Elenamary

I’ve never understood the obsession with La Malinche until now, and only because I am using her as an icon in with whom I can identify with, who can help me define my behavior, my sexual relationships, my personal identity—yes ladies and gentlemen, I have become Xicana.Who is La Malinche? She is a women known by many names; Mother of Mestizos, La Primera Madre de nuestra nacionalidad (the first mother of our nationality), La Madre Violada (the raped mother), Malintzin, La Chingada (the fucked/raped one), Doña Marina, the traitor, the womb, the tongue…

Malinche was a translator for Hernan Cortez. Some texts will argue that she was an Aztec princess sold to Hernan Cortez, she was neither Aztec nor a princess. A description of her as princesses was not used until she had a child by Cortez, and was needed to be described as “noble” by Spanish historians after the conquest. Also, most texts of that time make note that she was not Aztec but Chicanos have made her Aztec, they pretty much have made almost all Mexicans Aztec—which we are not—but that is another story.

So, La Malinche is this women who has been sold as a slave since childhood between many tribes. She learns not only their languages but the ethos of their languages. She is sold to the Spanish where she learns Spanish and is then given to Hernan Cortez with another 20 or so women. It is here that it is noticed that she can be valuable as a translator for Cortez. She warns Cortez of an uprising against him. Cortez using this knowledge goes out and slaughters a whole town where the uprising is supposed to be coming from, and this is argued, is what leads him to take full control of México. La Malinche gives birth to what is argued is the first Mestizo child (Cortez being the father) and this child is taken away from her and to Spain where he can be raised correctly. All of this is oversimplified but you all get the jist.

So, Xicana feminists love reclaiming La Malinche because she is the virgin/whore dichotomy in one. She is super intelligent and yet portrayed as a whore. She is thought of as a traitor to her race (the indigenous people of Mexico) and yet as the mother of La Mestizaje. She is referred to in text as only body parts, tongue and womb. Her tongue a tool used to bring down the people and equated with evil, her womb equated with goodness and the carrier of the Mestizo people. She is a whore and a mother. She is referred to as La Chingada (the fucked one), Cortez as El Chingon (the fucker) and her children as the hijos of la chingada (children of the fucked–the byproducts of rape).

I like la Malinche because she is really misunderstood (not that i think she will ever be understood). But for christs sake, my people, the Purepecha, like others could be blamed for the fall of the Aztecs. The Aztecs sent messengers to the Purepecha for assistance, and the Aztec messengers were sacrificed. It wasn’t one person like La Malinche, or one group of people like the Purepecha that brought the fall of multiple nations, but many factors.

Sometimes, Mexican or Chicana women who date or marry outside of Latino are referred to as Malinchistas. I like this in that it gives me something I can grab a hold of reconstruct and return to the world. Go ahead, I want to be a MALINCHISTA! I am hija de una chingada. But I will not be a chingada nor will I be a virgin, nor am I Eve your temptress. I am smart and quick tongued, and all the goodness and sexuality of the womb.