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Malinche's Conquest
Malinche was the Amerindian translator for Hernán Cortés—from her lips came the words that triggered the downfall of the great Aztec Emperor Moctezuma in the Spanish Conquest of 1521. In Mexico, Malinche’s name is synonymous with 'traitor'. Yet folklore and legend still celebrate the mystique of this remarkable young woman.
Malinche became a slave to strangers when just a girl, and was then passed on to Cortès as a concubine. She became his interpreter, indispensible to his campaigns, and mother to his son, only to be married off to another conquistador. Anna Lanyon journeys across Mexico and into the past of its original peoples to excavate the facts and the mythologies for a truer account of this resilient woman., whose gift for language earned her survival through unimaginably precarious times.
Malinche became a slave to strangers when just a girl, and was then passed on to Cortès as a concubine. She became his interpreter, indispensible to his campaigns, and mother to his son, only to be married off to another conquistador. Anna Lanyon journeys across Mexico and into the past of its original peoples to excavate the facts and the mythologies for a truer account of this resilient woman., whose gift for language earned her survival through unimaginably precarious times.
235 pages, Paperback
First published July 31, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 10, 2015
3.5 stars -- it felt like a stretch for Lanyon to write as much as she did. This material would have made a great long journal or magazine article. People looking for a traditional biography will be disappointed, through no fault of the author -- there just isn't much information surviving about Malinche. But for people with interests in the challenges of studying historical figures who left few traces behind, as well as for those interested in the intersections of history and myth (and oral traditions), particularly in Mexico, this book is engaging.
April 21, 2022
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how hard it was for me to take breaks from reading it. La Malinche. Who was she? What role did she play in Mexican history? As the author shares, the role of women in sixteenth century Mexico, or anywhere else, is not well documented. Double standards existed and still do. Women were to be seen and not heard. They were viewed as beings to be gifted to men and were expected to be submissive. Still, La Malinche is identified by many as the individual with the linguistic skills that allowed her to able to interpret for Cortes and Moctezuma. She was able to use the Spanish and Nahuatl languages so that the two men could communicate.
Many question what Mexican history would be like without this female interpreter. Despite so much that can never be proven about her life, many claim that as a young girl she was given to the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1519. Most agree she bore their son, Martin in 1522. Due to this, it is said that she is the mother of mestizos. Little more, even the exact date of her birth, can be proven. As the author shares on page 186, “She was a woman whose name everybody knew, but about whom almost nothing was known.”
I did take several notes while I was reading this book. I have shared some of the ideas with my translation class and have asked them to learn more about her. In an effort to piece together La Malinche’s life, the author did travel back to Mexico. She traced the path history proposes she took as a young girl gifted to a much older Spaniard. I think the difficulties the author faced while doing her research and the lack of definite answers say a great deal about the world we have inherited from the past. Having completed this book, I have been challenged to think about the role and life of women, and of La Malinche in new, expanded ways. I have so many more questions than before I read this book. Thank you, Anna Lawson. Malinche’s Conquest tweaked my interest in the present, in La Malinche, and in Mexican history in ways I never anticipated when I picked up this book.
Many question what Mexican history would be like without this female interpreter. Despite so much that can never be proven about her life, many claim that as a young girl she was given to the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1519. Most agree she bore their son, Martin in 1522. Due to this, it is said that she is the mother of mestizos. Little more, even the exact date of her birth, can be proven. As the author shares on page 186, “She was a woman whose name everybody knew, but about whom almost nothing was known.”
I did take several notes while I was reading this book. I have shared some of the ideas with my translation class and have asked them to learn more about her. In an effort to piece together La Malinche’s life, the author did travel back to Mexico. She traced the path history proposes she took as a young girl gifted to a much older Spaniard. I think the difficulties the author faced while doing her research and the lack of definite answers say a great deal about the world we have inherited from the past. Having completed this book, I have been challenged to think about the role and life of women, and of La Malinche in new, expanded ways. I have so many more questions than before I read this book. Thank you, Anna Lawson. Malinche’s Conquest tweaked my interest in the present, in La Malinche, and in Mexican history in ways I never anticipated when I picked up this book.
January 24, 2010
How do you honor a rape that spawned a nation? This is the essential question of Lanyon's research of the mysterious Amerindian woman who served as Cortez's intrepeter as he met Montezuma and later bore him a son, one of the first mestizos in "New Spain." Vilified by some as a traitor to her people, I have been fascinated by the story of Malinche, since I first read about it in Octavio Paz's essay "The Sons of Malinche" which explores (one facet) of the modern hispanic male identity, that holds the father as rapist and the mother as victim/traitor. Clearly Malinche was a victim of circumstance, sold into slavery, traded to Cortez, then given away to one of his lieutenants in marriage. I'm amazed someone hasn't made a movie about this woman already. It's an incredible story.
