Name: Malintzin, La Malinche and Doña Marina

Born: Approx. 1500

Died: 1529

Country of origin: Mexico

In a nutshell: La Malinche is a controversial figure in Mexico. It’s arguably her work as an interpreter for the colonialist Hernan Cortés that led to the destruction of the Aztec Empire. But, was she a cunning traitor of her nation or a slave girl looking for her survival?

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The Aztec Empire was formed in 1428 after three of Mexico’s most powerful city-states formed the Triple Alliance. Less than a century later, the empire was lost to Spanish rule after Hernán Cortés’ invasion. At Cortés’ right hand side was a woman known as La Malinche, a Nahua slave who played one of the biggest roles in leading her own people to destruction. Let’s have a look at why. 

Aside from being born in modern-day Mexico in roughly 1500, very little is known about the girl that would be known as La Malinche. Even her birth name is unknown. There is a theory that her name may have been ‘Malinal’ (meaning ‘grass’) and some even believe that she was the daughter of an Aztec chief. Whatever her origins were, what is certain is that she became a slave, either through being sold by her own family or through kidnapping. She was then sold on and lived in several different locations over time. 

Meanwhile, Hernán Cortés was preparing for a Spanish expedition to Mexico to follow up the previous discoveries of Christopher Columbus but at the last moment, the expedition was cancelled. Cortés mutinied against his orders and journeyed to the Yucatán Peninsula in 1519. It was in his next stop, Tabasco, where his story collides with La Malinche.

In response to the invaders, the Chontal Mayans of Potonchán offered gold and twenty slave women to Cortés and his growing army. Amongst these women was La Malinche. Each of the women was baptised and La Malinche was given a new Catholic name, Marina. Allegedly, Cortés gave La Malinche to one of his men before realising her potential in assisting his conquests.

Due to living across the peninsula in her years of slavery to the Mayans (prior to her slavery to Cortés), La Malinche developed a knack for language acquisition. Even greater than that, she knew more than the words to say but the tone and inflection to use and how to correctly address both the Maya and Nuhua (in this case, Aztec) people. And, soon enough she learnt Spanish too.

Cortés came to know of La Malinche’s linguistic value when she was able to speak Nahuatl to the emissaries of Moctezuma, Tlatoani (emperor) of the Aztecs. Cortés then made La Malinche both his personal concubine and interpreter through his conquests. Due to her powerful position and her skills in politics and negotiation, La Malinche was soon given a title of respect by the Spanish conquistadors and was known as ‘Doña Marina’, while the Aztecs gave her the honorific title ‘Malintzin’.

As Cortés set about a play to seize control of the Aztec Empire, La Malinche was at the helm, speaking and negotiating with individual city-states tired with Moctezuma and the Triple Alliance. They gained friends and foes through Mexico until Cortés set his sights on taking Tenochtitlan, the  capital city of the Aztec Empire. 

In one interesting alleged part of Mexico’s colonial history, on the way to Tenochtitlan, the Spanish conquistadors passed through Cholula. The city was loyal to Moctezuma and in one version of the story, La Malinche uncovered a secret Aztec plot to attack the Spanish forces when they reached the city. In this version of events, Cortés and the conquistadors attacked Cholula before its people could swing first. However, there is a theory that La Malinche had little to do with this and the Spanish lied about Moctezuma planning an attack to justify the Cholula Massacre. Whether La Malinche fed intelligence back to Cortés in this instance or not is therefore unclear but this is one of two recorded times that she supposedly warned Cortés of Aztec conspiracies against him.

The conquistadors continued on to Tenochtitlan and there Cortés was welcomed by Moctezuma but Cortés decided to take him captive. Then, Cortés got distracted by Spanish forces sending another conquistador, Pánfilo de Narváez, to Mexico to intercept the wayward Cortés (remember I said Cortés’ mission was pulled at the last moment but he went anyway?). But, Narváez was no match for Cortés and after a skirmish by the coast, Narváez was also taken captive by Cortés. 

Back in Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma died in custody and Cortés lead a siege against the city, cutting off their food supplies. Between that and the impact of the Spanish introducing smallpox to Mexico, the Aztec Empire fell on the 13th August 1521. Despite his previous indiscretions, Cortés was officially recognised by Spain as the governor of ‘New Spain’.

But, that’s not quite the end of the story and we’ve just had two full paragraphs where I haven’t mentioned the lady this post is all about so what of La Malinche? As a concubine to Cortés, she gave birth to his first son, Martín, in approximately 1523. She may have had other children with Cortés but the sources are unclear on the details of other children. In 1524, Cortés led a new mission to Honduras and La Malinche once again came with him. She married Juan Jaramillo and through this union, she was freed of slavery. She had some more children with Juan, as before, how many is unclear, and allegedly died in 1529 from smallpox aged about 29. However, even this death is refuted by other sources.

So, that’s the life of La Malinche. It’s filled with alleged stories, possible lies and a life in slavery to the Mayans, Aztecs or Spanish. Her name has become synonymous with ‘traitor’ in Mexico due to her turning on her own people and aiding in their destruction. However, it was the Aztecs who sold her into Mayan slavery in the first place so what loyalty would she have had to them anyway? Plus, it seems highly likely she received much better treatment than she would have done from the Spanish by being their interpreter. Were any of her decisions really her own choice? How many were merely acts of survival?

The real irony is that for a woman who made history for her language skills, we have nothing in her own words to make sense of her story. It’s all lost to history. In Mexico, La Malinche remains a figure of controversy to this day but who’s say without her, the Aztec Empire wouldn’t have still fallen. What is for certain, however, is that Cortés himself was aware of how valuable she was to his success and her huge role in one of the world’s most renowned empires cannot be denied.