Mexico City marks fall of Aztec capital 500 years ago

By MARIA VERZA
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Walking for hours through the gritty streets in the center of Mexico City, you can hear the daily urban soundtrack. It’s hard to imagine that some of these streets trace the outline of what was, five centuries ago, Tenochtitlan, where a great civilization flourished. The Aztec emperors who ruled much of the land that became Mexico were defeated by a Spanish-led force that seized the city on August 13, 1521. Despite all that was lost in the epic event 500 years ago _ an empire and countless Indigenous lives _ much remains of that civilization on the anniversary of its collapse.