La Malinche - The First Translator?

Hello everybody! 

In this post I want to tell you something about the first “real” translator in history and her important role in the conquest of America. My Spanish teacher told us the story of “La Malinche” and since we obviously are all interested in translation, I thought it would be a good idea to share this interesting story with you:

Malinche translating between the Spaniards and a native tribe

Malinche was born sometime around 1500 in a village at the Golf Coast of Mexico. Her parents were members of a noble family which ruled several villages. One day, her father died and soon her mother married again and gave birth to a boy. Her mother, who wanted her son to be the only heir, sold her daughter Malinche to slave traders from another tribe. Her mother, evil as she was, took the dead body of one of her female slaves and told her subjects that Malinche had died and showed them the corpse of her slave. It is not known exactly what happened to Malinche then, but it seems that she was sold and resold again and again. In the end, she came to a Mayan tribe. This tribe was conquered by the Spaniard Hernán Cortés, a famous colonizer and his men. As a sign of respect, the tribe gave Cortés, along with several precious objects like gold and silver, 20 female slaves. One of these slaves was (of course) Malinche.  After the slaves had been baptised, they were given to the soldiers as their mistresses but Cortés soon found out that Malinche had an extraordinary intelligence. Within some months she was able to speak Spanish perfectly. In addition, she could speak several languages that were spoken by the natives of Mexico. She also had a profound knowledge of the habits and traditions of these tribes, which was necessary as the Spaniards never had been in touch with the natives of Mexico before. Due to this, she became the personal intermediary of Cortés. As she was the only person who could speak both Spanish and the language of the natives, Cortés was completely reliant on her. 

Tenochtitlán

With her help as a translator, Cortés was also able to find other native tribes with which he forced up to conquer with them together Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. It had always been Cortés’ goal to conquer Tenochtitlán as this city was famous for its great treasures.  When he arrived there in the year 1520, he took, together with Malinche ,the Atztec ruler Moctezuma hostage. Strangely enough, the Aztecs didn’t react to this since they thought Cortés was a god as they had never seen a human with such a white skin before. After some months, however, the situation escalated and the Aztecs attacked the Spaniards and their women in “La Noche Triste”, the Dark Night. Cortés ordered several of his men to protect Malinche with their lives as he had fallen in love with her – and they had luck. La Noche Triste demandend thousands of lives, but Cortés and his beloved Malinche could survive. 

Two years later, after Cortés had finally been able to conquer Tenochtitlán and defeat the Aztecs, Malinche gave birth to their first child, Martín and she became the most powerful woman in Mexico. She also found her mother again, who feared to be punished by her for selling her as a child to slaves, but Malinche, who was a devoted Christian, forgave her.  Her relationship with Cortés, though, ended when she met Juan Xaramillo de Salvatierra, a high-ranking officer from Cortés’ troop. Soon they married and she gave birth to a daughter, María. (Unfortunately, it is unrecorded how Cortés reacted to this...). What happened to Malinche after that is unknown as she lived a rather simple live with her family.

 

Today, La Malinche is still an important, but controversial Mexican symbol. Many Mexicans worship her as the “Mother of Mexico” since she was the first woman to give birth to mestizos (most of the Mexican population are mestizos, with both European and Native Mexican descendants). Others, on the contrary, see her as a traitor who is responsible for the cruel conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. 

La Malinche - a controversy?

Nepal's Kumari - The Last Living Goddess

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism… no matter which religion you take – they all have either their god or gods and goddesses. But have you ever realised that in every religion they only worship gods that are already dead or even never had been born? Yes, just think of the Christian God: Millions of people all around the world pray for him although he was actually never “born”. Or like the Buddhists who worship Siddhartha Gautama, a man who lived more than 1500 years ago. BUT: There’s one sole religion worldwide that actually worships a living goddess! Here’s the story of the Kumari in Nepal…

The name Kumari derives from Sanskrit and means “virgin” or also “unmarried girl”. Legend relates that some hundred years ago Jayaprakash Malla, a Napalese king, met every night secretly the goddess Durga to play a dice game with her and to discuss the welfare of the country. This happened every night until the king told his wife about the nightly meetings with the goddess. The goddess felt hurt about the king’s betrayal of confidence as he had promised her earlier not to tell anyone. In order to punish him, she disappeared and was reborn in a young girl’s body. From this day on every Nepalese king had to search for this girl and to worship her like the goddess Durga.

