The Son Of La Malinche

Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City, Mexico. He was born to a family of both, native and Spanish decent. On his father’s side, his grandfather was a very prominent intellectual with an extensive library that exposed Paz to literature at an early age. Much like his grandfather, Paz’s father was a political journalist and he joined in the agrarian uprisings led by Emiliano Zapata. He studied law and literature in the National University of Mexico. Paz began his career as a poet when he was still a teenager. He did so by starting up his own literary magazine, Barandal, and publishing his first book of poems Luna silvestre (1933). Paz did all this because of the encouragement Pablo Neruda gave him. In 1937 Paz attended the Second International

Paz wrote this because in an attempt to bring to light the inferiority complex, that is deeply rooted in modern day Mexico and originates because of transgressions that occurred over five centuries ago. Paz believes that the problems begin with Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador. When Cortés came to Mexico he came across a young woman, Doña Marina, later called Malinche, who became his personal translator, which helped him conquer Mexico. She went on to become his lover and is believed to have given birth to the first Mestizo. With this she would intertwine two very different cultures and traditions that would go on to cause problems for an entire nation of people. Paz goes on to explain that Mexicans are torn between two very apposing identities. There are those who wish to be seen as modern and civilized and those that wish to remain with tradition. However, those people who wish to be modern have come to view the ancient traditions with distain and apprehension. With this, Paz goes on to explain how Malinche, who is seen as the mother of the Mexican people, is important in her role as the mother. She is either viewed as either she is the nurturing religious figure who succors all the Mexican people, also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe in its purest form, or she is known and referred to as La Chingada, showing her as the violated mother. Paz believes that it is with this that the split truly occurs. Paz explains that the Mexican people identify with the macho. The macho in Mexican history, comes from the Spanish, from Cortés. The Mexican people see it as though Malinche was raped and used by Cortés. They view her as weak and him as strong. Furthermore, the Mexican people are not proud of either of these figures. They put down Malinche because she was too weak and was taken advantage of and they despise Cortés because he took advantage of Malinche and helped rape their