My crew was as carefully chosen as the disciples of Christ, and I will not tolerate stowaways. You will be flogged. And when we port into Cuba to resupply, God willing, you will be flogged some more. And then enslaved on the sugar plantations for the rest of your miserable lives. To the brig.
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~ Hernán Cortés
Don Hernando "Hernán" Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, mainly known as Hernán Cortés (sometimes spelled Hernan Cortes), is the overarching antagonist of the DreamWorks' 3rd full-length animated feature film The Road to El Dorado. He is based off of the real life individual of the same name.
Hernán Cortés is known for being manipulative and greedy man who shows cruelty to anyone and wants to slaughter the natives and get the gold that he believes them to possess. He also does not tolerate stowaways and after catching Miguel and Tulio, planned to flog them and then turn them into lifelong slaves.
History
In Spain, the year is 1519, and Hernan Cortés announces to the people of Spain that on that day he and his men will sail to the New World of El Dorado and conquer it for Spain, glory, and gold. When Cortés' men shoot their guns in celebration, Cortés' horse named Altivo jumps in fear causing Cortés' drink to spill on him to which Cortes tells Altivo to keep his eyes forward. When the ships sail later that day Tulio and Miguel are found by the sailors and are considered stowaways to which they are brought to Cortés who orders that Miguel and Tulio be used as slaves on the ship and orders them to be taken to the brig, to which they make their escape in a rowboat, along with Cortes' horse Altivo. A few days later, Cortés and his men arrive on the island where Miguel and Tulio escaped to, as they find the rowboat abandoned on shore and find Miguel and Tulio's footprints in the sand to which they follow the footprints.
Later that night, Cortés finds one of the Indians from El Dorado named Tzekel-Kan washed up in the water and Cortés points his musket at the gold earring on Tzekel-Kan's right ear and asks him where he got it from to which Tzekel-Kan gladly tells Cortés he got it from El Dorado and offers to take him and his men there to which he does. Unknown to Cortés and Tzekel-Kan, Miguel and Tulio have spotted them from El Dorado by seeing smoke in the far distance and have crashed their boat in the entrance of the city causing rocks to block it from the Spanish Soldiers. Before they reach the entrance, Cortés tells Tzekel-Kan that it had better be there for his sake, but when they arrive they find nothing but the rocks to which Cortés calls Tzekel-Kan a lying heathen. He kicks him into the water and orders his men to seize Tzekel-Kan, so they can take him with them and make him their slave. Cortés and his men then leave the area, not knowing what they have left behind.
In real life, Hernán Cortés was the leader of the Conquistadors who brutally wiped out the Aztecs, slaughtering women, children, and entire families while enslaving what precious few Aztecs they did not kill. It can be assumed that this version of Cortés went on to commit the same crimes following his failure to find El Dorado.
Despite being the secondary antagonist, Cortés' desire to conquer the New World was the bigger threat and he turned out to be more dangerous than Tzekel-Kan (although the latter also sought conquest).
Goran Višnjić and Kevin Spacey were both considered for the role of Hernán Cortés before Jim Cummings was cast.
