La Malinche, Feminist Prototype

Abstract

If there is one villainess in Mexican history, she is Malintzin. She was to become the ethnic traitress supreme."[1] Such is one version of the popular view of Malintzin or Dofia Marina, as she was christened by Cort6s' padres, or La Malinche, as she came to be known among the Aztecs. Indeed, in the current reevaluation of pre-Columbian culture among many Chicanos, La Malinche remains one of the few indigenous figures in the Conquest of Mexico to be viewed with contempt. [La Malinche] was to become infamous in the history of Mexico. Not only did she turn her back on her own people, she joined the white men and became assimilated, serving as their guide and interpreter and generally assisting in the conquest. She was the first Mexican-American. [2] Fortunately, Chicana writers and scholars have begun to correct such distortions. Nevertheless, even Moctezuma-the Aztec ruler most directly responsible for the ease of Spanish takeover-receives generally sympathetic understanding from American historians, past and present,[3] although he capitulated to the Spaniards prematurely.[4] Over the years La Malinche has been the subject of biographical, fictional, and symbolic interpretation written in many different languages. Biographical accounts include Mariano Somonte's Dohia Marina, "La Malinche," and Bernal Diaz del Castillo's "Malintzin Ten6pal: A Preliminary Look into a New Perspective." Fictional treatments include Margaret Shedd's Malinche and Cortis; Octavio Paz's chapter, "The Sons of La Malinche" in Labyrinth of Solitude

Concesiones Malinchistas: Teresa de la Parra’s Identification with Doña Marina

“…Besides her native Nahuatl, she spoke the Mayan dialect of her adopted masters, the Tabascans, and was supposed to have learned Spanish in a matter of weeks after meeting Cortés and his expedition. Candelaria (1980) remarks that ''[Doña Marina's] polyglot abilities, later to include Castilian Spanish, became the immediate reason for her singular role as Cortés' companion'' (p. 2). Thanks to these extraordinary abilities, Doña Marina was able to avoid total effacement from the chronicles of the Conquest.…”

Exchanging fluids

“…Whether one considers her a heroine or a traitor to her people, one must acknowledge that she symbolizes the sociocultural and genetic upheavals experienced by Mexico and much of Latin America and the Caribbean. Malintzin, her proper name in Nahuatl, bore a son to Cortés and became the ceremonial "Eve" of mestizaje, reflecting the identity, culture, and history of modernday Latin America and the Caribbean and the people there (Candelaria, 1980;McBride-Limaye, 1988). La Malinche's story reflects a common mating pattern present in colonial-era Mexico and the rest of Latin America.…”

Untitled

“…Její vůdčí a zprostředkovatelské schopnosti podrývají genderová očekávání a ukazují Malinche jako pragmatičku využívající více či méně limitované možnosti patriarchálního řádu a vedou k jejímu posílení. Tím, že se Malinche rozhodne hovořit, se ustavuje jako mluvící subjekt nebo "feministický prototyp" (Candelaria 2002 S chicanskou postkoloniální a feministickou revizí pak souzní i pojetí Marthy Cutter, která v Malinche spatřuje paradigmatickou fi guru s příslibem objevování "interlingvního jazyka", tedy jisté diskursivní perspektivy vycházející z chicanské bilingvnosti, jež slučuje jazyky dvou kolonizujících velmocí a jejich světonázorů, z nichž může vzejít tře-tí, hybridní jazyk plný liminálních tenzí, který může podrývat stávající lexikony i gramatiku konstruující binární opozice a lépe korespondovat se situovaností postkoloniálních subjektů (Cutter 2010: 2). Todorovova interpretace Malinche jakožto jednající ženy souvisí také s aktivním užitím dvou jazyků, jejichž prostřednictvím mohla nahlédnout do myšlenkového světa conquistadora a tím lépe pochopit svět vlastní.…”