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Back to Hist 353 Lecture Index page Death of the Aztec Empire, Birth of New Spain I. Defeat of Aztecs - Four key factors

• A. Series of poor harvests weakened empire, society
• B. Arrival of disease (small pox) ravaged population, military, killed leaders
• C. Cortes able to gather allies from Aztec enemies
• Lack of a common identity among "Indians"
• Tlaxcala, ancient enemy of Tenochtitlan, the key ally
• D. Breakdown of Aztec political unity, authority
• 1. To speak is to govern in Aztec world
• 2. Motechuzoma unable to communicate effectively
• 3. His silence an admission of defeat
• 4. Killed by his own people
• 5. Death of Motechuzmoa shatters legitimacy of old political system

II. La Malinche and the Beginnings of Mexican Identity

• A. Who is La Malinche?
• 1. Translator/guide/Political go-between for Cortes
• 2. Her origins are unclear
• a. Given to Cortes as a slave by a Tabascan leader
• b. given name may have be Malinalli
• c. Probably upper class
• d. may have been the first born daughter of a chief
• e. may have been a prisoner of war
• f. perhaps sold into slavery to protect family inheritance
• g. shuffled around -- Normal in pre-spanish Mexican culture to trade women
• B. View of the Conquistadors
• 1. Bore Cortes children
• a. barely mentions her in letters to King
• b. later marries her off to another Spaniard
• c. Mexican literature emphasizes a romantic relationship, but Cortes' actions betray a strategic mindset
• 2. Bernal Diaz had high opinion of her
• a. places her prominently in his account of conquest
• b. This is very unusual for Spanish literature of that age
• 3. Role as translator, guide, go-between, extraordinary for a woman in both Aztec and Spanish culture
• C. Spanish Colonial literature portrayed her as virtuous
• 1. American working for a new culture
• 2. Ready convert to Christianity
• D. Image changes with independence
• 1. 19th-century Mexico saw her as serpent of Eden
• 2. Rejected her as a symbol of Spain
• 3. Stood as Mexican Eve to the Virgin of Guadelupe
• a. Malinche is all that is evil for women - selfish, proud, rejecting, tainted, prostitute
• b. Virgin is all that is good - purity, nurturing, giving, humble, pious
• 4. La Malinche become a symbol of selling out to foreigners - malinchista
• 5. Becomes La Chingada
• a. a symbol of rape of Mexican women by Spaniards
• b. loss of children from Amerindian culture
• 6. Are her actions a sign of subordination learned in slavery, betrayal, or something else?
• a. She was a transferred slave
• b. Not considered wrong in Aztec society for men, married or not, to have sex with slaves -- indeed, seen as normal
• c. Yet came to be regarded as a sexual transgressor against female norm by many Mexicans
• E. Modern views
• 1. Conflicting - regarded as a traitor and founder of Mexican culture
• 2. Octavio Paz (1950)  re-imagines her as a violated mother
• 3. Modern Mexican feminists emphasize her role as mother of mestizos
• 4. Mestizos increasingly reject negative portrayals, as any shame reflects on them
• 5. Symbol of mestizo, mestizaje
• 6. First Latin American woman -- perhaps first Latin American
 

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