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?