The Malinche Controversy: Slandered Or Venerated

The Malinche controversy: slandered or venerated

Physical resistance, money, weapons and fame traditionally relate to power. Eternally known as "La Malinche", this very controversial woman could use her tongue as a sword to become the interpreter of a foreign man, named Hernán Cortés. The word "Malinchista" or "Malinchismo" is synonymous with "person who commits betrayal" according to the Spanish Academy dictionary. These words derive from an indigenous of the time of the conquest in the 16th century. Mainly known as La Malinche, the story tells that she was given to Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conqueror, as a slave. Cortés was an ambitious man who wanted to take over new lands for the Spanish kings, turn the indigenous people to Catholicism and steal land with wealth and gold. This ambitious man turned Malinche into her lover and forced her to travel by her side. Using her power, he took advantage of her linguistic skills and assigned the role of an interpreter to conquer the Aztecs. Many things have been said about Malinche to describe the multiple characteristics of what she represented for her people and with whom she worked. She was born with the name of Malinalli and years later she would be called by many names, which includes, Mrs. Marina, by the Spaniards. With the slightest paper of Cortes’s interpreter, he received Malinche’s nickname. Centuries later, she would be remembered as Malinche, a word that most Mexicans use to define those who betray, sell their homeland and hate their own culture and identity.

Others consider it as a hero and mother of the first male of Mexican culture. Here is the controversy for Mexicans, heroin or traitor? Since the 16th century, Malinche’s reputation has not changed or resolved. Some slander her as a traitor and collaborator of the Spaniards since she accelerated the end of the natives and the emergence of a foreign government. For others, she was given Cortes as a slave and forced to be next to her without having another option than interpreting and having a son to survive. This complex heroine deserves to be venerated because she knew how to function and have cunning to survive what fate gave.

Unfortunately, we have very little information about what the people who lived during her life have written and, therefore, there are various versions about their native place and social state. We can only speculate on her life before and after the conquest. The most important story about her wrote Bernal Díaz del Castillo in 1575, a Spanish who traveled with Cortés and helped in the conquest of the Aztecs. What we know with certainty is that she was a significant instrument for Spanish chroniclers and treated with respect regarding indigenous stories. In spite of all this, in the course of the history of Mexico, the image of it has become a traitor that she sold to her homeland. After being colonized for three centuries, the Mexicans won their independence from the Spaniards and made a new form of culture and patriotism that was driven by the Mexican Revolution. The Mexicans wanted to separate from everything that meant being Spanish and glorify their indigenous ancestors. These battle to redefine their identity and searched Malinche a historical traitor. According to many Mexicans, she opened the doors that destroyed the indigenous for the Spanish conquerors.

Malinalli’s life was never simple in any way. We know that Malinally’s fate was already marked to give him a life that was neither easy or simple. The name of her prior to the conquest really does not relate to the identity of Mexico. As Franco and Bernal indicates in his article, “Metmorphhose of La Malinche and Mexican Cultural Identity”, “… Her Pre-Conquest Name ‘Mallinali’ is Suppressed and She Comes Down to Us Marked with Two Post-Conquest Aponyes, La Malinche/ Doña Marina, reflecting the estennial duality of her nature ". The multiple names of her describe the multiple descriptions of what she represented for her people and for the Spaniards. Malinche is the name that has survived until today and we see it used in many literary texts. Through Laura Esquive 1521 By Hernán Cortés. The author uses historical characters in the sense of fiction. The central character of this story is Malinche. Esquivel tells us that Malinalli, whose birth was carried out by grandmother on a rainy day that brought a message that would change the fate of this girl. During childbirth, the grandmother realizes that, "Sudden Snake was entangled in the neck and mouth of the creature ". The grandmother cut her cord with a shiny knife that blinded her for a moment and then the girl’s scream was heard. The grandmother considered that cry of a warrior, but with a destiny where she would lose everything. In the christening of the girl, Malinally’s father tells her that in her voice "she will paint new codices".  For these indigenous people, the day a child is born determines the destiny that will carry and, therefore, there were no free will beliefs or individual initiatives because that person’s fate at the end was in the hands of the gods.

As a child, her father died without heir. Her mother married again and she had a son of that marriage. Malinalli or was stolen by slave merchants of her people in Oluta and the banks of central Mexico or sold by her mother to slavery between the chontal Maya east of the Gulf coast. Anyway, this was the first time that Malinally was betrayed by her people and she spent her childhood being a slave of the Maya Chontal. In 1519, Cortés, backed by the Kingdom of Spain, reached the coast of Cozumel in search of gold and fame. Malinalli, along with nineteen Amerindias were given to Cortés and his companions as part of a peace agreement of the people of Tabasco. This agreement was for Cortés and the people of him to continue traveling to the west and leave the Tabasco in peace. (Restall 83). Once Cortés received Malinalli, he gave it to "his Portocarrero captain".  Once again, Malinally is betrayed by her people and treated as she was a piece of property to distribute and sell.

