La Malinche

For the volcano in Tlaxcala, see Malinche (volcano).
Marina
Malintzin, in an engraving dated 1886.
Bornc. 1500
DiedBefore February 1529 (aged 28–29)
Other namesMalintzin, La Malinche
Occupation(s)Interpreter, advisor, intermediary
Known forRole in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
SpouseJuan Jaramillo
ChildrenMartín Cortés
María

Marina [maˈɾina] or Malintzin [maˈlintsin] (c. 1500 – c. 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche [la maˈlintʃe], a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.[1] She was one of 20 enslaved women given to the Spaniards in 1519 by the natives of Tabasco.[2] Cortés chose her as a consort, and she later gave birth to their first son, Martín – one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry) in New Spain.[3]

La Malinche's reputation has shifted over the centuries, as various peoples evaluate her role against their own societies' changing social and political perspectives. Especially after the Mexican War of Independence, which led to Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, dramas, novels, and paintings portrayed her as an evil or scheming temptress.[4] In Mexico today, La Malinche remains a powerful icon – understood in various and often conflicting aspects as the embodiment of treachery, the quintessential victim, or the symbolic mother of the new Mexican people. The term malinchista refers to a disloyal compatriot, especially in Mexico.

  1. ^ Hanson, Victor Davis (2007-12-18). Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-42518-8.
  2. ^ Thomas (1993), p. 171–172.
  3. ^ Cypess (1991), p. 7.
  4. ^ Cypess (1991), p. 12-13.