Malinche is the name of treachery and betrayal in Mexico and her image is forever ingrained in the Mexican psyche, as a national Judas… but is this fair judgement of her character? Her mother had remarried another nobleman and given birth to a son.
She eventually fell into Spanish hands in April She was christened, per the custom for concubines at the time, and took the name Marina which we will use to refer to her hereafter. During this time, he took Marina on as his mistress. Additionally, La Malinche may not have been immune to the air of mysticism surrounding the Spanish.
She may have seen herself as a divinely selected participant in a most fateful destiny. Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. La Malinche left no records of her own life. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. By: Farah Mohammed. March 1, March 2, Share Tweet Email Print.
Malinche's original name was Malinali. She was born sometime around in the town of Painala, close to the larger settlement of Coatzacoalcos. Her father was a local chieftain and her mother was from the ruling family of the nearby village of Xaltipan. Her father died, however, and when Malinche was a young girl, her mother remarried to another local lord and bore him a son.
Apparently wishing the boy to inherit all three villages, Malinche's mother sold her into enslavement in secret, telling the people of the town that she had died.
Malinche was sold to traders of enslaved people from Xicallanco. They in turn sold her to the lord of Potonchan. Although she was a captive, she was high-born and never lost her regal bearing. She also had a gift for languages.
In March , Cortes and his expedition landed near Potonchan in the Tabasco region. The local Indigenous people did not want to deal with the Spanish, so before long the two sides were battling. The Spanish, with their armor and steel weapons , easily defeated the Natives and soon local leaders asked for peace, which Cortes was only too happy to agree to.
The lord of Potonchan brought food to the Spanish and gave them 20 women to cook for them, one of whom was Malinche. Cortes handed the women and girls out to his captains; Malinche was given to Alonso Hernandez Portocarrero. It was around this time that some began referring to her by the name Malinche rather than Malinali. Therefore, Malintzine originally referred to Cortes, as he was Malinali's enslaver, but somehow the name stuck to her instead and evolved into Malinche. Cortes soon realized how valuable she was, however, and took her back.
At that time, Aguilar had learned to speak Maya. Malinche could speak Maya and Nahuatl, which she learned as a girl. After leaving Potonchan, Cortes landed near present-day Veracruz, which was then controlled by vassals of the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec Empire. Cortes soon found that he could communicate through these two translators: Malinche could translate from Nahuatl to Maya, and Aguilar could translate from Maya to Spanish.
Eventually, Malinche learned Spanish, thus eliminating the need for Aguilar. For others, she was the consummate strategist. Many Mexican texts and images speak to these conflicted understandings. More recently, in the late s and early s, Chicana writers, artists, and activists began rethinking the story of Malinche. In 16th-century sources, they found neither victim nor traitor but the strength of a survivor. Malinche did not choose her destiny, but neither did she crumble in the face of adversity.
The histories they tell are histories of indigenous and Chicana women, but also of shifting political borders. The violence of Spanish conquest and the quandaries it unleashed persist in the present.
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