Also enlightening is the discussion of regionalism/nationality in conquerers on the people they were subjugating. Lanyon suggests that the Spanish, just recently converted from Islam were more comfortable with dark-skinned people (given the Moorish influences of Northern Africa in Spain), and therefore lacked the inherent racism that plagued North America. They married Indian women, raised children with them, and adopted their words and customs into their lives. Very much unlike how the settlers in North America treated/interacted with the native populations the encountered.
This book left me wanting to know more...and angry at how little we were taught about Mexico in school.
Also enlightening is the discussion of regionalism/nationality in conquerers on the people they were subjugating. Lanyon suggests that the Spanish, just recently converted from Islam were more comfortable with dark-skinned people (given the Moorish influences of Northern Africa in Spain), and therefore lacked the inherent racism that plagued North America. They married Indian women, raised children with them, and adopted their words and customs into their lives. Very much unlike how the settlers in North America treated/interacted with the native populations the encountered.
This book left me wanting to know more...and angry at how little we were taught about Mexico in school.
January 7, 2015
8 marzo, invece di andare a vedere lo spogliarello maschile ho deciso di iniziare la biografia di una celebre donna della storia, “celebre” e allo stesso tempo anche “misteriosa”: Malinche, la donna maya che fu interprete e amante di Hernán Cortés durante la sua conquista del Messico.
Non propriamente su questo libro ma sulla figura di Malinche lessi questo articolo http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/20... su un Corriere della Sera di qualche anno fa che mi interessò all’argomento, mentre questo volumetto proviene dal bottino di un fortunato e fruttoso “setaccio” di qualche anno fa della sezione Remainders del sito IBS. Un’impresa forse disperata, scrivere la biografia di una persona su cui sono più le leggende e le voci delle notizie certe, di cui sono ignote data di nascita e data di morte e di cui, soprattutto, pur essendo passata alla Storia per la sua voce di interprete e traduttrice, non esiste neppure una registrazione di prima mano delle sue parole.
In realtà, infatti, per molte pagine il libro tratta dei viaggi dell’autrice in Messico sulle tracce di Malinche, tracce materiali che, necessariamente, non possono che essere estremamente labili e poco significative (il nome di un fiume, un giardino, una casa in cui, forse, abitò alcuni anni e che quando l’autrice la visita appare ormai radicalmente modificata), mentre più presenti le tracce nell’immaginario collettivo, che emergono dai dialoghi e dalle domande, a volte anche un po’ ingenue, che Lanyon pone ad alcuni cittadini messicani, spesso sconosciuti incontrati casualmente, in merito a questa donna. I capitoli più specificamente biografici si fondano quasi esclusivamente sui resoconti del compagno di Cortés Bernal Díaz, e comunque le fonti non sono mai citate in modo esaustivo; alle fonti di archivio si ricorre come “ultima risorsa”, di fretta (e, ormai non vale neanche più la pena di sottolinearlo, chi lavora in un archivio è indifferentemente “archivista” o “bibliotecario”). Insomma, per avere un quadro un po’ meno “impressionistico” della vicenda forse farei meglio a leggere un altro libro, magari questo http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... (già acquistato). Ma, come primo approccio “light”, il testo della Lanyon può andare.
Più originali e interessanti sono invece le riflessioni sul ruolo “postumo” di Malinche, sull’etichetta di “traditrice” del popolo messicano che le è stata appiccicata, e perché, e sulla sua persistenza come figura importante nelle credenze popolari e nella mitologia della giovane nazione messicana. La Lanyon, dopo aver facilmente smontato l’accusa di “tradimento” (non esisteva allora alcuna identità nazionale o culturale “messicana” da proteggere, e l’odierno Messico era diviso in tanti regni: in questo senso Malinche non è più “traditrice” delle popolazioni nemiche dei culua-mexico, che sarebbe il nome corretto del popolo azteco, di Tenochtitlan che si allearono con gli spagnoli di Cortés per sconfiggere i loro rivali di sempre), sottolinea anche il periodo in cui, non casualmente, iniziò a circolare, e cioè nel periodo delle lotte indipendentiste e nazionaliste contro il dominio spagnolo, nel XIX secolo, quando era ovviamente più conveniente politicamente richiamarsi alla tradizione pre-Conquista. Interessante anche l’osservazione che l’esperienza di Malinche sarebbe stata il “prototipo” del modello di colonizzazione spagnolo, che puntò fin da subito sulla mescolanza, sul meticciato, sui matrimoni misti, differenziandosi ad es. da altri casi, come il Nordamerica dei coloni britannici e francesi, in cui invece fin dall’inizio si scelse e si praticò una netta separazione dalle popolazioni autoctone.
