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La Malinche played a vital role in facilitating the Spanish conquest in Mexico, which through her, represented how colonial histories were also gendered histories. The life of the indigenous woman began when she grew up in a Nahuatl speaking area with the name Malinali, then changed to Malintzin when addressed with respect. Then her father died and her mother got remarried and sold her to Mayan slave traders and that is where she learned to speak Mayan, gaining her bilingual skills. La Malinche was one of twenty slaves given to the Spanish, which then she was immediately baptized and soon recognized as Malinche through their pronunciation. Throughout the conquest, she distinguished herself as being the interpreter and negotiator to the Spaniards; …show more content…
Her father died when she was young, and the family agreed that her brother “should succeed to their honors when their days were done” (50). That night, her mother gave La Malinche way to some Indians to escape observation to then spread the news that she had died. She erased her existence for the status of the family. In the eyes of Diaz del Castillo and Cortes, their perspective on La Malinche is different. To Bernal Diaz, he praised her beauty and intelligence and viewed her as a women that possessed much valor, something uncommon being said from a conquistador. She served her purpose to Castillo as helping him appreciate the indigenous women for the first time, as he acknowledged that “without the help of Dona Marina we could not have understood the language of New Spain and Mexico” (51). On the other hand, to Cortes, La Malinche served the solely purpose of being his translator, nothing greater than that, hence not calling her with the title ‘Dona.’ La Malinche was not given enough credit for her help in the …show more content…
La Malinche is referred to as the mother of Mexico for the reason that she bore a son to Cortez, thus creating the first mestizo. During the conquest, women were viewed as objects that can be exploited, and just like La Malinche, she was forced to travel with the Spanish, bear a son and marry a conquistador. In terms of social order, Spaniards wanted all the indigenous to follow their customs, so La Malinche was to give up worshiping her Idols to turn herself into a Christian. Cypress interprets her historical relevance as “a continually enlarging palimpsest of the Mexican cultural identity” (421) whereas Powers views her as a victim of rape, seen as a political strategy for the indigenous but as a sexual service for the Spanish.
La Malinche was forced to do things never before in her life she would think she would ever do. She fell under spiritual conquest, was given little value, and was used for work for the benefits for the Spaniards themselves. These factors summarize what the conquistadores did to the Indians in order to take possession of Mexico. La Malinche lived her life with mixed views, either seen as a traitor or a prostitute, but she will go down in history as a representation of the colonized
Anais Nin once said that “we write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.” In his book, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall tries to change our perception of the past in other to open our eyes to what life was really like during the colonial period. As Restall puts it, the main propose of the book is to “illustrate the degree to which the Conquest was a far more complex and protracted affair” (p.154) than what was supposed in the latters and chronicles left by the conquistadores. Each one of Restall’s chapters examines one of seven myths regarding the mystery behind the conquest. By doing so, Matthew Restall forces us to look back at the Spanish conquest and question
Hernan Cortes was born at Medellin in Spain in the year 1485 and eventually became one of the great Governors of Mexico City. It all started in 1518 when the Governor of Cuba (Diego Velazquez) placed him in charge of an expedition to explore Mexico for colonization. In February, 1519, Cortes was about to set sail when Velazquez changed his mind at tried to replace him; however Cortes in an act of mutiny pushed forward anyway. In March of 1519, Cortes claimed the land for the Spanish Crown (Charles V). Because of this great victory and the gold that Cortes sent back to Spain, he was named Governor and Captain General of Mexico in 1523.
In 1518 Hernán Cortés took command of an expedition to secure the interior of Mexico in the name of the Spanish Crown. In the letters he detailed his expedition and the land and peoples they conquered and encountered. The first letter, dated 1519, is a problematic document as it is written in the third person and was most likely not actually wire by cortez. The second and third letters are much more reliable and were published in Seville in 1522 and 1523 respectively. The culture, geography, economy and other details of the Aztec civilization, as well as Cortés and his forces’ interaction with them, are detailed in his letters which are addressed to the monarch of the sponsor of his force, Spain. In his letters Cortés also gave justification and explanation of the actions he took in Mexico.
the land and yet it had such a weak economy and could use the money
In the years following the Spanish conquests, the southwest region of the United States developed into Spanish colonial territory. Indians, Spaniards, and blacks occupied this territory in which the shortage of Spanish women led to the miscegenation of these cultures. The result of mixing these races was a homogenization of the people of various cultures that came to be called mestizos and mulattos who, like present day Mexican Americans, inherited two distinct cultures that would make their culture rich, yet somewhat confusi...
