In 2019, on the 500th anniversary of Hernán Cortés’s arrival in Mexico, then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caused great controversy in the Spanish-speaking world when he asked King Felipe VI of Spain to apologize for what the Spanish had done to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. The public dispute simmered on into the presidency of AMLO’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. The King of Spain, having failed to issue the desired historical apology, was not invited to Sheinbaum’s inauguration as Mexico’s first female president. The Spanish government, headed by Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, responded by refusing to send any representative to her inauguration at all.

In 2019, on the 500th anniversary of Hernán Cortés’s arrival in Mexico, then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador caused great controversy in the Spanish-speaking world when he asked King Felipe VI of Spain to apologize for what the Spanish had done to the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. The public dispute simmered on into the presidency of AMLO’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. The King of Spain, having failed to issue the desired historical apology, was not invited to Sheinbaum’s inauguration as Mexico’s first female president. The Spanish government, headed by Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, responded by refusing to send any representative to her inauguration at all.

Outside official diplomatic channels, Spain’s rebuttal to Mexico’s demand has arrived in Mexico City—in the form of a long, extravagantly staged, flamenco- and electric-guitar-filled musical.

That mu