The goddess Durga

This tradition has survived until today and still, five Buddhist priests try to find that certain girl which is possessed by the goddess. To find this girl, they search the whole country and examine girls to find the goddess’ qualities in her. Some of the qualities and features they look for are:

• A neck like a conch shell
• A body like a banyan tree
• Eyelashes like a cow
• Thighs like a deer
• Chest like a lion
• Voice soft and clear as a duck's
• Black hair and eyes
• A set of 20 teeth
• Dainty hands and feet

(I've copied this list from Wikipedia!)

This is a picture of a Kumari with her traditional make-up, depicting a "fire-eye" on her forehead.

After having found a girl that meets all these requirements, she has to go through another procedure in order to test her courage. During an important Hindu festival, more than 100 buffalos and goats are scarified and the Kumari candidate has to watch this ritual without showing any fear. In addition to this, she has to spend one night on her own in the same room with the heads of the slaughtered animals. There are also several other tests, that the girl has to undergo. (However, many people claim that nowadays these rituals are not that bloody like they used to be in former times.)

After proving her qualities positively, the girl is chosen to be the new Kumari. From this day on, her complete life changes completely: She’s only allowed to see her family rarely, her playmates are chosen by her caretakers and she’s only permitted to leave her palace in Kathmandu at ceremonial occasions. If she leaves her palace, she’s always carried by servants as her feet should not touch the ground. All her servants and playmates have to fulfil her wishes as they fear to be punished by her or the other gods.

However, this “fairytale-like” life ends with the girl’s first menstruation as it is believed that the goddess escapes the girl’s body when she’s losing blood.   

When returning to their families, the ex-Kumaris have often problems with integrating themselves again as it’s difficult for them to accept being a “normal” person again. At least, since some years the Kumaris receive education while their stay at the palace and have now less difficulties with finding employment. Also the popular superstition that men that marry ex-Kumaris die within some months has been displaced by the proof that the last nine Kumaris and their husbands have reached a high age.    

Shah Dola – The Story of the Rat Children

Have you ever called of the so-called Rat Children of Gujrat?  Every year, thousands of believers pilgrimage to Gujrat, which is a city in the north of Pakistan, where they pray in the Shah Dola shrine for offspring. If their wish becomes true and the woman delivers a baby, the family often returns to the shrine to sacrifice their first-born to the shrine, where it should grow up and dedicate his life to the god Shah Dola.  However, all the children left at the shrine grow up with physical and/or mental abnormalities. Most of them have a deformed head which also gives them the name Rat Children. Why they all have a rat-like face is quite controversy: The people working at the orphanage, where the children are kept, claim that all the children suffer from a genetic defect or a deficiency, while many others say that the deformation is caused deliberately by human intervention. Some scientists argue that the children at the shrine are forced to wear metal caps while they are still young. This does not only cause a deformed head but also might end up mentally disturbed as the high pressure damages the brain of the children. It is also said that the keepers of the shrine often search for disabled children in nearby villages and cities and take them away from their families. 

If not only this was hard enough for the children, they are also forced to beg at the shrine to collect alms, which are needed to finance the orphanage and the shrine. This is the only income (about 700 US $ per week – quite a lot for Pakistan) and also the government profits from it as they have been in control of the shrine since 1996. It may sound cruel but the harder the children’s disabilities are, the more they earn. It’s clear that no one dares to stand up for these poor children since political enemies are often banned from talking in public about the issue (This is also what happened to one of Pakistan’s top scientists, who investigated why the children suffer from such deformities).

 

Of course, life must be hard for the children living and begging at the shrine… But on the other hand, I think their life could be a lot worse as in this country disabled children are often locked up in their rooms because they are seen as a shame for the family… However, I think the government should try to improve the situation at the shrine and offer the children a better life in decent conditions.

