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The
life of woman known to history as Malinche
[1]
is one of the most significant and controversial
in the history of Mexico. Much of her existence is shrouded in mystery
and what little is known about her has become myth and legend and
continues to affect the culture in modern Mexico.
Malinche’s name lives on as a derogatory term involving persons
who betray their nation and heritage to foreign influences. She is seen as treacherous and sensual, a woman
who preferred the conquistadors to her own people. In many ways, Doña Marina, as she was called
by the Spanish, has been made the scapegoat for the conquest of
the Aztecs. This view, however,
was not always the accepted story of this remarkable woman nor is
it supported by the evidence that is recorded in conquest era documents,
both Spanish and indigenous. In
these documents Malinche is portrayed as a heroine and ally in the
Spanish documents while she is depicted as powerful and respected
in the native accounts. Malinche’s transformation into a traitor took
place during a period of intense change in Mexican politics and
culture, which not only changed the country, but also its mythology,
including the view of Malinche. The
Life of Marina It was not long after the Spanish reached the Yucatan
peninsula that Marina was given to Cortés.
Bernal Díaz recorded that the treasure the Tobascans had
brought to the Spanish after they were defeated by the Europeans
“was worth nothing in comparison with the twenty women that were
given to us, among them one very excellent woman called Doña Marina,
for so she was named when she became a Christian.”
[5]
Díaz goes on to say that she “was good looking,
intelligent, and without embarrassment.”
[6]
Cortés learned of the fifteen-year-old Marina’s
talents with language when it was noticed that she could speak to
the representatives of Moctezuma “as if they were of her own language.
… So Cortés took her aside with Aguilar and promised her more than
her liberty if she would establish friendship between him and the
men of her country.”
[7]
Marina became Cortés’ translator and secretary
and according to his own words, “traveled always in [his] company.”
[8]
She later became his mistress and eventually
the mother of his son Martín.
With the aid of Marina, who spoke Nahautl and the Maya, and Jerónimo
de Aguilar, a Spaniard who was shipwrecked on the coast years before
and had learned the local language,
[9]
Cortés was able to communicate with the ambassadors
of Moctezuma and, perhaps more importantly, with the tribes who
had been conquered by the armies of the Aztecs.
These tribes became the allies of the Spanish and fought
with them against the Aztecs.
[10]
The Spaniards fought many battles along their
march to the Aztec capital and survived several ambushes thanks
to the information Marina gathered from the peoples they encountered. Bernal Díaz stated that: Doña Marina who, although a native woman, possessed such
manly valour [sic] that, although she heard every day how the Indians
were going to kill us and eat our flesh with chili, and had seen
us surrounded in late battles, and knew that all of us were wounded
and sick, yet never allowed us to see any sign of fear in her, only
a courage passing that of woman.
[11]
The
expedition entered the valley of Mexico and saw Tenochtitlán, the
capital of the Aztec empire, in September of 1519.
[12]
After reaching Tenochtitlán, Cortés took the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma,
hostage and Marina was given the task of trying to convince the
emperor to accept his captivity and surrender his kingdom. Moctezuma was eventually killed and the Spanish
were driven from the capital, suffering many casualties on what
became known as la noche triste.
Doña Marina was able to escape from the city with the help
of Tlaxcalan warriors, who had allied themselves with the Europeans,
[13]
and Bernal Díaz closed his account of the events
of that night by proclaiming that there was “rejoicing and happiness…when
they saw that Doña Luisa and Doña Marina were saved.”
[14]
Cortés retreated from Tenochtitlán, but he
still had many allies and eventually forced the Aztecs to surrender
after siege and disease had taken their toll on the populace. Several
years later Cortés severed his connections to Marina by marrying
her to Juan de Jaramillo, one of his soldiers.
This occurred during an expedition to Honduras, which ended
with the conqueror returning to Mexico City to find the city in
chaos and, although he quickly set things in order once again, he
was stripped of his authority. He returned to Spain for the last time in 1540
and died there seven years later.
[15]
The
final days of Doña Marina are not so easily recounted and may never
be known with certainty. It
is possible that Marina died shortly after she gave birth to a daughter
she had with Jaramillo on the return journey from Honduras.