Qua e là spuntano dei misteriosi “francescani evangelici”, o “evangelici francescani”, e, dopo averci riflettutto, ritengo che debba trattarsi di “evangelizzatori”, altrimenti il discorso è incomprensibile. A p. 195 papa Clemente VII diventa erroneamente Clemente VIII.
3/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2012/0...
Non propriamente su questo libro ma sulla figura di Malinche lessi questo articolo http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/20... su un Corriere della Sera di qualche anno fa che mi interessò all’argomento, mentre questo volumetto proviene dal bottino di un fortunato e fruttoso “setaccio” di qualche anno fa della sezione Remainders del sito IBS. Un’impresa forse disperata, scrivere la biografia di una persona su cui sono più le leggende e le voci delle notizie certe, di cui sono ignote data di nascita e data di morte e di cui, soprattutto, pur essendo passata alla Storia per la sua voce di interprete e traduttrice, non esiste neppure una registrazione di prima mano delle sue parole.
In realtà, infatti, per molte pagine il libro tratta dei viaggi dell’autrice in Messico sulle tracce di Malinche, tracce materiali che, necessariamente, non possono che essere estremamente labili e poco significative (il nome di un fiume, un giardino, una casa in cui, forse, abitò alcuni anni e che quando l’autrice la visita appare ormai radicalmente modificata), mentre più presenti le tracce nell’immaginario collettivo, che emergono dai dialoghi e dalle domande, a volte anche un po’ ingenue, che Lanyon pone ad alcuni cittadini messicani, spesso sconosciuti incontrati casualmente, in merito a questa donna. I capitoli più specificamente biografici si fondano quasi esclusivamente sui resoconti del compagno di Cortés Bernal Díaz, e comunque le fonti non sono mai citate in modo esaustivo; alle fonti di archivio si ricorre come “ultima risorsa”, di fretta (e, ormai non vale neanche più la pena di sottolinearlo, chi lavora in un archivio è indifferentemente “archivista” o “bibliotecario”). Insomma, per avere un quadro un po’ meno “impressionistico” della vicenda forse farei meglio a leggere un altro libro, magari questo http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... (già acquistato). Ma, come primo approccio “light”, il testo della Lanyon può andare.
Più originali e interessanti sono invece le riflessioni sul ruolo “postumo” di Malinche, sull’etichetta di “traditrice” del popolo messicano che le è stata appiccicata, e perché, e sulla sua persistenza come figura importante nelle credenze popolari e nella mitologia della giovane nazione messicana. La Lanyon, dopo aver facilmente smontato l’accusa di “tradimento” (non esisteva allora alcuna identità nazionale o culturale “messicana” da proteggere, e l’odierno Messico era diviso in tanti regni: in questo senso Malinche non è più “traditrice” delle popolazioni nemiche dei culua-mexico, che sarebbe il nome corretto del popolo azteco, di Tenochtitlan che si allearono con gli spagnoli di Cortés per sconfiggere i loro rivali di sempre), sottolinea anche il periodo in cui, non casualmente, iniziò a circolare, e cioè nel periodo delle lotte indipendentiste e nazionaliste contro il dominio spagnolo, nel XIX secolo, quando era ovviamente più conveniente politicamente richiamarsi alla tradizione pre-Conquista. Interessante anche l’osservazione che l’esperienza di Malinche sarebbe stata il “prototipo” del modello di colonizzazione spagnolo, che puntò fin da subito sulla mescolanza, sul meticciato, sui matrimoni misti, differenziandosi ad es. da altri casi, come il Nordamerica dei coloni britannici e francesi, in cui invece fin dall’inizio si scelse e si praticò una netta separazione dalle popolazioni autoctone.
Qua e là spuntano dei misteriosi “francescani evangelici”, o “evangelici francescani”, e, dopo averci riflettutto, ritengo che debba trattarsi di “evangelizzatori”, altrimenti il discorso è incomprensibile. A p. 195 papa Clemente VII diventa erroneamente Clemente VIII.
3/5
http://moloch981.wordpress.com/2012/0...
January 20, 2021
This is the second time that I have read this book, spurred on by the series 'Hernan' on SBS.
I enjoyed the book more the second time around. It is very much a travel/history amalgam but apart from some rather clunky dialogue with people she met on her travels, there is also considered, informed reflection on language, representation, memory and agency during first contact. While she does describe her lodgings and her work in the archives, she does not resort to details about the food or the weather as the less adept of these historian-as-character books do. ... That is not to say that I don't like seeing the historian at work - I do -, but I prefer eavesdropping on their questions and ruminations as professionals rather than reading their itinerary.
