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    La Malinche

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    Alisa Ketchum Broom
    La Malinche was born into a noble Aztec family but was sold into slavery after her mother and stepfather devised a plan to give her inheritance to her half-brother. She learned multiple dialects and proved invaluable to Hernan Cortes as a translator, enabling him to communicate with the Aztecs. Through her translation and guidance, Cortes was largely successful in his conquest of Mexico. While some view her as a traitor, others see La Malinche as making the most of a difficult situation and playing a vital role in the Spanish conquest through her linguistic skills.

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    La Malinche

    Uploaded by

    Alisa Ketchum Broom
    95 views5 pages
    La Malinche was born into a noble Aztec family but was sold into slavery after her mother and stepfather devised a plan to give her inheritance to her half-brother. She learned multiple dialects and proved invaluable to Hernan Cortes as a translator, enabling him to communicate with the Aztecs. Through her translation and guidance, Cortes was largely successful in his conquest of Mexico. While some view her as a traitor, others see La Malinche as making the most of a difficult situation and playing a vital role in the Spanish conquest through her linguistic skills.

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    LaMalinche

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    La Malinche was born into a noble Aztec family but was sold into slavery after her mother and stepfather devised a plan to give her inheritance to her half-brother. She learned multiple dialects and proved invaluable to Hernan Cortes as a translator, enabling him to communicate with the Aztecs. Through her translation and guidance, Cortes was largely successful in his conquest of Mexico. While some view her as a traitor, others see La Malinche as making the most of a difficult situation and playing a vital role in the Spanish conquest through her linguistic skills.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as odt, pdf, or txt
    95 views5 pages

    La Malinche

    Uploaded by

    Alisa Ketchum Broom
    La Malinche was born into a noble Aztec family but was sold into slavery after her mother and stepfather devised a plan to give her inheritance to her half-brother. She learned multiple dialects and proved invaluable to Hernan Cortes as a translator, enabling him to communicate with the Aztecs. Through her translation and guidance, Cortes was largely successful in his conquest of Mexico. While some view her as a traitor, others see La Malinche as making the most of a difficult situation and playing a vital role in the Spanish conquest through her linguistic skills.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as odt, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    Alisa D.

    Broom

    American History 1483, MWF, 1:00

    FALL SEMESTER 2010

    La Malinche
    The Spaniards called her “La Malinche” and the Aztecs called her “Doňa

    Marina”. Both labeled her as a traitor and harlot for the role she played in

    helping Cortės conquer Mexico.

    Malinalli, the name given to La Malinche at birth, was born into a noble Aztec

    family. Her mother and father, both very wealthy and powerful chiefs were

    the leaders of a town called Paynala, located in the province of Coatzacualco

    on the southeastern border of Mexico.

    While yet a child, La Malinche's father would die, making her the sole heir of

    his estate, due to the fact she was his firstborn. Soon after her father's

    death, her mother fell in love with another young leader, who she would

    soon marry.

    Not long after La Malinche's mother and stepfather were married, her

    mother would bring another addition into the family, a baby boy. Her

    mother and stepfather grew very fond of their new son and wanted him to

    be the one to rule the village. In order to achieve this, La Malinche's mother

    and stepfather devised a plan to sell her into slavery and claim that she had

    died. Upon her so-called death, La Malinche's half brother would receive

    her rightful inheritance as firstborn.

    La Malinche was sold to some traders passing through. They in turn took

    the young girl to Tabasco where she would ultimately end up the slave of the

    military chief in that area.

    While in the Tabasco area, before Cortes arrived, La Malinche managed to


    learn the Mayan dialects of the Yucatan. Now young La Malinche could

    speak her native Aztec dialect along with both Mayan and Non-Mayan Indian

    dialects.

    When Cortes arrived in Tabasco, he was presented with 20 young female

    slaves, La Malinche being one of them. It was the custom of Cortes, with a

    belief in Christianity, to convert his slaves to Christianity and to baptize

    them. As he set out for the next port of call, Cortes would learn that the one

    he christened Dona Marina (La Malinche) would prove to be a valuable asset

    to his cause.

    Cortes had recruited a priest, Jeronimo de Aguilar, which was a slave also, to

    be his interpreter, since he could speak both Spanish and Mayan. On the

    way to the next port of call, Cortes met up with an envoy of Moctezuma, the

    Aztec Emperor. While counting on Jeronimo to translate so he could

    communicate with Moctezuma, he found that Jeronimo could not speak the

    language. Later that night, Cortes was made aware that La Malinche could

    speak and understand the language of the Aztecs. Cortes sent for La

    Malinche to translate the Aztec language for him. La Malinche could not yet

    speak Spanish, so she translated the Aztec to Mayan and Jeronimo

    translated the Mayan to Spanish. This would be the start of the close

    relationship that La Malinche would forge with Cortes.

    In the years ahead, La Malinche would learn several more languages, bare

    Cortes a son and play the vital role in being the translator and Christian
    missionary to the Mayan Indians. It was through her ability to speak

    numerous dialects and her enabling Cortes to use negotiation rather than

    violence, that made the conquest of New Spain the success it was. Cortes,

    in a letter preserved by the Spanish archives, gave credit to La Malinche

    when he stated, “After God we owe this conquest of New Spain to Dona

    Marina.”

    While some regard La Malinche a harlot or traitor, it is my opinion that she is

    a prime example on making lemon-aid when life deals you lemons . She

    was a woman, though a slave, that had great passion for her religion and a

    genuine love for people. She proves the old saying true, “Behind every good

    man is a great woman.”


    La Malinche – Creator or Traitor?,

    (http://www.tihof.org/honors/malinche.htm)

    La Malinche – Harlot or Heroine? (http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/224-

    la-malinche-harlotor-heroine)

    La Malinche, Unrecognized Heroine

    (http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/670-la-malinche-unrecognized-

    heroine)

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