Victor Hugo wrote, “There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

Today, America finds itself at a critical moment where it’s finally reckoning with the contradictions and hypocrisies of its history in ways it hasn’t since the Civil War. Across the western world, in fact, the consequences of conquest, colonialism and slavery are being reexamined at a heightened pace, and the long-delayed process of reconciliation over these and other issues that have persisted into our modern age appears to be finally underway.

For Latinx Americans in particular, both in the United States and across Latin America, we are the living legacies of those consequences and all of their glories and tragedies. We see them in the mirror, in our children’s eyes, in our food, and in our language, religion and traditions. We also see them in the inequalities that plague our communities here and abroad. We, too, have long avoided confronting the traumatic episodes of our past that seeded our beautifully chaotic genetic and cultural mix – what Mexican philosopher Jose Vasconcelos named La Raza Cosmica, the Cosmic Race.

The seminal and most consequential of these episodes is the epic clash between the Spanish and Aztec empires that began 500 years ago – almost exactly to the year. As an American writer of Mexican descent, and a lifelong student of history, it has been the labor of a lifetime to write and create this story. Now is the moment to empower creative professionals to bring this story to life and present it to audiences around the world over the premier entertainment medium of our times. It is without a doubt an idea whose time has come.

—Peter Mellado, Writer / Creator