I enjoyed the book more the second time around. It is very much a travel/history amalgam but apart from some rather clunky dialogue with people she met on her travels, there is also considered, informed reflection on language, representation, memory and agency during first contact. While she does describe her lodgings and her work in the archives, she does not resort to details about the food or the weather as the less adept of these historian-as-character books do. ... That is not to say that I don't like seeing the historian at work - I do -, but I prefer eavesdropping on their questions and ruminations as professionals rather than reading their itinerary.
July 19, 2015
the beginning was a little too "let me compare my personal journey of researching this person to this person's life" for me, something I really dislike in biographies. but considering the little information there actually is on Maliche's origins I understood that it was just to fill space. the parts on the conquest and Malinche's descendants at the end were much more thorough and interesting to read about, so it did improve!
Read
August 27, 2018I found this book very interesting, and I'm certainly better informed about Mexican history than I was before. However, I found the style somewhat dramatic and there was quite a lot of speculation/assumptions about the thoughts and feelings of historical figures, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. This is not a history textbook, but rather a book about the author's journey of researching Malinche's story.
January 4, 2019
This book felt incredibly useless in comparison to all the informations we already had about La Malinche. It also could have been severely cut, especially the parts about the author's trip that probably made up 80% of the book and were not only useless but also boring. I think I would have had rated it a solid 3stars if the book was sold as what it is, a kind of diary about searching more informations concerning Malinche and not as a new source of informations.
January 27, 2024
Similar to most who ever come to know of Malinche and her story, she was introduced to me randomly and fleetingly through a high school history class assignment. Since then, I've become enthralled by her life, periodically revisiting publications I've known about/have previously read and seeking out new ones every few years to see if any fresh details about her have miraculously been unearthed. Malinche's Conquest is of the former category.
I first purchased this book as part of my research for that aforementioned history paper, and I've read it numerous times since. Each time, I come away with something new in terms of sentiment even though the actual words are unchanging. Of all the texts I've read about Malinche since first learning of her, this one continues to be my favorite for a number of reasons.
I have always enjoyed Lanyon's approach to Malinche's story by trailing the known and rumored locations that comprise the time line of her brief life. In that way, each time I've read the text, it always feels more like an active adventure than a one-note, impersonal recitation of limited facts about a largely enigmatic figure. The incorporation of details about Lanyon's own life (e.g., meeting with friends of friends during her time in Mexico City, making new connections in other Mexican cities along the way, speaking to parallels she sees between indigenous identity in Mexico and in her native Australia) also lends well to the overall draw of the book itself. And Lanyon being a linguist gives her an atypical connection to Malinche, what with her intimate understanding of the importance of language, its nuances, and the integral role accuracy plays in effective spoken communication.
Lanyon does a stand-up job job of humanizing Malinche. She points out that what we today call "Mexico" did not yet exist in Malinche's day—it was neither a country/unified entity nor a singular empire. Instead, that region within Mesoamerica was a composite of numerous rival principalities and tribes. She also underscores the reality of being a captive/enslaved indigenous woman at that time (as was the case with Malinche), stripped of agency and self-determination while being used as a transactional pawn in an all-but-universal male-centric world (evidenced by her being "gifted" to Cortés and his men upon their arrival and later, Cortés himself marrying her off to one of his men shortly after she bore Cortés's a son).
Also, because so little of Malinche's life can be substantiated (due to a lack of historical documentation about her specifically), it's unclear what tribe she actually belonged to, considering that by the time the Spaniards arrived, she had already changed hands of ownership a number of times. Both facts (the nature of pre-independence/conquest Mexico and life in captivity) thus render moot the long-held misconceptions of Malinche betraying "her people" and the indignation many feel over her "choosing" to interpret for Cortés/the Spaniards and be a "willing" participant. Moctezuma and the Aztecs were, in fact, not Malinche's "people" in any sense of the word, and there would have been no "choosing" or display of "will" with regard to whether or not to go along with the Spaniard agenda, for not doing so likely would have been a mortal decision.
And perhaps the saddest part is, even if Malinche had refused and somehow managed to escape with her life, it's more than likely that some other indigenous soul (male or female, though more likely the latter given their lot in life at that time) of similar circumstance would have met the same fate (and ensuing notoriety) as Malinche. Modernity and hindsight very much take for granted that we are now able to name and recognize the Spaniard agenda for what it was: savage colonization. Yet at that time, Malinche and all indigenous peoples in the Americas who came into contact with the Spaniards had no indication of or insight into who or what they were, let alone the devastation they would wrought.
Still, even in light of all of this, it can be hard for many not to place at least partial blame on Malinche for the outcome given the relentless disparagement associated with her name in the centuries since she lived. It's all too easy to paint her as an indigenous iteration of Eve, from her perceived indefensible betrayal, right down to her role as inherent foremother as a result of giving birth to Cortés son (preposterously deemed the "first" mestizo). Unfortunately, this perception is only exacerbated by the fact that we will never know what she actually thought or felt considering no documented firsthand account from her exists. This has allowed for the prevailing defamation of Malinche to endure and the existing disjointed puzzle pieces with regard to her life have only been able to supply sparse factual information.