[16]
Other accounts have her living with her husband
on one of the several estates that Cortés gave to her where she
faded into obscurity.
[17]
One of the last reports of Marina was given
by a Spaniard named Diego de Ordas who claimed to have seen Marina
and her son Martín in 1529.
[18]
This
lack of closure does nothing to diminish the importance of Malinche’s
life. Cortés summarized
her accomplishments in his statement, AAfter God
we owe this conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina.@
[19]
Through the
accounts of the Spanish conquistadors, Malinche’s image was established. She was recognized by these accounts as the
mother of a new people, the descendents of the Spanish and the native
population who are now called mestizos. Marina, Madre
and Lengua: The Spanish View in the Conquest and Colonial Eras There
are several accounts of the conquest of Mexico that were written
by the conquistadors themselves.
Perhaps the most well known of these was penned by Bernal
Díaz, a former soldier who was a member of several important expeditions
during the period, including the one led by Cortés against the Aztecs.
Díaz’s narrative, originally entitled Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, contains the
most detailed description of Malinche’s personal history. The book’s contemporaries, however, contain
interesting differences in the amount of detail about Malinche and
the story of her early life. The
chronicles of Díaz and the other conquistadors provide the framework
for the conquest and colonial view of Malinche, portraying her as
a mother and an interpreter. Bernal Díaz’s
True History of the Conquest of New Spain Malinche
first appears in Díaz’s account when she was given to Cortés along
with twenty other female slaves.
He introduces her as a “very excellent woman”
[20]
and soon after describes her noble origin.
[21]
Díaz’s story of the early life of Malinche
is very interesting as no other contemporary narrative describes
her background in such detail or in so dramatic a fashion.
Díaz claims that Marina’s own mother sold her into slavery. Her father was a rich cacique who died when
she was young and later her mother remarried.
Malinche’s mother had a son by her second husband and wanted
this boy to inherit the estate of her late husband, which rightfully
belonged to her daughter. She
informed the villagers that her daughter had died and buried the
body of a dead slave child. Malinche was sold to some passing slave traders
and taken by them to Xicalango.
She later became the possession of the Tabascan cacique,
or ruler, who eventually gave her to Cortés.
[22]
At other points of the chronicle, Díaz emphasizes further aspects of Malinche’s personality and her abilities. Her intelligence, courage and loyalty he praised throughout the narrative particularly when the Spaniards were in dire straights, such as during the Spaniard’s conflict with their eventual allies, the Tlaxcalans. [26] Another noteworthy incident took place when Cortés and his men arrived in the city of Cholula. Díaz says that the Cholulans had planned to ambush the Spanish and that their plot might not have been discovered if not for the actions of Malinche. According to the author, Marina was approached by a Cholulan woman who did not want to see the young and beautiful interpreter killed with her companions. The woman supposedly offered to hide Marina and even marry her to her son if she would come with her. Díaz says that Marina engaged the woman in conversation gathering more details of the plot and then managed to leave her would be rescuer without raising suspicions. Marina then warned Cortés of the impending trap and the Spanish launched a preemptive strike that resulted in the execution of several Cholulan leaders. [27]
Malinche is the heroine of Diaz’s account and his descriptions
portray her as an ideal ‘Spanish’ mother.
[28]
This view gave a sense of respectability to
the mestizos of colonial Mexico, or at least those born from famous
or aristocratic backgrounds such as Malinche and Cortés’ son Martín
or other children of the conquistadors who were descended from the
royal Aztec line. Díaz declares that everything he reports in
his account was true and even goes so far as to state that Gomara,
whose Cortés glorifying report of the conquest had prompted Díaz
to write his own version, had not given a true account of Marina’s
origin.
[29]
However,
it is not only Gomara’s account that sometimes contradicts Díaz’s
record of her life. These narratives by other conquistador’s also
emphasize a very different aspect of Malinche’s importance. Gómara, Tapia,
and Cortés: Other Accounts from the Conquistadors Francisco
López de Gómara wrote an account of the conquest that idolized Cortés
to such an extent that it prompted Bernal Díaz to write his ‘True
History’ in order that the common soldier’s part in the victory
would be told. Although he wrote more about Malinche than
did the other conquistadors, whose work will be examined below,
Gómara does not express the same adoration that is apparent in Díaz’s
narrative and his story of her background is different as well.
