He describes Aztec cultural life amongst the Nahua peoples, the importance of translators that spoke Nahuatl, and the struggle of accounts that were written by eyewitnesses well after the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

León-Portilla's concise historical context and Ángel María Garibay's translations of Nahuatl passages lead into the second section of the monograph: the Aztec’s campaign against the Spanish and their defeat by a wide variety of causes, from both military conquest and disease, that is portrayed from the point of view of the natives.

Following these accounts, the monograph and its translated work concludes in the Aftermath, where León-Portilla highlights the "difficult relations that have always existed between the descendants of the Aztecs and their "others" – the colonial Spaniards and contemporary Mexicans.

[3] Written in the expanded foreword of the recent English edition, it is credited to the author that "Miguel León-Portilla has been at the forefront of the struggle to bring the voices of past and present indigenous peoples of Mexico within hearing distance of the rest of the world.

[7] Still, among its negative remarks from fellow historians, The Broken Spears is regarded as "well-organized"[8] and is "a useful introduction and point of departure for the student interested in further research" on the subject matter.