As a result, the fact that Malinche was not just an interpreter and gifted polyglot, but had other roles as an unwitting challenger of cultural norms and conventions (being Cortés's "voice" in forums and spaces from which women were barred and that thus could have incited great fear in her), a potential missionary (again, in the absence of her own account, it's impossible to know if she was a true convert/believer in Christianity or just pretending to be for the sake of survival, 78), and a skilled assessor of circumstance (her lived experiences and intuition clearly facilitated her perseverance in the face of hostility, both when among the Spaniards and when encountering unfamiliar tribes while enslaved and then as an interpreter). Not to mention that it was nothing short of miraculous that Malinche not only survived the genocide of the conquest but also wasn't overtaken by the rampant disease (namely, smallpox) that finished off the indigenous people that somehow managed to evade the butchery. Of the little we know of Malinche, she clearly had a talent for survival and possessed courage in spades to prove it.
Whether she meant to or not, Malinche's name and very presence in her day came to command respect among indigenous people she encountered while among the Spaniards (so much so that because Cortés was so closely affiliated with and seen with her for the sake of transaction, he was often locally called by her name instead as a means of identification (82); a stark contrast to how she's predominantly viewed today. Under a different set of circumstances, all of this would amount to Malinche being viewed as an intrepid trailblazer rather than a cunning traitor. In that vein, I also appreciated Lanyon challenging the rhetoric (at times romanticized, at others hypersexualized) of her as Cortés's "lover" and/or a provocatrice when girls and women (particularly enslaved ones) were sexually objectified, thus not considered owners of their own bodies capable of giving consent.
There are so many other details about what's known of Malinche's story and its trajectory that I always find compelling: Cortés taking Moctezuma's daughters as captives/concubines (137) and even impregnating one of them after the fall of the Aztecs and the execution of her father; Cortés potentially murdering his Spaniard wife (141); the fact that many natural elements (e.g., volcanoes, waterways) now bear Malinche's name though her name is still largely maligned. Whenever I think of Malinche, I'm always struck by the fact that how she's perceived so starkly counters the perception of other well-known historical indigenous women, who are viewed/aquire reputations as warrior heroines (e.g., Anacaona), innocuous means to an end (e.g., Sacagawea), or enchanting diplomats (e.g., Pocahontas). Similarly, it was shocking to read of how Cortés has been regarded with contempt in Mexico (170) in contrast with how Columbus has been all but nauseatingly deified in Dominican Republic and other parts of Latin America, for example.
I think Malinche's story will always haunt me because of all that will seemingly remain a mystery. As a result, we're often left with conjecture and deficiently awful historical fiction rendered in a misguided effort to make up for the unknown. I would love to one day read such a work that does her justice, but in the continued absence of that, I'll keep returning to Malinche's Conquest with the same inexplicable hope each time that I'll discover something new just from rereading it.
Noteworthy lines and passages:
"She was a young woman without country or family. She had been passed from hand to hand, from her parents to the men from Xicalango, from them to some anonymous Mayan lord in Photo chan, and finally to the Spaniards. Bilingualism is frequently the bitter fruit of exile, and so it was in Malinche's case. Her bilingual voice was emblematic of her misfortunes, but suddenly it offered her the protection, however temporary, of the commander of this stage expedition." (70-1)
"Diaz tells us also that because the people who watched them pass prefigured Cortés so closely with Malinche, they called him by her name: 'Malinche' or 'Lord Malinche'. It is a curious reversal of the usual conventions. To think that this most famous of conquerors, whose own concise Spanish name has thundered so relentlessly through history, was known initially among the people he has come to conquer by the bent of his concubine, a captive woman, a slave: Malinche." (82)
"Translation is an imperfect and subjective art famously susceptible to the intrusions of the translator." (117)
I first purchased this book as part of my research for that aforementioned history paper, and I've read it numerous times since. Each time, I come away with something new in terms of sentiment even though the actual words are unchanging. Of all the texts I've read about Malinche since first learning of her, this one continues to be my favorite for a number of reasons.
I have always enjoyed Lanyon's approach to Malinche's story by trailing the known and rumored locations that comprise the time line of her brief life. In that way, each time I've read the text, it always feels more like an active adventure than a one-note, impersonal recitation of limited facts about a largely enigmatic figure. The incorporation of details about Lanyon's own life (e.g., meeting with friends of friends during her time in Mexico City, making new connections in other Mexican cities along the way, speaking to parallels she sees between indigenous identity in Mexico and in her native Australia) also lends well to the overall draw of the book itself. And Lanyon being a linguist gives her an atypical connection to Malinche, what with her intimate understanding of the importance of language, its nuances, and the integral role accuracy plays in effective spoken communication.