However, what words are being told in the Codex Mensoza 1964, Lám (Brumfiel 1991: 224) and more importantly what influential role did the Spanish heritage have in the artifacts? These credentials were offered as a form of recognition of Aztec women’s productive activities in Mexico. Nevertheless, Bromfiel paints a different picture of the Aztec women. In these sketches, Brumfiel draws our attention to the background in which the women are performing their “productive activities.” At first glance, these images portray Aztec women.
Fitts, Alexandra, and University of Alaska. "Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in Woman Hollering Creek." Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in Woman Hollering Creek 29 (2002): n. pag. 2002. Web
In the reading “Mirrored Archetypes: The Contrasting Cultural Roles of La Malinche and Pocahontas”, Kristina Downs explains how La Malinche and Pocahontas, two Native North American women have been differently perceived in the eyes of history. Although La Malinche and Pocahontas were in nearly parallel positions and acted quite similarly, they are view in very different ways. While Pocahontas is seen as a heroine for aiding the European colonizers, La Malinche holds the reputation of being the ultimate traitor to her people. The main reason why La Malinche holds such a poor reputation is because she is responsible for aiding in a violent military conquest against her own people. Pocahontas, contrastingly aided in the colonization of her homeland. Furthermore, throughout history, Pocahontas’ story continued to be told in the perspective of Englishmen, with her as the protagonist. In the case of La Malinche, her story was primarily told from the perspective of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, who felt the consequences of her actions. It is true that La Malinche aided the Spanish in their conquest, and also gave birth to the son of Hernán Cortés, a Spanish conquistador. However, it is important to remember that she was a slave and likely had no control over her actions. For this reason, she may receive more criticism than she deserves.
Indian women had played roles in the beginning of American history. The two famous women were La Malinche and Pocahontas. Both of them were not educated, that’s why their stories were written by others. Bernal Diaz, Spanish conquistador and Cortez’s companion, wrote about Malinche. Whereas, John Smith, English soldier wrote about Pocahontas. Malinche played the role of translator, advisor and lover of Cortez, while, Pocahontas played the role of peacemaker. There are also some contradictions in Smith writings about Pocahontas saving his life. Malinche and Pocahontas made the link between colonist and native population, they married to Europeans; but Malinche was from South America (Mexico) and she had contacted with the Spanish, whereas, Pocahontas lived in North America (Virginia) and related to English. Both of them very intelligent women, Malinche had the skill of speaking multicultural languages and Pocahontas was the peace creator between Indians and English.
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
Through the voice of Palo Alto, a mesquite tree, Elena Zamora O’Shea relates the story of one Spanish-Mexican family’s history, spanning over two hundred years, in South Texas, the area encompassing between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. As the narration of the Garcia’s family history progresses through the different generations, becoming more Mexican-American, or Tejano, peoples and things indigenous gradually grow faint. In her account of South Texas history, Elena devalues the importance and impact of Indians, placing a greater precedence on the Spanish settlers.
The history of the Western hemisphere is full of war and conquest. One of the most significant and defining of those conquests is the downfall of the Mexica/Aztec Empire. While there are many other events to choose from, this one stands out since it was one over one of the largest empires in Central America. It is also important to look at because of the immense cultural impact it had. The story of this takeover reads like a movie script, a small band of Spaniards single handedly takes down the most powerful empire in Central America. It was an epic battle, which unfortunately led to the destruction of a magnificent culture. As in any major historical event there are many underlying themes and storylines that come together to make the event happen. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec is no different. Three major themes are seen in this struggle. One of them is the incredible advantage that the Spaniards technology gave them over the Aztecs. A second major theme is the greed that fueled the conquests in the New World. The last major theme was the effect of the political divisions and rivalries within Montezuma’s Central American Kingdom. As this historical event progressed each one of these themes began to intertwine until they became an almost unstoppable force.
The myth talks of a woman living in the time of the Aztecs who is caught between her culture and that of Cortez cultures in the time of Hernando Cortes. The woman served as a mediator between Cortes and her people. She was his lover and stood aside as Cortes conquered her people making her seem as a traitor (Fitts).The woman and Cortes had a child; then Cortez abandoned the both of them, and the woman stayed alone the rest of her life. La Malinche means “bad woman” the woman got this name by turning on her people for Cortes by selling them out for revenge from how badly they treated, and ultimately destroys the civilization
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen