mestizo

In the twilight of his years, Don Martín Cortés—son of the infamous conquistador Hernán Cortés and the enigmatic La Malinche—finds himself once again at the center of imperial scrutiny. Accusations of treason swirl around his younger, legitimate brother, also named Martín, whose reckless ambitions have drawn the ire of the Spanish Crown. Though Don Martín insists on his innocence, the shadow of suspicion falls over the entire Cortés lineage.

As the storm gathers, Don Martín is forced to reckon with the life he has led—returning in memory to the sun-scorched hills of his childhood in New Spain, where he first learned the quiet ache of not belonging. Taken from his mother and sent to Spain to be raised as a nobleman, he navigated the cold marble halls of imperial courts, where his dark skin and uncertain lineage marked him as both exotic and expendable. He fought for the empire in the burning sands of North Africa, hoping valor might cleanse the blood others deemed impure.

Now, back in the land of his birth, he is a stranger to both the Spanish elite and the indigenous roots he scarcely understands. As political tensions rise and the court prepares its judgment, Don Martín must confront the truth of who he is: not simply the son of a conqueror or a translator, not merely a symbol of empire or betrayal—but a man forged in the crucible of two worlds.