Gómara wrote that Malinche was indeed born into a wealthy
family in the Coatzacoatco region, but that she was stolen by slave
traders rather than sold to them by her mother.
Although he adds a little more detail about Malinche in the
form of how she was given to the Spaniards, she only plays the role
of interpreter and guide to Cortés in the rest of Gómara’s narrative.
[30]
For him, it seems Malinche was a secondary
character whose only importance came from her association with the
conquistadors. Like
Gomara’s account, the conquistador Andrés de Tapia briefly described
Malinche’s origin by saying that she had been stolen by slave traders
as a child and was given to Cortés along with twenty other women.
[31]
Tapia also relates that Marina was the person
who warned the conquistadors of the Cholulan plot to destroy them
in much the same way as Bernal Díaz although the account is very
brief.
[32]
Again Malinche’s role is primarily that of
interpreter with little other significance. Cortés
only mentions Marina twice in his letters to Charles V of Spain,
but these brief acknowledgements are noteworthy because of the situations
in which they occurred. Both
are connected to incidents that might be of questionable circumstances,
one being the preemptive strike on Cholula
[33]
while the other involves an incident that occurred
during Cortés ill-advised and ill-fated expedition to Honduras.
Cortés had shortly before this event ordered the execution
of Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor, for allegedly planning a
rebellion that would destroy the Spaniards.
[34]
Some of his own men had questioned this action
and even Díaz wrote AI heartily pitied [Cuauhtemoc] . . . and I also declare
that [he] suffered . . . most undeservingly, and so it appeared
to us all, amongst who there was but one opinion upon the subject;
that it was a most unjust and cruel sentence.”
[35]
Cortés was vulnerable and his identity was
questioned by a native leader, who had difficulty believing that
the wasted man who stood before him was the person responsible for
the downfall of the Aztecs and the conqueror of Tenochtitlán.
The conquistador replied “that if he wished to learn the
truth he had only to ask the interpreter … Marina.”
[36]
Although these references are succinct, they
demonstrate the value Cortés placed in Marina’s skills as an interpreter
and as someone who could verify his truthfulness in questionable
situations. Although
these sources are not as colorful or detailed as that of Bernal
Díaz, they present an image of Malinche that demonstrates her role
during the conquest. The
conquistadors each had a motive for portraying Malinche in the manner
they did. Díaz needed a heroine for his “living chivalric
novel”
[37]
and his depictions of Malinche were likely affected
by this idea. In the account of the other conquistadors examined
here, Marina was not a primary figure in the conquest, but a faithful
guide, interpreter, and witness.
There are, however, other accounts of Malinche that were
not written by the victorious Spanish, which tell the story of the
conquest from the perspective of the native peoples. Malintzin:
Malinche in Indigenous Records from the Conquest Period There
are two records that give an account of the conquest of Mexico from
the point of view of the indigenous inhabitants.
One is the Lienzo de
Tlaxcala,
[38]
which was created by the Tlaxcalan allies
of Cortés in order to record their version of the events of the
conquest and particularly to show how their aide helped the Spanish
defeat the Aztecs, their enemies.
[39]
A lienzo
is a painted record and the images from the Tlaxcala lienzo are annotated with writing.
[40]
Marina is
The Florentine Codex
also gives an account of the indigenous point of view of the
conquest of Mexico yet, unlike the Lienzo
de Tlaxcala, this document was not created by allies of the
Spanish, but rather by those who were subjugated by them.
Nahua students, under the direction of the Spanish
And it was told, declared, shown, announced, made known to Moctezuma, it
was fixed in his heart, that a woman from among us people here brought
them [the Spanish] here; she interpreted for them.
Her name was Marina.
[44]
Her home was Teticpac. There on the coast they
had first come to take her.
[45]
The
creators of this manuscript unfailingly give Malinche the honorific
title of –tzin, which they only occasionally afford to the emperor
Moctezuma. Significantly,
the only other person that was given the honor of an unfailing –tzin
is Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor,
[46]
who is now a national hero of modern Mexico.
The images from this document also depict Marina in positions
of prominence, even showing her in the act of translating by the
word bubbles that appear next to her as in the picture to the left.
