Two very wise gentlemen sat at a table to reflect, with a century-and-a-half of experience between them. They have at their disposal enormous amounts of knowledge, data, arguments and nuances regarding major issues of continental history and the life of the ancients: as in, those who lived in what is now called the Americas, before the arrival of the Spanish.

On one side is the Peruvian Luis Millones, one of the most renowned anthropologists of the Southern Cone. Millones has analyzed the life of the Inca people with devotion and ease. On the other side is the Mexican Eduardo Matos, an eminence of Mesoamerican archaeology. He’s responsible for the rescue of the remains of the old Aztec capital, from the depths of modern Mexico City.

Millones and Matos recently met up in Guadalajara, as part of the International Book Fair, to present their latest work together. Available only in Spanish and translated as Moctezuma and Atahualpa: Life, Passion and the Death of Two Rulers, it’s a comparative study of the life of the last great pre-Columbian leaders. “We had already written a previous book: Mexicas and Incas,” Matos notes, “motivated by that interest in knowing, in comparing the two great civilizations that emerged in [Latin America].”

“[Regarding] this book in particular… we went to a luncheon with a Peruvian researcher who lives in Mexico. And I said to Lucho (Luis), ‘Hey, do you see us writing about Moctezuma and Atahualpa?’ That was three or four years ago. And, well, we did it!”