„Make the world less boring – be more AWESOME!“

Although last week’s Wednesday seemed to be a perfect day for a picnic in the park, I spent most of the time studying in my room for a Spanish history exam I had the following day – and after some hours I almost freaked out as all the names of Spanish kings and year dates wouldn’t want to stay in my head. The fact that our neighbour’s children were playing happily outside beneath my window and my flatmates were sunbathing on the balcony while I had to fight with the Visigoths and Romans made me feel even more down. I decided to have a little break and to distract myself a bit with the goal to motivate myself more for studying. I listened to some music on Youtube when I had the idea to search for a pep talk to motivate myself. I just tipped “pep talk” into the search engine and this is what I found:

In years and years of television and watching youtube-videos for hours I have never ever found something as touching, cute, humorous and above all truthful.. Don’t you also think that we are all sometimes a little bit boring? That we complain too often about things we are not willing to change? We all have our own dreams, but what do we do to accomplish them? Do we work hard for it? Or do we just wait for something to help us archiving our goals? 

And what the boy is saying about teams… isn’t it true that we are all in the same team? Shouldn’t we try working together instead of hurting and ousting each other?

Of course, sometimes we have loads of unpleasant things to do, not only for university but for life in general, but there’s definitely no reason in complaining about it. We can also look at it from another perspective and be grateful and glad that we live in a country where it’s possible to attend university and where we can all work on reaching or goals no matter about our sex, skin colour or how much your parents earn..

“You got some work to do? You can cry about it… or you can dance about it!”

A visit to the Volkskundemuseum Graz – Exploring or own culture

Yesterday we went as a part of the lecture “Foundations of Cultural Theory”, which I’m doing as a facultative subject, on a little excursion to the Volkskundemuseum to have a closer look at how culture can be presented in a museum. Although I’ve visited quite a lot museums round the world, I have to admit that I’ve never been to any museum in Graz before, so I decided to join the small group of conscientious students – and I do not regret it!

In our guided tour I learned more about Austria, Styria and our culture than I would have thought. The museum is divided into three sections: The first one deals with living and shows the visitors how Austrians used to live more than a hundred years ago. For this, an authentic “Rauchstube” had been attached into the modern building. There are also many other exhibition pieces like chests (also a so-called “wedding chest” was exposed), beds and old wash boards. For me, this part brought nothing new as my grandparents own a little farm with lots of old furniture, similar to the exhibits (well maybe my grandparents’ furniture is not that old and precious ^^).

In the second part of the museum traditional Austrian clothing was shown. And if you think Austrians only used to wear Dirndl and Lederhosen until the 1950s you’re definitely wrong! In a chronological order clothes starting from the Hallstatt age (simple cloaks made of leather) to the Baroque (pompous dresses – but only for the rich!) to the 20^th century were exposed. Our guide, who seemed to be very well-informed, pointed out a few details and explained the story behind them. For example, there was a dress of an entrepreneur’s wife with a thin leather belt. On this belt a key and a small bag with spoons was attached. Our guide told us that until the 20^th century wearing a belt signalised power and wealth and that this woman even wore the key to the pantry and the cutlery on her belt which made her even more powerful in a male-dominated world. 

Then we came to the third part of the exhibition – which was in my opinion the most interesting one as it was about religion and superstition. Our guide showed us different more or less known things connected with believe. What I found especially interesting was the fact that not only objects connected with the Catholic believe but also with Spiritism were shown. . About a hundred years ago, people in Austria did not only go to church to pray there but also believed in natural spirits and witchcraft. If someone was ill, for instance, and couldn’t afford a doctor (which was very likely) his family members didn’t only pray to the Holy Virgin but also tried to help the sick person with amulets made of special animal bones. If someone built a house in those times they also had to give an offering to the earth spirits in order to pacify them. For this reason living (!!!!) animals like cats were often immured in the foundations of a house. They also found a walled-in cat in a building at the Schlossberg some years ago when they were doing some renovation work and our guide told us that scientists proved that the cat had been alive when she was immured. Another object that was, at least in my eyes, a bit scary was a so-called “hair picture”. When a family member died, a coil of his or her hair was cut off. With this hair a picture was made and hang on the wall to commemorate this person. In the museum there was one of those hair pictures of a couple whose three kids died at the same time. It made me feel quite sad when I thought of the family who had to deal with the loss. Nowadays we are at least able to look at photos of passed away family members in order to feel close to them again but as photos were rather expensive in those times, the parents could only keep their children’s hair… 

The visit to the Volkskundemuseum was a great experience and I really learned a lot – not only about specific cultural topics but also that growing up in a country doesn’t imply that you already know everything about its culture and traditions. You definitely never stop learning.. ;)