[47]
Malinche is also shown in the proper dress
and hairstyle of a respectable Nahua matron, showing a continuing
cultural
This record also mentions an evil omen that preceded the
coming of the Spaniards. This
portent took the form of a wailing woman who said, “My beloved sons,
now we are about to go” and “My sons, whither am I to take you?”
[49]
This sign is believed by modern scholars tobe
a representation of the Aztec goddess of women who had died in childbirth,
Cihuacoatl.
[50]
An event that became tied to this myth appears
in the account of Bernal Díaz who said that while Cortés was away
from Mexico City during the Honduras expedition, the people of the
city believed that he and Marina had died and that their souls haunted
the capital, burning in hellfire.
[51]
These stories
The indigenous accounts of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Florentine Codex as well as the chronicles of the Spanish conquistadors portray Malinche as a woman worthy of respect. They also reinforce the images of Malinche that were transmitted into the colonial era of Mexico by the conquistadors in the form of a dual representation of her as Madre, the symbolic mother of mestizos Mexicans, and Lengua, the interpreter of and collaborator with Spanish culture in New Spain. These perspectives were viewed as positive by the conquistadors and yet there is another interpretation that would come as, although there is the outward appearance honor and respect in the indigenous records, there is also a suggestion of animosity with the connections that were drawn between Malinche and La Llorona. Her participation in the Cholulan massacre also could be viewed either as an example of Malinche’s loyalty and courage or as a condemnation of her for the betrayal of ‘her people’. [53] This new assessment of Malinche would continue to take shape in the Mexican popular culture during the early nineteenth century, when Mexico gained independence from Spain. In this period Malinche was revised from the courageous, intelligent, and loyal woman of the conquest records into a very different and very negative figure in Mexican history.
The Birth of
Modern Mexico: A Brief Overview of Mexican History to Independence After
the conquest, viceroys appointed by the king of Spain ruled Mexico. The viceroys were responsible for administration
of the colonial government, including managing taxes, general defense
of the colony, and public works.
Other institutions of Spanish rule were the audiencia, the court system in the Spanish colonies, and the Catholic
Church.
[54]
These corridors of power were dominated by
peninsulares, Spaniards born on the Iberian
Peninsula, while criollos,
or creoles, Spaniards born in the New World, and mestizos were usually denied access to government positions. Land was primarily held by hacendados, the owners of haciendas or large estates, and by the
Church.
[55]
Mestizos and other castas, or people of mixed heritage, lived and worked on these vast
farms, but did not own any part of it or share in the total profits
generated by it. Spain
and her colonies had come to be ruled by the French Bourbon dynasty
in the early 1700s
[56]
and tensions between the rulers of the Spanish
empire and their American subjects increased as the Bourbons attempted
to make political reforms in the colonies.
The breaking point, however, was not reached until 1807 when
Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain.
[57]
He captured Ferdinand VII in order to break
the hold of the Bourbons in Spain and to place his own brother Joseph
on the throne.
[58]
This loss of direction from the monarchy brought about a period of intense political and social change in Spanish America. Most of the colonial governments refused to recognize Napoleon’s appointee and a ruling body, called the Central Junta, was formed in Spain to govern in the king’s absences. This administration called for a cortes, a parliament, that would write a constitution, which was clearly based on the American and French constitutions. Overtures of equality and representation were made to the colonial juntas, but it quickly became clear that the system would remain the same as it had been before. [59] When Ferdinand VII returned to the throne in 1814, he moved to reestablish the absolute rule by the monarchy, but the Spanish colonies would not willingly go back to that form of government nor did the king’s use of military force cause them to return. [60] Rebellions had already begun across much of the Spanish empire and by the mid-1820s nearly all of Spain’s colonies in the Americas had gained their independence. [61] In Mexico,
a revolt that occurred in 1810 had a distinctly indigenous theme
and was lead by a criollo
priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla.
[62]
When word reached Mexico about Napoleon’s usurpation
of Spain, Hidalgo, who openly promoted reform in the colonies, planned
a revolution. When his plan
was discovered, Hidalgo rang the bells of his church and called
on his parishioners to rebel in the name of the king and the Catholic
Church, a famous speech now called the Grito
de Dolores.