Lanyon does a stand-up job job of humanizing Malinche. She points out that what we today call "Mexico" did not yet exist in Malinche's day—it was neither a country/unified entity nor a singular empire. Instead, that region within Mesoamerica was a composite of numerous rival principalities and tribes. She also underscores the reality of being a captive/enslaved indigenous woman at that time (as was the case with Malinche), stripped of agency and self-determination while being used as a transactional pawn in an all-but-universal male-centric world (evidenced by her being "gifted" to Cortés and his men upon their arrival and later, Cortés himself marrying her off to one of his men shortly after she bore Cortés's a son).
Also, because so little of Malinche's life can be substantiated (due to a lack of historical documentation about her specifically), it's unclear what tribe she actually belonged to, considering that by the time the Spaniards arrived, she had already changed hands of ownership a number of times. Both facts (the nature of pre-independence/conquest Mexico and life in captivity) thus render moot the long-held misconceptions of Malinche betraying "her people" and the indignation many feel over her "choosing" to interpret for Cortés/the Spaniards and be a "willing" participant. Moctezuma and the Aztecs were, in fact, not Malinche's "people" in any sense of the word, and there would have been no "choosing" or display of "will" with regard to whether or not to go along with the Spaniard agenda, for not doing so likely would have been a mortal decision.
And perhaps the saddest part is, even if Malinche had refused and somehow managed to escape with her life, it's more than likely that some other indigenous soul (male or female, though more likely the latter given their lot in life at that time) of similar circumstance would have met the same fate (and ensuing notoriety) as Malinche. Modernity and hindsight very much take for granted that we are now able to name and recognize the Spaniard agenda for what it was: savage colonization. Yet at that time, Malinche and all indigenous peoples in the Americas who came into contact with the Spaniards had no indication of or insight into who or what they were, let alone the devastation they would wrought.
Still, even in light of all of this, it can be hard for many not to place at least partial blame on Malinche for the outcome given the relentless disparagement associated with her name in the centuries since she lived. It's all too easy to paint her as an indigenous iteration of Eve, from her perceived indefensible betrayal, right down to her role as inherent foremother as a result of giving birth to Cortés son (preposterously deemed the "first" mestizo). Unfortunately, this perception is only exacerbated by the fact that we will never know what she actually thought or felt considering no documented firsthand account from her exists. This has allowed for the prevailing defamation of Malinche to endure and the existing disjointed puzzle pieces with regard to her life have only been able to supply sparse factual information.
As a result, the fact that Malinche was not just an interpreter and gifted polyglot, but had other roles as an unwitting challenger of cultural norms and conventions (being Cortés's "voice" in forums and spaces from which women were barred and that thus could have incited great fear in her), a potential missionary (again, in the absence of her own account, it's impossible to know if she was a true convert/believer in Christianity or just pretending to be for the sake of survival, 78), and a skilled assessor of circumstance (her lived experiences and intuition clearly facilitated her perseverance in the face of hostility, both when among the Spaniards and when encountering unfamiliar tribes while enslaved and then as an interpreter). Not to mention that it was nothing short of miraculous that Malinche not only survived the genocide of the conquest but also wasn't overtaken by the rampant disease (namely, smallpox) that finished off the indigenous people that somehow managed to evade the butchery. Of the little we know of Malinche, she clearly had a talent for survival and possessed courage in spades to prove it.
Whether she meant to or not, Malinche's name and very presence in her day came to command respect among indigenous people she encountered while among the Spaniards (so much so that because Cortés was so closely affiliated with and seen with her for the sake of transaction, he was often locally called by her name instead as a means of identification (82); a stark contrast to how she's predominantly viewed today. Under a different set of circumstances, all of this would amount to Malinche being viewed as an intrepid trailblazer rather than a cunning traitor. In that vein, I also appreciated Lanyon challenging the rhetoric (at times romanticized, at others hypersexualized) of her as Cortés's "lover" and/or a provocatrice when girls and women (particularly enslaved ones) were sexually objectified, thus not considered owners of their own bodies capable of giving consent.
There are so many other details about what's known of Malinche's story and its trajectory that I always find compelling: Cortés taking Moctezuma's daughters as captives/concubines (137) and even impregnating one of them after the fall of the Aztecs and the execution of her father; Cortés potentially murdering his Spaniard wife (141); the fact that many natural elements (e.g., volcanoes, waterways) now bear Malinche's name though her name is still largely maligned. Whenever I think of Malinche, I'm always struck by the fact that how she's perceived so starkly counters the perception of other well-known historical indigenous women, who are viewed/aquire reputations as warrior heroines (e.g., Anacaona), innocuous means to an end (e.g., Sacagawea), or enchanting diplomats (e.g., Pocahontas). Similarly, it was shocking to read of how Cortés has been regarded with contempt in Mexico (170) in contrast with how Columbus has been all but nauseatingly deified in Dominican Republic and other parts of Latin America, for example.
