Fictitious Story on Mexico's Historical Iconography

Can one soulfulness be all those things? Or, has the impulse for nation-building myths transformed an obscure individual(prenominal) episode in the life of conquistador Hern?n CortTs into a favourable legend tailored to fit the needs of modern Mexican culture? This paper will answer a suitable "Yes" to both questions. La Malinche was an important, multi-faceted historical figure and, yes, her story has been change by the myth-makers of Mexican history to fit the needs of their present-day(a) ideals.

Certain facts about the conquest of Mexico are legendary in themselves. Hern?n CortTs did indeed lead a band of 600 some-odd Spaniards into the high-pitched plains of central Mexico and, between the years 1519-1621, conquered and destroyed the mighty Aztec pudding stone flourishing at that place (Fehrenbach 117-156). From the Indian side of the equation, the myth-making began immediately, as witnessed by this Nahua-language poem collected by Franciscan missionaries in the Cantares Mexicanos lone(prenominal) two years later and echoed repeatedly in books to this day (Fehrenbach 157; Fleet 183):

As part of the legend-making process, the new Spanish overlords were not remiss in their mythologizing, either. In letters to the world power of Spain, Charles I - a Belgian-born Hapsburg whose interest in "New" Spain was in the main financial - CortTs

But she was not alone: as the speech attributed to La Malinche on page 12 points out, the Aztec Empire was defeated by all former(a) Amerindian city-states allied against it, not just the unknown invaders. The epithet "malinchist" took on great meaning in the 1800s, when Mexican independence requisite casting out, first, the Spaniards, then French imperialist overlords. The taint of the foreign oppressor has been a sour taste throughout post-CortTsian Mexican history. CortTs and La Malinche should be exempted from that charge, however. The fall of the Aztec Empire was as much a result of cultural civil war as it was a foreign conquest.

Does, then, the factual history of La Malinche concentrate the unlike symbolic representations attributed to her?

In general "yes" - but only yet as those symbols represent simplifications of complicated personalities, events and social fabrics. In that La Malinche was a gift to CortTs, a slave for all practical(a) purposes, his making of her a mistress does qualify her for the role of "La Chingada," the violated woman - the violated Indian culture. Her actions, however, displayed a willingness to support CortTs, playing an active part in the Conquest - she is, then, in like manner the betrayer of the Amerindian civilization from which she came.

Fleet, Robert. Last Mountain. New York: Ace/Berkley, 1994.

Kandell, Jonathan. La Capital: The Biography of Mexico City. New York: Random House, 1988.

More complex still is the alternate good-bad charge that La Malinche is the mother of the authentic Mexican people, the mestizo, and the conflicting images of how she attained that honor. There is no sign either way that La Malinche was whore or victim. Nor is there indication that she and CortTs purposefully set out to create a new race of Spanish-Indian blood. CortTs was not a great escapist - and La Malinche was silent on the issue. CortTs' pressing of his men to draw Amerindian noblewomen was a practical decision, necessary
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