[63]
Although Hidalgo’s followers were eventually
defeated and the leaders of the revolt, including the priest himself,
executed, the day this event occurred on, September 16, is now celebrated
as Mexico’s Independence Day. It
would take another decade of conflict before Mexico truly gained
independence from Spain, but a cultural break had already begun
with Hidalgo’s rebellion, which emphasized the indigenous people
of Mexico and went so far as to call on them to take revenge against
the Spanish for nearly three hundred years of oppression.
[64]
This change would be emphasized by the publication
of a book that would glorify the pre-Columbian past of Mexico and
would cast the conquest and particularly those who participated
in it, including Malinche, in the worst possible light. The Eve of
Mexico: Malinche’s Place in the Post Independence Culture The book Xicoténcatl was published anonymously in 1826 and appears to be the first novel to portray Malinche in a negative way. The work completely changes her character from the way she was presented in the conquest chronicles. The positive incidents that are recorded in the conquistadors’ accounts and the respect that was given to Malinche in the indigenous records are completely ignored in favor of very different portrayal of her. Malinche is no longer a heroine, but a treacherous woman who works with the Spanish to subvert and overthrow the indigenous regimes in Mexico while pursuing her own pleasures by seducing the three most prominent men in the book, Cortés, Diego de Ordas, and the character for whom the book is named, the Tlaxcalan warrior Xicoténcatl. Malinche is portrayed as the complete opposite of the book’s heroine, Teutila, who symbolizes the pure native who refuses to be Europeanized in the manner in which Marina is depicted. [65] According to the author of Xicoténcatl Malinche was Cortés “concubine and confidante” and that “she was able to employ corruption and intrigue more effectively…for the natives did not suspect in her the guile and deceit of the Europeans.” [66] Marina also employs this deception against Cortés with whom she has a sexual relationship and at the same time she attempts to seduce the only virtuous Spaniard in the book, Diego de Ordas. Ordas is only interested in the honorable Teutila and continually rejects Malinche’s advances until she finally overcomes his resolve. The author calls her an “astute serpent” [67] creating the biblical image that “she is the serpent in the way she instigates evil as well as the Eve whose acquiescence allows the evil to enter paradise.” [68] This idea is again brought up when Xicoténcatl gives up his love Teutila in the hopes that Ordas would be able to protect her better than he. He then talks to Malinche and asks her, “Are you still an American? Does the flame of love of country still burn inside you? Or have you been corrupted and contaminated by these [Spanish] men’s magical arts, arts that upset all ideas of what is just and unjust, good and evil?” [69] Malinche replies, “No, friend; fate has made me its slave, but my reason knows them and my heart detests them.” [70] Xicoténcatl tries to help Malinche, believing her to be chaste and virtuous, but her treachery is revealed to him when he learns that she is pregnant with Cortés’ child. Reflecting Ordas’ words, Xicoténcatl calls her a “poisonous serpent” [71] Malinche is again portrayed as “Eve the Seductress, who leads men into evil temptation.” [72] She is also condemned for refusing an honorable native man in favor of the Spaniards. Teutila, on the other hand, takes on the persona of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patroness of Mexico, in her continuing virtuous resolve and her generosity and is revered for her refusal to submit to the foreign men. [73] Although the author of Xicoténcatl allows Malinche some modicum of redemption after she gives birth to her son, the symbolic first Mexican, this image of Malinche, the mother, is overshadowed by the dominate theme that portrays her as Eve. Ultimately the story of Xicoténcatl can be viewed as a statement against the evils of monarchy, in the form of the Spanish and Aztecs, and that glorifies the pre-Columbian past in the portrayal of the Tlaxcalans, who in the author’s treatment are a Republican nation. [74] Yet the images the author uses in association with Malinche firmly fix the idea that she is the Mexican Eve. This theme becomes incorporated into the national identity of Mexico and during a speech given on Mexico’s Independence Day in 1886, Ignacio Ramírez equates Malinche to Eve by declaring, “It is one of the mysteries of fate that all nations owe their fall and ignominy to a woman.” [75]
Myth Interpretations:
The Changing Perceptions The
dramatic change in opinion that occurred between the colonial portrayal
of Malinche and the post Independence view, have more to do with
the culture and politics of the later period than with information
passed down about her from the conquest period.
