LITR 4326 Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 1

Kim Loza

The Struggles of a Woman: La Malinche—Traitor or Heroine

I have known about the tale of La Malinche ever since I was a young girl. I remember my grandmother would always tell us the story of the “race traitor,” the woman who turned her back on her people to help the conquistadors take over their land. I always thought of her tale to be such an interesting one, but as I got older I was reintroduced to her story in my Latino Literature course. It was then I saw a whole different side to her story. She didn't represent a race traitor to me anymore but a young and educated woman who was left with a difficult decision. La Malinche was a young woman named Marina; who was noble born by her father. Due to her father's wealth she was able to receive an education, which for women this was not very common for the time. There are many versions to her story, but all that remains the same is that she becomes a translator for Cortez and his men in order to help her people. Cortez promises her that if she helps that it will be beneficial to her people, but after she is baptized and married off to one of Cortez's men, she is then sexually victimized. Even though she went through this she was still part of the destruction of her own people. Now she is represented as a symbol of negativity and a symbol of promiscuous women in Latin culture. I decided to look at why she was seen as such a negative figure (especially in Latino Culture), when she didn't really have a choice in the matter.

As soon as you do any type of searches of La Malinche, the words that seem to mostly pop-up are traitor, mistress, and harlot. In a article online that I found called “La Malinche—Harlot or Heroine” the author even questions if she could be seen as a heroine rather than a harlot. He even tries to understand why she is seen as such a negative figure especially when he states “they ignore that she saved thousands of Indian lives by enabling Cortes to negotiate rather than slaughter” (Lenchek, 2008). By looking at his research, I agree that she should be seen as a heroine because even though the people lost their land, many of them still had their lives due to her education and her negotiations with the conquistadors. Even though it was not normal for this time for a woman to have education, she made the choice to use what she had in order to help her people. Also, it is not like she really had much of a choice in the matter like the author states. It was either she cooperate or she was going to be killed along with her people. Another article I came across was called “Dona Marina,” which also brings up this idea of how Marina did not have much choice in the matter when it came to how to handle her situation. However, in the article it brings up another interesting fact of how she is seen as a race traitor by the Latin, but she is also seen as being the “Mother of the Mexican Mestizo” (Mason, 2015). So, by looking at this fact it made me wonder even further into why young Marina is seen as such a negative figure.

Marina is seen as the Mother of the Mexican Mestizo, but I began to wonder why she was seen as this negative figure to the Hispanic,even though originally she was a young Indian girl, who then later on bore a child that was considered to me the first Mestizo. She is basically the mother of what would later would eventually become the Mexican race. Researching further, I did find some authors that furthered questioned why this young and very educated woman has been made a term in the Mexican culture of being someone who turns her back on her culture. Without her union with Cortes she would not have bore the first Mestizo child that would lead to the future of the Mexican people. So, she should not only be seen as a heroine, but also in a way be seen as the Mother of the Mexican Mestizo. Before we see her as this negative figure we have to consider many facts about Marina's situation. We have to realize that she did not have much choice in the matter of what to do when it came to interacting with Cortes. For her it is basically either translate and help them when interacting with her people or she was going to be killed along with her people. We also have to consider that she was also deserted not only by her mother who sold her into slavery, but she was also deserted by Cortes (Pedrick, 1994). Marina at this point could have reacted angrily towards this, but she embraced her new found Christianity and decided to portray forgiveness, which I know I can say for myself that this is a very admirable quality that any heroine would portray.

After doing my own research over La Malinche, I see her a whole lot differently than I did when I would listen to the stories that my grandmother would tell us as young girls. We would view her as a race traitor, a harlot, and a mistress. However, now I see her as so much more because now I see her as this young and educated woman, who was limited to the choices that she could make in her life. Even though she chose to help Cortes and his men to take over the land of her people, she save many of their lives by handling the negotiations. She was also a very forgiving and loyal woman that even though she had so many struggles within her life, she still forgave those people who put her into those terrible situations. I would indeed consider her not only the “Mother of the Mexican Mestizo, but I would also consider her to be seen as a heroine. Dona Marina portrayed many heroic qualities that any young woman would be proud to have, so I believe that it is only right that we true see her as the heroine that she is. Now, after looking deeper into what Dona Marina symbolizes I think I will now look further into the power struggle between the races during this time as well as the struggle between genders as well.

Work Cited

Lenchek, Shep. "La Malinche - Harlot or Heroine?" Mexconnect. 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/224-la-malinche-harlot-or-heroine

Mason. "Dona Marina." Women in World History. George Mason University. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson6/lesson6.php?s=0

"LA MALINCHE - Translator and Companion to Cortes." MEXIONLINE. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
http://www.mexonline.com/history-lamalinche.htm

Pedrick, Dan Harvey. "Reconciling a Myth - In Defense of Doña Marina." CARRIAGEHOUSEBANDB.CA. 1997. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
http://carriagehousebandb.ca/malinche.html