She may also have had very little affection for the society that had allowed her to be enslaved and ruthlessly exploited when she was still a child. She had to serve the interests of her master, or risk death at his hands.
But this interpretation of Malitzen’s actions ignores one key fact: throughout the conquest, no matter how much power she seemed to wield, Malitzen was a slave. In modern Mexican culture, her nickname, La Malinche, has become synonymous with deceit and betrayal.
Some view her as a woman who single-handedly brought about the doom of her people to advance her own interests. With her help, Cortés was able to kill the Aztec leader and end the rule of the Aztec Empire, ushering in a new era of Spanish domination. Her work was so vital that Cortés himself once remarked to a comrade that, next to God, Malitzen was the most important factor in his success.Īnd yet, Malitzen’s rise came at a high cost to the Native people of Mexico. She participated in all of the major events of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, through the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521.
She uncovered plots to betray the Spanish, giving Cortés time to stop them before their enemies did any serious damage. With Malitzen’s help and guidance, Cortés was able to make alliances with tribes who were tired of Aztec rule. She appears in every illustration of Cortés meeting with Native leaders and nobility, and is sometimes even shown negotiating with leaders on her own. Montezuma, the ruler of the Aztecs, addressed all of his official correspondence with the Spanish to her. She was so important in negotiations between the two groups that “Malitzen” became the word used to refer to Cortés as well. It was at this time that the Aztec community began calling her Malitzen, a combination of her birth name with a Nahuatl honorific. In recognition of her position within Cortés’s forces, his followers began to address her with the title Doña, an honorific meaning “lady” that was not usually used for enslaved women. At first, Malitzen was paired with a Spanish priest who could speak Yucatec, but she quickly learned Spanish so she could serve as Cortés’s only interpreter.ĭuring Cortés’s conquest of the Aztec Empire, Malitzen served at his right hand. He needed her language skills to speak with the various Native leaders he would encounter during his conquest. It was not long before he realized that Malitzen was fluent in the two major languages of the Yucatan Peninsula, and took her back as his personal slave. Cortés gave Malitzen to one of the noblemen who served under him.Ĭortés had come to the area with the intention of conquering the Aztec Empire. The women were baptized by Catholic priests who traveled with Cortés, and each was given the European name Marina. Malitzen was one of the women given to Cortés. When he arrived at the city of Pontonchan, the city leaders gave him twenty enslaved women as a peace offering. In 1519, Malitzen’s life was forever changed by the arrival of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. During her travels, she became fluent in both Yucatec and Nahuatl, the languages of the Mayan and Aztec people. Malitzen was sold a few times during the early years of her enslavement, and traveled around the Yucatan Peninsula. She may have been rented to men as a sex slave. She labored in the homes of those who owned her, cooking, cleaning, and performing any other domestic tasks she was assigned. But it is certain that she was enslaved at a young age and moved away from her childhood home.Īs an enslaved girl, Malitzen had no control over the work she was forced to do. It is not known whether she was sold by her family or kidnapped, because every historical text about her life tells the story differently. When she was eight or nine years old, Malitzen was enslaved. Malitzen must have been an outspoken child, because when she was still young her family added Tenepal, which means “one who speaks with liveliness,” to her name. Her parents named her Malinalli, after the goddess of grass. She grew up in a region of the Yucatan Peninsula where the Mayan and Aztec Empires both had influence, though neither had complete control. Malitzen was born around the year 1500, the eldest child of Mexican Amerindian nobility.
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