From the works examined previously in this document, it is
apparent that there were always some negative opinions about Malinche
that were expressed in the La Llorona legend, but this unsympathetic
view was compounded and heightened in the succeeding centuries. Part of this negativity may be attributed to the influence Malinche had during the conquest in relationship to the way pre-Columbian Mexican culture, and indeed Spanish culture, viewed the role of woman in society. Although there was a tremendous cultural difference between these two peoples, they shared a similar attitude toward women. Women were generally discouraged from engaging in activities outside their home, they were subject to the authority of their father or husband, and had limited political rights. [76] Malinche’s role in the conquest would certainly have been seen as a departure from normal feminine behavior for both cultures that may have been translated into a lasting image as a woman who overstepped her boundaries. [77] While this ideology may contribute to the endurance of the negative legend, it is likely that the political events that accompanied Mexico’s independence from Spain provided the catalyst necessary for this change to emerge into the culture at large, giving form to the belief that Malinche was the fallen woman, the Eve of Mexico. Although Malinche was not invoked in the Hidalgo rebellion, her image was likely affected by this preceding event to Mexican Independence as it became a battle between the castas, those of mixed heritage, and those who were seen as Spanish. The nearly three hundred years of domination of Mexico by Spain brought the indigenous population to the breaking point and Hidalgo’s Grito de Dolores in part called for Indians and mixed castes to take revenge against their oppressors. [78] The insurgents took the Virgin of Guadalupe as their symbol, an association that signified a connection to the indigenous culture of Mexico. [79] The story of the origin of the Virgin of Guadalupe shows this correlation and is believed to have occurred only ten years after the fall of Tenochtitlán when a Christian Indian named Juan Diego saw a vision of the Virgin Mary on a hilltop at Tepeyac. The Virgin told Juan Diego to go to the archbishop and tell him that she wanted a church built on the hill in her honor. The archbishop did not believe Juan Diego and twice sent him away. Finally, the Virgin told Juan Diego to pick roses from the hill, which she had miraculously caused to grow in a desolate area, and to take them to the archbishop. When Juan Diego let the roses fall before the bishop’s feet, an image of the Virgin was revealed imprinted on his cloak. The archbishop realized that a miracle had taken place and ordered a church to be built on the hilltop. [80] The image that could be seen on Juan Diego’s cloak was clearly that of a dark complected Virgin Mary and the resulting cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe was closely associated with the indigenous populace. This connection not only occurred because of her physical appearance and that the miracle had been manifested to a Christianized Indian, but also because the hilltop on which the church was constructed was formerly the site of a temple to Tonantzin, the Aztec mother-goddess. [81] The Virgin of Guadalupe was and still is “identified with what is truly Mexican as opposed to what is foreign.” [82] This perception was very much a part of the Hidalgo Revolt as the rebels exacted revenge against individuals who were seen as Spanish or European, when they called on the Virgin of Guadalupe to protect them and to justify their actions. This uprising was defeated yet the representation of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of the Mexican nation was taken up by succeeding revolutionaries until and after Mexico gained independence from Spain. [83] In this atmosphere of intense nationalism and indigenous revitalization it is perhaps unsurprising that a dichotomy emerged in which the Virgin of Guadalupe became the positive aspect of women while Malinche was seen to embody the negative. The feelings of betrayal by the symbolic progenitor of the Mexican people left a deep impression on the Mexican national identity. “If la Malinche sided with the foreign invader and helped him conquer her own people, the Virgin of Guadalupe protects the Indian, the Mestizo, and the Creole, that is, the representatives of the new Mexican nation.” [84] The changing political climate of Mexico and the rejections of Spanish rule and culture made it necessary for Malinche to be recast from the heroine of the conquest to the betrayer of the Mexican nation. The beginning of this reinvention came about because of the turmoil and changing values that accompanied Mexican independence. Key factors in this change were the idolizing of the pre-Columbian past as well as the indigenous uprising led by Father Hidalgo, which took the Virgin of Guadalupe as their symbol. The Virgin became the protector of the Mexican people while Malinche became their betrayer, the symbolic figure of submission to Spain, the scapegoat upon whom the conquest could be blamed. The Mexican Eve.