When Cortés realizes that she could speak fluently other languages, Malinally returned to her power. Once under her command, he decides to Christianize her and baptizes her with the name of Marina. Knowing how essential this woman was going to be for him after knowing her linguistic abilities "the marine bilingual slave was as fortuitous as lucky, especially because she was also beautiful and seemed well ready to become the native lover and informant of Cuts". The original source of these words is Bernal Diaz del Castillo written about sixty -peak years later and his inclination was to represent Cortés as a positive figure. The Malinche de Esquivel anxiously accepts Cortés’ offer and from the beginning it is clear about his reasons when working with Cortés. "The most worrying thing for Malinalli, regardless of whether the Spaniards achieved their purpose of overthrowing Moctezuma or not, was that his life and his freedom were at stake". With her thoughts confirms how significant she was as an interpreter and that her loyalty did not belong to the Spaniards and not the Aztecs. She wanted to be free, stop being delivered from one man to another and not die as a slave of the Aztecs. "If the Spaniards could make their dreams crystallized, it was worth helping them.".  In Esquivel’s novel, Malinche was loyal to herself.

Cortés quickly notes that the indigenous people with whom he was going to find spoke Nahuatl language and his translator, Jerónimo de Aguilar, did not know this language. Jerónimo, a flawless Spanish who had arrived eight years before Cortés learned the Maya by becoming a slave to them. Unfortunately, he didn’t speak another language. At that time, Malinally became an essential instrument for Cortés’ achievements in the expedition. When Malinally met Cortés she didn’t speak Spanish. Restall tells us that Cortés spoke to Aguilar in Spanish, Aguilar interpreted him what Cortés said to Malinalli in Maya and she interpreted those words in Nahuatl for the indigenous. During her slavery, Malinally was exchanged between different tribes and cultures of each. This is where she learned to dominate different languages. A gift that would later seal its destiny. At first, she gave her very little attention and credit for all that Malinalli had done. Cortés simply considered her a gift from an indigenous woman. Although he had not won the respect of Cortes yet, the Spaniards realized their loyalty and intelligence that in the end allowed him to win the respect of all. The Spaniards realized the times that Mallinali had saved them from many meetings in their expedition. Mallinali could communicate with several tribes whose lands had to pass and thus Cortes and his people avoided being attacked. Therefore, they gave him the title of "Doña Marina". However, the Spaniards were not the only ones who came to respect her. The Nahuatl also realized how they developed and recognized their nobility. These named "Malintzin". The Spaniards understood that this word wanted to say "Malinche", a name assigned to the detriment of it. Cortés never left Malinalli out of view. There came a time where the indigenous people identified Cortes as "Malinche" and considered them a single person (Restall 83). Clearly, Cortés knew the value of this woman very well and had no intention of separating from her. It didn’t matter how little or distanced he looked like Malinalli. Her actions showed that he had power over her and thus use her to perform her selfish achievements.

Throughout history, many have talked about the position that Malinalli took in the history of Mexico. Jean Franco, in his text, tells us that "… Bernal Díaz del Castillo elevates Doña Marina to a position in many ways similar to that of Cortés … She was the most powerful member of the indigenous population after Moctezuma".  The linguistic skills that Malinally possessed allowed meetings and negotiations to organize between Cortés and the Aztec leader, Moctezuma. Franco also tells us that “Doña Marina did not have to have been a woman to get to serve as a language and informant, but … it is precisely her genre that explains her outstanding position of her during the‘ the encounter ’.  Cortés is reflected as the author and creator of the conquest plan. He took advantage of the political conflict to deceive Moctezuma. The many enemies that the Aztec leader, Moctezuma had accumulated they joined Cortés believing that the end of an atmosphere of atrocities was coming. Once Moctezuma’s enemies allied with Cortés, mainly those of Tlaxcala, they realized the Cortés Plan and his conquest. Moctezuma suspected that they were the gods of Quetzalcoatl who prophesied to return the year 1519 in the Aztec calendar. Cortés took advantage of such an omen and kidnapped Moctezuma in his own palace to be able to seize everything through him. It is here where Malinalli’s fate took a turn to the worst.

