The Other Conquest (1998)

José Carlos Rodríguez: Fray Diego de La Coruña

Quotes 

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [on his deathbed]  Peace, at last... the final journey.

  Padre Santa María : The final journey? To where, Friar Diego?

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : To where all mortals go.

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [to Captain Cristóbal, following a carnage of Indians]  What are you doing in God's name? You're behaving just like them. Preach by example!

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [V.O. as he burns Topiltzin's codex]  If only our soldiers had as much faith as the Indians have in their idols...

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : I'm not responsible for what they do in the name of God!

  Tecuichpo : Why have you come to take away what is ours?

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : What a strange Spanish class you were having! It might be the acoustics, but from over there... it sounded as if you two were barking.

  Tecuichpo : Some things can only be said in Mexican, Your Excellency.

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : Oh, yes, such as?

  Topiltzin : [in Nahuatl]  Tiquilnamiqui.

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : And that is?

  Topiltzin : [first lines in Spanish]  To search in the deepest part of yourself... both with your heart and with your liver.

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : Tampering with official documents is a very serious offense! Is that what you came here to learn? To falsify the truth!

  Topiltzin : To falsify the truth is better than to destroy it! Have you forgotten what you did in the Temple of the Mother Goddess? You turned my people into ashes. Our truth went up in smoke.

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : What truth? Sacrificing innocent virgins to satisfy your bloodthirsty idols?

  Topiltzin : You and I, deep inside share the same belief, Friar Diego, even though we come from different worlds. We live in all times and in all places. From the beginning we have been meeting in different ways. That is why you and I don't mind being locked up here together. Our encounter is inevitable... and eternal.

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [to Topiltzin, referring to the statue of the Virgin Mary]  That lovely woman is just as true as yours.

  [pause] 

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : What matters now is that this is the new word.

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [in Nahuatl]  Topiltzin... Now you have left us. You've found peace. May our venerable Mother keep you forever with dignity.

• Fray Diego de La Coruña : [to Rolando, the head Spanish guard at the Monastery]  Go and call Don Hernando Cortés and tell the Conqueror that you bear a message from heaven. Tell him that I, Friar Diego of La Coruña, bid him come to the Monastery of Our Lady of Light. That before he leaves for Spain to reconquer the King, he must bear witness to a miracle - the miracle of how two different races can be as one through tolerance... and love.

• [last lines] 

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : [to Sun]  Your ways are truly a mystery...

  [in Latin] 

  Fray Diego de La Coruña : God of all.