Conclusions
and Malinche’s Future Malinche’s place in Mexican history has changed greatly since the time of the conquest. The accounts of the Spanish and the indigenous records portray her as an intelligent, courageous, loyal, and generous woman who was able to bridge a vast cultural divide between two peoples. She is the symbolic mother of the Mexican people yet the tumultuous events of the independence period cast her in the role of the Mexican Eve, a sensuous and traitorous woman who loved the foreign rather than the native.
In her homeland of Mexico, the name Malinche lives on as
a derogatory term for persons who betray their nation and heritage
to foreign influences. In
many ways, Doña Marina has been made the scapegoat who takes the
blame for the conquest of the Aztecs although, logically, her aid
was only one part of the reason why the Spanish conquered Mexico.
[85]
As one scholar stated, Ashe is . . . asked to be faithful to a Mexican nation
that would not exist as such for another three centuries@ and Ato be faithful to the race she did not know as such,
because she belonged to a people who were enemies of the Mexicas.@
[86]
Many modern
Mexican feminists reject the idea of Malinche as a traitor and hail
her as a brave woman who symbolizes the best attributes of Mexican
women themselves.
[87]
They believe it is time for Marina to be viewed,
not as a betrayer, but as one of the first progenitors of the mestizos
in Mexico who Ahave inherited the best of both races and can be proud
of their heritage.@
[88]
The story of Malinche has been told time and again through out Mexican history and continues to be a significant part of Mexican culture today. Parts of her tale, like shards of broken mirror, are taken up by different generations of Mexicans and rearranged to emphasize what that particular period feels is her most significant contribution to their culture. She has been cast as a heroine, an interpreter, a betrayer, and a fallen mother. The legend of Malinche will only continue to grow as future generations reevaluate her place in history and cast her in the role that is best suited to their time, place, and circumstances. The last vision of Malinche has yet to be seen.
[1] Malinche is one of the names given to the remarkable woman who was Cortés’ interpreter, guide and mistress. Others include Marina, Malintzin, and Malinal, but I will primarily use Malinche or Marina in this document except when direct quotes require the use of one of her other names. [2] Jerome R. Adams, Liberators and Patriots of Latin America: biographies of 23 leaders from Doña Marina (1505-1530) to Bishop Romero (1917-1980) (North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1991), 3. [3] Julia Tuñón Pablos, Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled, trans. Alan Hynds (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 17. [4] Frances Karttunen, “Rethinking Malinche,” in Indian Women of early Mexico, Eds. Susan Schroeder, Stephanie Wood, Robert Haskett (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 300-301. [5] Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, Ed. Genaro García, Trans. Alfred Percival Maudslay, M.A. (Germany: Kraus Reprint Limited, 1967), 1:126. [6] Ibid., 129. [7] Francisco López de Gómara, Cortés: the Life of the Conqueror by his Secretary, Ed. and Trans. Lesley Byrd Simpson (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1964), 56. [8] Hernan Cortés, Letters from Mexico, Ed. and Trans. Anthony Pagden (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 376. [9] Jerónimo de Aguilar was a Spaniard who had been shipwrecked in the Yucatan several years before the arrival of Cortés and could speak Mayan. [10] Pablos, Women in Mexico, 17. [11] Díaz, True History, García, 1:244. [12] Adams, Liberators and Patriots, 10. [13] Díaz, True History, García, 2:243. [14] Ibid., 258. [15] Jonathan Kandell, La Capital: the biography of Mexico City (New York: Random House, 1988), 141-144. [16] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 310. [17] Joanne Danaher Cheison, “Mysterious Malinche: A Case of Mistaken Identity,” Americas 32, no. 4 (1976): 517-521. [18] Adams, Liberators and Patriots, 12. [19] Jeffrey Wilkerson, AFollowing Cortés: Path to Conquest,@ National Geographic (October 1984), 448. [20] Díaz, True History, García, 1:126. [21] Ibid., 1:128-129, 1:132-135. [22] Ibid., 1:132. [23] Ibid., 1:133. [24] Ibid., 1:134. [25] Ibid. [26] Ibid., 1:244. [27] Ibid., 2:11-15. [28] Sandra Messinger Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature: From History to Myth (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991), 31. [29] Díaz, True History, García, 1:134. [30] López, Cortés, 56-57. [31] Fuentes, Patricia de, The Conquistadors: First Person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Ed. and Trans. by the author (New York: Orion Press, Inc., 1963), 24. [32] Ibid., 35. [33] Ibid., 70-75. [34] Rachel Phillips, “Marina/Malinche: Masks and Shadows,” in Women in Hispanish Literature: Icons and Fallen Idols. Ed. Beth Miller. (Berkley: University of California Press, 1983), 99-100.