Cortés, his and Malinally’s army arrived in the city of Cholula, where Moctezuma ruled. Although there are different versions about what happened, Franco tells us that "the denunciation of Cholula’s conspiracy is the episode by which Malinche is better known and is also the one who would later make the translator into a traditor". Cortés, after arriving in Cholula, realized rumors of a betrayal. The most detrimental report was given Malinalli. She made friends with a woman, wife of a high -ranking soldier from Cholula. This woman tells Malinalli that she should run away immediately because they were going to be attacked. The woman suggested that Malinally could marry her son after the Spaniards were. Malinalli agrees to go with her to gain time and be able to say to Cortés what the Aztecs plotted. Cortés brings together the Indians Tlaxcala and informs them of the conspiracy against them and according to what Franco recounts from the words of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, "we kill many of them and others were burned alive". After Cholula’s massacre, known as "The sad night", Cortés convinces the indigenous people that Moctezuma is the traitor. After kidnapped, Cortés let Moctezuma know through Malinalli that his own people had involved him in a conspiracy to attack him and his army and that he was going to Tenochtitlan as a conqueror. Franco emphasizes that Bernal Díaz del Castillo was very right about what the conquest meant, "… effort in which a woman played a fundamental role". The Cholula massacre justifies for many Mexicans the fact that it was there the origin of which this indigenous woman was defined as a traitor to her homeland. Unfortunately, many do not allow them to consider what her destiny to Malinally forced her to accept.

As for the betrayal of Malinalli, you have to consider different points of view on the burden that this woman had to endure, that is, "the deep generic load of terms such as‘ loyalty ’and‘ betrayal ’”.  It is very clear that Cortés required loyalty to all cost for its cause. The one who was not faithful, he considered himself as a traitor and deserved to be punished to the extreme. This clearly showed him with his malevolent plan to conquer Moctezuma and his people. We have to appreciate the fact that Malinally lived with people who constantly forced her to show solidarity towards her alleged fair causes. Cortés was an opportunistic, macho and selfish man and as Franco says, "taking into account that as they advanced they were inventing and creating myths about the reasons that justified his mission". Therefore, Malinalli had no choice but to ally with the Spaniards. Moreover, Malinche de Esquive. Malinalli "felt overwhelmed by her sins, sin of her as having looked into Moctezuma, when she had to translate the surrender of the kingdom to Cortés". Being dominated by Cortés and becoming the interpreter of her made her feel weak and uncultured. Cortés made her believe that he was going to protect her from "false gods" and "pagan practices" but according to Malinalli, "being protected by Cortés represented being a weak and ignorant woman"

Another point of view that deserves to be considered in terms of the betrayal of Malinally is if she really betrayed her people, perhaps the Aztecs. We know that Malinally was not Aztec and at that time, there was no whole country. The Aztec empire did not dominate all Mexican lands. The Indians also did not compose a race of the same genre. Most of them idolized the god Quetzalcoatl and did not agree with the beliefs of the Aztecs who practiced religious rituals that demanded human sacrifices. In addition, his own people considered Moctezuma as a cruel leader. So saying that Malinalli betrayed or sold her homeland makes no sense. Perhaps when she was forced to deceive those around her, they made her see how a traitor. However, she was the betrayed. She was sold, gifted or stolen from other indigenous groups by her own mother and to say, given as a gift to the true enemy of Mexico. This would leave anyone with a taste of remorse. We can only speculate the psychological effects that all this unfounded in it. Malinalli could not have felt loyalty to her people if she considered Moctezuma as a cruel leader as other tribes did, and, therefore, she was right to help Cortés. We cannot expect a woman to betray the people of her or a homeland of her when her people and homeland betrayed her.

The conquest was not a love story. This is a story of a slave contract. Beyond being betrayed, there is the tragedy of a woman raped by macho men. History tells us that the Spaniards were accustomed to believing that women were treated as property and had the duty to provide sexual services when they wanted a man. To celebrate her triumphs of Tenochtitlan, Cortés fornicó with Malinalli, which did not seem like feeling sinful and desecrated.  Franco identifies the hypocrisy of cuts by suggesting that "Cortés admonished Moctezuma with speeches in favor of monogamy". Cortés considers active men in the world and women as a passive collaborator to their entire disposition. When the conquest of Mexico ended, Cortés takes the already pregnant Malinalli to live in Coyoacán. Malinalli, gives birth to a son, Martín Cortés, proof that her relationship with Cortés had become sex once the role of his interpreter had ceased to be crucial for him and his successes . Cortés and Malinally’s son I think what we know is the first mestizo, a child with Spanish and indigenous blood. Centuries later, this child was going to represent the principle of the Mexican race and was going to turn Malinalli into the mother of Mexico. When Cortés’s wife arrived in Mexico, the relationship between Cortés and Malinally ended. The conqueror, on a drunken night, forces her best friend, Juan Jaramillo, who marries Malinally with the intention of favoring her to turn her into a "lady" instead of a slave. Instead of making her legitimate he himself and giving her the honor of her name, Cortés forced her to accept the name of another and separate her legacies forever.

