ways and how they are able to adapt to each other and create what we know today in our society. Many of the Indians were able to keep their identity. Mission de Acala

12. Mission This video shows the good and bad sides of the introduction of Christianity on the Indian people of Mexico and America. The missions have brought with them their religious traditions and beliefs and imposed it onto a people with their own established religious beliefs and traditions. At times there have been revolts to the imposing of this religion but at the end there has grown an acceptance of both religions and it has created a society that we know today that celebrates both traditions instead of suppressing either of them. Being that I am a Catholic, I am happy to see the history of my religion in the areas where I live and how they effected the indigenous people of this continent when it arrived. I believe that the missions were able to share their faith, although sometimes they took advantage of the Indians, and were able to learn how to live with the Indians way of life.

13. The Lost Cities of the Amazon The search for El Dorado (The City made of Gold). There were signs of burial urns, at the mouth of the river, that represented an established people in the Amazon. It was thought that Amazonian people were only a nomadic people. Deeper in the interior of the river there were speculations of settled people all along the banks of the Amazon. But today there are no signs of these ancient villages. It was thought that the soil would not be able to support crops, and therefore not be able to sustain large populations; but that is not true as shown in the video. The black soil was used to plant crops because it was rich in nutrients but the ancient method was lost along with the people who used it.

14. The Lost Cities of the Amazon There are different encounters with different tribes throughout the video that show how their people were able to keep their way of life no matter the evolving world outside of what they know. Within these villages there are sculptures and dwellings that are indicative of Indian lifestyle. There are evidence of an evolved civilization in these communities that consisted of hierarchy and food storages. Amazonian people are accustomed to a diet that mainly consists of fish. Their methods of fishing have been used for hundreds of years. They also have agricultural methods of crop growing to sustain their diets. Orchards were used for gathering fruits and other foods. There are many archeological sites that used to be settled civilizations and there are usually signs of permanent dwellings by shards of pottery, for example. There were also signs of walls that are indicative of a settled people trying to protect themselves from outside predators/enemies. Roads were also found.