[35]
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History
of the Conquest of Mexico, trans. Maurice Keatinge, (New York:
Robert M. McBride & Company, 1927), 450. [36] Cortés, Letters, 376. [37] Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 104. [38] I have had some difficulty in obtaining a complete copy of the Lienzo de Tlaxcala. Therefore, my account of this source will come from images I have found of the document in the various secondary sources I have used. [39] Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 101. [40] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 292.
[41]
“Codex Beker.”
On the UCLA History Faculty Webpage for Kevin
Terraciano: Associate Professor and Vice Chair.
<http://www.history.ucla.edu/terraciano/images/PAGE2/pictures/codex_beker.htm>. 27 November 2004. [42] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 35. [43] Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 101-102. [44] Although the translators of this version of the Florentine Codex give Marina as the name of Malinche, they also provide the original Nahua text which gives her name as Malintzi, the Nahuatl equivalent of Marina, but with the significant honorific title of –tzin added to it. [45] Bernardino de Sahagún, “General history of the things of New Spain” in Florentine Codex, Book 12, Trans. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1975), 25. [46] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 295. [47] “Marina interprets for the Spaniards when Moctezuma meets Cortés (Chapter 16).” Image as reproduced in Florentine Codex, Book 12, panel 44. [48] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 295. [49] Sahagún, Florentine Codex, 2-3. [50] Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 107. [51] Díaz, True History, Keatinge, 470. [52] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 295; Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 106-107. [53] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 35. [54] Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America, Fourth Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 83-84. [55] Ibid., 192-3. [56] Ibid., 249-250. [57] Gilbert M. Joseph and Timothy J. Henderson, eds., The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), 169. [58] Burkholder and Johnson, Colonial Latin America, 308-309. [59] Ibid., 309-310. [60] Ibid., 311-312. [61] Ibid., 315-340. [62] Ibid., 331. [63] Ibid., 333. [64] Joseph and Henderson, The Mexico Reader, 171. [65] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 45. [66] Xicoténcatl, Trans. Guillermo I. Castillo-Feliú (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999), 37. [67] Ibid., 41. [68] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 49. [69] Xicoténcatl, 59. [70] Ibid. [71] Ibid., 65. [72] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 53. [73] Ibid., 55. [74] Ibid., 44-45. [75] Luis Leal, “Female Archetypes in Mexican Literature,” In Women in Hispanish Literature: Icons and Fallen Idols. Ed. Beth Miller. (Berkley: University of California Press, 1983), 231; Phillips, Marina/Malinche, 111. [76] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 24-25; Pablos, Women in Mexico, 12. [77] Karttunen, Rethinking Malinche, 311-312. [78] Joseph and Henderson, The Mexico Reader, 171. [79] Leal, Female Archetypes, 229. [80] Eric R. Wolf, “The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol,” The Journal of American Folklore 71, no. 279 (Jan. – Mar., 1958), 34-35. [81] Leal, Female Archetypes, 229. [82] Ibid. [83] William B. Taylor, “The Virgin of Guadalupe in New Spain: An Inquiry into the Social History of Marian Devotion,” American Ethnologist 14, no. 1 (Feb., 1987), 24. [84] Leal, Female Archetypes, 229. [85] Pablos, Women in Mexico, 3-5. [86] Ibid., 18. [87] Cypress, La Malinche In Mexican Literature, 139. [88] Oleg Zinam and Ida Molina, AThe Tyranny of Myth: Doña Marina and the Chicano Search for Ethnic Identity@ Mankind Quarterly 32, no. 1-2 (Fall/Winter 1991): 7. |
would in time tie Malinche to the legend of La Llorona,
a weeping woman who searches for her dead children while leading
men to their deaths, which began to proliferate sometime after the
conquest.