I think Malinche's story will always haunt me because of all that will seemingly remain a mystery. As a result, we're often left with conjecture and deficiently awful historical fiction rendered in a misguided effort to make up for the unknown. I would love to one day read such a work that does her justice, but in the continued absence of that, I'll keep returning to Malinche's Conquest with the same inexplicable hope each time that I'll discover something new just from rereading it.
Noteworthy lines and passages:
"She was a young woman without country or family. She had been passed from hand to hand, from her parents to the men from Xicalango, from them to some anonymous Mayan lord in Photo chan, and finally to the Spaniards. Bilingualism is frequently the bitter fruit of exile, and so it was in Malinche's case. Her bilingual voice was emblematic of her misfortunes, but suddenly it offered her the protection, however temporary, of the commander of this stage expedition." (70-1)
"Diaz tells us also that because the people who watched them pass prefigured Cortés so closely with Malinche, they called him by her name: 'Malinche' or 'Lord Malinche'. It is a curious reversal of the usual conventions. To think that this most famous of conquerors, whose own concise Spanish name has thundered so relentlessly through history, was known initially among the people he has come to conquer by the bent of his concubine, a captive woman, a slave: Malinche." (82)
"Translation is an imperfect and subjective art famously susceptible to the intrusions of the translator." (117)
June 30, 2023
The mystery of the Mexican Mona Lisa has the curtain pulled back. Malinche was more than a creation of a genius, this biography provides so much to this important and enigmatic figure. Anna Lanyon describes how difficult her endeavor to flesh out the controversial catalyst to the birth of a modern country and more importantly, its people.
Lanyon's contribution is part destination piece with so many personal observations that trace where Malinche lived and traveled in her historic life. Lanyon's entry has her immersed anywhere the shadow of Malinche existed. Her odyssey occurred during the 1994 Mexican elections and the assassination of top presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. With so much history swirling about, she seem to add it all to the sails of her efforts. She does her best to flesh out a human being who has very little to go by as far as not only who she was, but why she is important to the identity of a people and a nation.
I like how the book is laid out with attention to the small details gleaned from countless of historical documents and grand like the historical steps that led to all of this, with this human being at the center of it all. But not only her but those around her whether family, strangers, contemporaries and those who had a say about what she meant to Mexican existence. She is even wrapped up in the threads of mythology that could outshine how Cortez's arrival was interpreted.
She tackles the traitor question and brings about the factors that led to them, but most importantly this label was not attributed by her contemporaries, but Mexican born nationalists centuries later from Spain.
This is essential ready for history lovers.
Lanyon's contribution is part destination piece with so many personal observations that trace where Malinche lived and traveled in her historic life. Lanyon's entry has her immersed anywhere the shadow of Malinche existed. Her odyssey occurred during the 1994 Mexican elections and the assassination of top presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. With so much history swirling about, she seem to add it all to the sails of her efforts. She does her best to flesh out a human being who has very little to go by as far as not only who she was, but why she is important to the identity of a people and a nation.
I like how the book is laid out with attention to the small details gleaned from countless of historical documents and grand like the historical steps that led to all of this, with this human being at the center of it all. But not only her but those around her whether family, strangers, contemporaries and those who had a say about what she meant to Mexican existence. She is even wrapped up in the threads of mythology that could outshine how Cortez's arrival was interpreted.
She tackles the traitor question and brings about the factors that led to them, but most importantly this label was not attributed by her contemporaries, but Mexican born nationalists centuries later from Spain.
This is essential ready for history lovers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2018
The parts about Malinche and the Conquest were interesting but I got tired of all the information about the authors travels around Mexico and her ponderings.
Would have been more interesting (but much shorter!) without them.
Would have been more interesting (but much shorter!) without them.
April 22, 2018
Very good book. Now available in our online bookstore.
http://carpelibrumbooksart.storenvy.c...
http://carpelibrumbooksart.storenvy.c...
July 24, 2019
Superbly researched and engaging
April 18, 2021
Read it for my history class. Thought the book was alright.
February 28, 2024
Read this a few years ago. Loved the concept for this book but didn't find it quite lived up to my expectations
November 28, 2019
This was an extremely interesting look at a linguist’s journey through Mexico following the journey and researching the life of a much-misunderstood woman who has been unfairly vilified by history. I also enjoyed her linguistic insights.
