![]() Wikimedia Commons Portrait of La Malinche, also known as Malintzin.ĭuring her time by Cortés’ side, La Malinche was, in part, respected by native tribes because of the influence that she wielded as the bridge between the Spaniards and indigenous people. The conquistadors’ deftness in avoiding the Aztecs fed the growing belief among many natives that the Spaniards had the support of mystical powers. La Malinche presented intelligence like this multiple times to the Spaniards, helping them to anticipate and thwart attacks by the Aztecs. When La Malinche relayed this information to the conquistadors, Cortés made plans to evade the attack. In one instance, La Malinche befriended an old woman who told her about a plot concocted by the Aztec king Moctezuma II to invade the Spaniards. She repeatedly saved Cortés and his men from Aztec attacks by gathering intel from locals. La Malinche further secured her position in the eyes of the Spanish by acting as their ally. In Aztec culture, Moctezuma was the Aztec ruler, known also as Tlatoani, or ‘he who speaks.’ Only the powerful spoke.” “In the Catholic faith, women were not supposed to talk in public. “This slave woman broke the rules when she became a translator,” Sandra Cypess, professor emeritus of Latin American history at the University of Maryland, told NPR. ![]() She served as an indispensable translator and a strategic liaison between the Europeans and the natives, which was a remarkable feat given the norms of the time and her position as a slave. In correspondences to the Spanish monarch, Cortés mentioned La Malinche a couple of times in her role as an interpreter. She quickly became a crucial part of Cortés’ conquest of the powerful Aztec empire. Doña Marina, acting as their interpreter.Īfter Puertocarrero returned to Spain, Cortés took La Malinche back under his possession. Wikimedia Commons A meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma II with La Malinche, a.k.a. They slaughtered hundreds of tribal warriors and robbed the natives of their resources along the way. Meanwhile, La Malinche’s mother performed a fake funeral for her to explain her disappearance to their community.Īt the same time, Cortés and his men made their way across the peninsula in search of an abundance of silver and gold in the Aztec empire. There she remained until Hernán Cortés and his Spanish army arrived at the Yucatán Peninsula in 1519. The widow remarried and sold La Malinche to slave traders who, according to historian Cordelia Candelaria, sold her to a Mayan chief in Tabasco. As such, La Malinche received a special education that provided her with the skills she later leveraged with the Spanish.īut La Malinche was betrayed by her own mother when her father died. Historians estimate that she was born sometime in the early 1500s to an Aztec cacique, or chief. What is known about her was compiled from secondhand historical accounts. ![]() Little is known for certain about La Malinche, who is also known as Malintzin, Malinal, or Malinalli. Wikimedia Commons A portrait of the controversial figure La Malinche.
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