Malinally incorporated her perspective according to her meetings with the indigenous people in her interpretation. But for her gift to dominate many languages, the history of Mexico would not have been the same. Actually, her interpretations were other words. She did not have a role in which the message was going to contain. She simply was a way in the message, that is, she facilitated the communication between two parts that did not share the same language. So when she plans to blame at her feet, whom she should blame she is those who interpreted her. The story tends to focus on the messenger and not the message as well as the winners and losers. When judging Malinally through history, we will eliminate it from its current role and become a historical figure of Spanish colonization. Moctezuma should be demanded responsibility for the destruction of his empire. At the same time, Cortés should be considered responsible for the destruction of a civilization. Nor should we forget that the fault can also be attributed to the Tlaxcala for having betrayed Moctezuma. In this way, we can accept that Malinalli was a human being more than a participant in the conquest process. Although the identity of Malinalli is based on her gift to be able to negotiate with words, she was able to absorb the culture of the indigenous people with whom she interacted and to be able to formulate the messages she interpreted among them. We can only judge it for the results of her interpretations and not her true words. It is obvious that she put the Spaniards in a very clear advantage to be able to conquer. She interpreted in a beneficial way for the Spaniards. However, the history is written by the victors, in this case, the Spaniards and, or to say, will write a story to benefit themselves.

After her marriage with Jaramillo, very little is known about her and there are no more stories of her life either by the Spaniards or the indigenous people. It is said that Malinally died around 1527 or 1528 still in his veins. After her death, Malinally remained forgotten for almost three centuries. Her identity has been ridiculed and doubted by the words she spoke, either her or interpreted. She was seen as a symbol of betrayal, lover, mother of a Mexican nation and even a victim of violation of the conquest of the Aztec Empire (Restall 86). To a large extent, she was forgotten for three hundred years until she renewed an interest in the history of Spanish colonialism. As Christopher Columbus became a legend in rebuilding American history, Malinalli, rather, Malinche became a legend that reki Mexican history despite the Spanish conquest. After being colonized for three centuries, Mexico liberated from Spain to form a new identity after the Mexican Revolution. This new nationalism rejected Spanish culture and glorified its indigenous ancestors. "In the vernacular cultural She is a scapegoat invake unantold Times each day as the chingada and in the action of Malinchismo" Mexicans battled when they found that new identity and discovered a perfect scapegoat in the figure of Malinalli. They could attribute all the guilt to her for the extermination of their ancestors. Actually, and as McBride-Limaye tells us, “Mexico is the only country in Latin America that is trully mestizo, and it is in this vision of creation that the Malinche is the symbol par excellence of cross-bross-breding of indigenous and European Peoples , of Cultures, and Finally of Humanity ". Malinalli glorifies the combination of cultures instead of the purity of each. The miscegenation process that Malinalli and Cortés began turns Malinche into the mother of the mestizo and creator of Mexican identity, a combination that allows Mexican culture to reach their possibilities. 

Malinally lived a short and brutal life since she was a child starting as a slave and inside her conquests with Cortés. She constantly was dragged from one place to another and with different owners and susceptible to being raped. She was ridiculed for everything she did regardless of whether she chose her or not. The fall of The Aztec Empire led the natives to believe that she was a traitor. Many believed that she was the reason because of the loyalty to Cortés and knew how important she was for him. The indigenous people saw the influence of Malinalli as a destructive help. In spite of all that, either dishonest or faithful, Malinalli acted passionately. She was an intelligent woman that she knew a lot and was very skilled and cunning in war situations to protect herself. Her survival reached the expense of her reputation during her life and much later after dying. Her words had a significant impact on the history of Mexicans. Without her permission, she became a interpreter of Cortés becoming the link between different cultures, seeing situations in different ways. This allowed him to reduce the possibility of so many massacres. It is possible that Cortés’ army could have been defeated if Malinally had not said of what the Aztecs conspired, but, anyway, the conquest of the New World was about to occur. Malinche is no longer foreign or ancient. Rather it is a living reminder that women have the power to speak on our own and mediate between two worlds to avoid tragedies without having physical strength, money or fame. The Malinche lived her life and her history made her a legend. She is a complex heroin and not the product of two cultures fighting for supremacy. Her history judges her for making decisions paradoxically instead of judging her as an individual in search of a better future. By recognizing the circumstances and facts of Malinche, the perspective of someone who has been slandered to someone who deserves to be venerated.

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