I would have liked to have given this 5 stars except for some technical annoyances (grammar, punctuation) that made some sentences confusing until read twice, and for some occasions where the story or conclusions did not make sense. (For example, she arrived at dawn, was confused by the lateness of the hour and went straight to bed for the night when she got to the hotel!? Even a slow ride from airport to hotel surely would not have taken from dawn to night time!) I found myself constantly cringing at the use of the term “Amerindian”.
Lorena’s book, read at Jasmin’s house in one hit so I could finish it in time for book club that evening.
I would have liked to have given this 5 stars except for some technical annoyances (grammar, punctuation) that made some sentences confusing until read twice, and for some occasions where the story or conclusions did not make sense. (For example, she arrived at dawn, was confused by the lateness of the hour and went straight to bed for the night when she got to the hotel!? Even a slow ride from airport to hotel surely would not have taken from dawn to night time!) I found myself constantly cringing at the use of the term “Amerindian”.
Lorena’s book, read at Jasmin’s house in one hit so I could finish it in time for book club that evening.
January 4, 2008
Although not an anthropologist, Lanyon approaches her search for Malinche using ethnographic methods, including interviews with local peoples and researching historical documents. She travels the Mayan countryside exploring long forgotten, hidden cities that may or may not have figured prominently in Malinche's pre-Cortes history. She takes time to listen to folk tales and analyzes these for the possible truths they may be. With a couple of informants, she could spend a little more time interviewing them, eliciting their explanations and knowledge in some cases instead of interjecting her own, but otherwise, she is adept at listening to the people and their stories. She writes in a confessional style, which brings to life her own interest in Malinche and interweaves Malinche's story with her own.
April 21, 2012
I picked up this book because I thought it was a historical fiction novel about the Aztec woman who interpreted for Cortez, Malinche. Instead, this was a non-fiction account of a writer's journey through Mexico, searching for any snippets of truth that were recorded about Malinche and how they do or do not coincide with her legend. I was interested in the difference between how full-blooded Spanish Mexicans, so-called mestizos, and full native Mexicans view Malinche - surprisingly, the full native Mexicans seem to see her with the most sympathy, as a slave woman caught up in great events and made to experience much suffering. Archival records of Malinche are presented against a background of the author's travel and an account of the Conquest of Mexico. Readable, informative, and able to hold my interest all the way through.
June 23, 2016
Il s'agit plus d'un essai sur le personnage de Malinche que d'une biographie au sens propre. La lecture est agréable: on suit pas à pas le trajet parcouru par la chercheuse australienne, ainsi que ses sentiments personnels, qui tente d'approcher la réalité historique du personnage. L'aspect émotionnel est fort dans le livre. Elle étudie aussi l'aspect historiographique de Malinche. J'ai trouvé ce livre intéressant bien que les documents historiques nous renseignant sur cette femme soient très parcellaires. Très difficile d'approcher la réalité du personnage: Malinche restera à jamais une femme mystérieuse qui porte avec elle toute sorte de légendes, noires ou plus poétiques. Le personnage a été utilisé jusqu'à nos jours et n'a sans doute plus rien à voir avec la véritable amérindienne qui a vécu au XVIe siècle.
Read
November 2, 2009Malinche, the Indian woman who was Cortes's interpreter and bore him a child, only to die less than 10 years after Cortes arrived on the shore of Mexico. The author follows all signs of Malinche, whose name has come to be synonymous with "traitor" and with "treasonous behavior." Yet, so little has been left of her in any official records, so Lanyon follows clues such as a river named for her, a volcanic mountain, and even a school that, 500 years earlier, was her home, and probably where she died. Lanyon is also a linguist and she carefully and eloquently examines the intricacies of Spanish, Nahuatl, and Mayan to unwrap the mysteries of language and the potential power of being the "interpreter."
February 16, 2008
Author tries to piece together the compelling story of La Malinche. A young Indian girl sold by her parents as a slave to Cortez's she eventually became his, lover, translator, chief advisor and partner in the conquest and destruction of her own people. Although she is considered the arch villian of Mexican history one can not help but feel sympathy and even admiration for her making the best of the impossible situation she was forced into.
August 4, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Well written as both a history and a travel book. In other words, the author traveled to the places in Mexico and then wrote about the history connecting Malinche to the places she was visiting.
July 19, 2007
Very interesting look into the life and legacy of Malinali who became known in Mexican history as Malinche.
February 3, 2009
Great narrative about finding the history in myth.
Currently reading
October 1, 2011A book my father-in-law has talked about for years; picked up his copy when working through the books he left at his house in Idaho. It's good so far--now if I could find some time to read it.
August 18, 2012
Really, it deserves a couple more stars! This is the book that sparked my interest in Malintzín...I read it in one afternoon and evening. I just could not put it down!...^_^
August 1, 2014
Great overview of the little we know about Malinche.
October 13, 2016
Great investigation into this mysterious and shadowed figure of hispanic conquest and the birth of the Mexican nation
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