José Limón's La Malinche

The Spanish invasion of Mexico, a military project that began in 1519 when Spanish Conquistadors set off to colonise the New World, has remained a subject of many questions and contradictions in Mexican culture for the last five hundred years. The Conquest of America was the catalyst that caused a mighty cultural clash and a disruption of “archetypal patterns”. This clash has become the foundation for a mythological element of Mexican culture that holds far more gravitas today than the event itself: La Malinche. This mytho-historical matriarch has been the subject of representation and re-interpretation for many decades and still continues to exist as a noteworthy aspect of the cultural-political consciousness of Mexico and the greater Latin America today.

Discussion of name and social and geographic origin of Cortés mistress and interpeter la Malinche, Doña Marina desmystified.

The topic of La Malinche is a delicate one not only because of the extraordinary lack of historical data about her, but also because of the extreme social reactions to whatever parts of her story we have. Malinche is either loved or hated in such extremes that her story is rarely touched upon by neutral forces. As fascinating as these studies of Malinche’s influence are, there is not enough evidence for a true personal profile of Malinche. There is however enough evidence from the writings of the participating Spaniards and natives to assess how much influence Malinche had in the conquest of Mexico. By comparing different texts, the argument can be made that Malinche was within a position of importance amongst the Spaniards, and grew only stronger after her decision to deliver intelligence that would lead to the massacre at Cholula. Keywords: Mexico, Cortes, Malinche, History, Cholula, Colonialism

In this essay, I explore the way Sandra Cisneros portrays La Llorona and La Malinche in "Women Hollering Creek" and "Never Marry a Mexican." I will also present the ways in which the characters attempt to break or accept the gender roles established by these two mythical women. Many critics assert that La Llorona and La Malinche are negative figures for many Latin American women and girls. La Llorona is the woman who drowned herself and her kids to get back at her husband for his infidelity: the ultimate bad mother. La Malinche is considered the "harlot, traitor" of Cortes. However, I argue that it is only through La Llorona that Cleofilas can find redemption in "Women Hollering Creek." Conversely, In "Never Marry a Mexican," Clemency tries to forsake her Mexican roots and the sexuality of La Malinche but Clemencia's rebellion ties her more closely to her. I argue that theses two stories show that only through the accepting and molding of their Mexican heritage are these female protagonists able to be at peace in the physical and psychological borderlands between America and Mexico, and with themselves.

This chapter analyzes the historical role and discourse surrounding Malinche, an indigenous woman who has been regarded as both a subject and a mythic figure in Mexican history, art, literature and language. Born to a noble family, sold as a slave by her own mother, and later passed around as a commodity, she became Hernán Cortés' interpreter, plotter, diplomat, confidant, and mistress who eased the conquest of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, an event that brought about the destruction of pre-Columbian civilizations by means of war, epidemics, plundering, enslaving and genocide. Because she assisted the conquistadors, she has come to be mostly vilified in Mexican history as a traitor: her name even led to the coinage of new words with a disparaging sense (malinchist, malinchismo), still part of the lexicon, a phenomenon that drove the authors to research their use among college students to assess Malinche's significance today. After nearly five centuries, Malinche's legacy remains: she still plays a part in the imagination and the identity of Mexicans. In our chapter, we provide evidence that the perception of Malinche as an infamous character has changed, namely in the discourse of Mexican youths; furthermore, the terms themselves have become semantically dissociated from Malinche herself.

2016

During the conquest of the territory of today's Mexico, a young indigenous woman, mostly known as la Malinche, emerged as the main interpreter, and later lover, to the Spanish Conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Numerous written references and pictorial representations attest to her linguistic, communication and diplomatic skills, and they also reveal a fascination with her private affairs. This article applies 21 st century conceptualisation and terminology to analyse the kind of interpreting she practised and to evaluate her professional performance from an ethics perspective. By examining both contemporary and subsequent illustrations that depict her in a professional or personal capacity, the study comes to a number of interesting conclusions. First, the kind of interpreting in which la Malinche could best be described as 'interpreting in conflict zones.' Second, the iconography of interpreting displays a series of recurring motifs. Third, there seems to be a distinction between the focus in contemporary and retrospective images along the lines of skills versus ethical guidelines. Finally, this idiosyncrasy could serve as a valuable lesson for today's interpreters.

The Journal of American Folklore, 1996

ONE OF THE MORE intriguing and widespread characters in traditional Mexican danzas is that of La Malinche or, as she is sometimes known, La Maringuilla. She appears in dances as diverse and diffuse as Oaxaca's danza de la pluma ( Cohen 1993; Harris, in press), the Sierra de ...

Journal of Intercultural Communication Research , 2023

In this essay, we examine the role of visual and material rhetoric in rethinking and negotiating identity, culture, and belonging. Specifically, we analyse the La Malinche temporary exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and how it functions as an invitational site to critique and challenge pre-existing colonial boundaries; to rethink and renegotiate complex, hybrid feminine identities, and to engage in intercultural dialogue. We explore the relationship of the exhibit design and selected pieces to the concepts of mestizaje, Mexicanidad, and feminidad. Finally, we discuss the salience of la Malinche's cultural transformation from a traitor to an icon, and her importance to modern Chicano/a scholarship, through the connections created in artistic representations of her legacy.