Malintzin had an important role in the ancient history and colonization of Latin America. She would come from just a simple girl and slave, to become one of the significant women of the Spanish colonization of the indigenous natives in the New World. She managed to obtain that position by helping translate for the helped for the Spanish conquistadors and Hernando Cortés himself. She was then viewed as a traitor by the indigenous people and her people (Nahua). With minimal and, often, conflicting documentation of Malintzin’s life, historians have found it difficult to piece together her true involvement in the conquest of Mexico. In many ways, Townsend retells the conquest through the eyes of the indigenous people, more specifically Malintzin. …show more content…
Townsend’s argues that Malintzin deserves admiration, not resentment, for her important role in the conquest.
First, it must be addressed that Malintzin fell into the hands of slave traders at a young age. It was difficult to determine the exact circumstances of Malintzin’s enslavement, Townsend examines multiple situations in which female slaves were commonly sold or captured. Malintzin had owed complete loyalty to her former people. Even if the Nahua people did not play a role in Malintzin’s transition into slavery, she was removed from her culture at a rather young age. Townsend also highlights the danger and unpredictability of Malintzin’s predicament as a slave in strangers’ hands. Malintzin could not have predicted the intentions of the Spanish in respect to her future. Hoping to preserve her life and possibly improve her quality of life as a slave, Malintzin made herself useful to the Spanish. Utilizing her knowledge of indigenous language, she audaciously stepped forward to translate between Cortés and Moctezuma, the Aztec ruler. “Malintzin could have remained silent. No one expected her to step forward and serve as a conduit. But by the end of that hour, she had made her value felt” (41). Malintzin’s boldness not only protected her from the Spanish, but also raised her status to that of the nobles. Townsend further validates her opinion of Malintzin by stressing Malintzin’s desire to protect the indigenous
people. Throughout the book Townsend paints a confusing portrait of Malintzin and the indigenous people whom she was concern to help the indigenous people and she used her skills to obtain a better life than the other 19 slaves who had been given to Cortés. She fought for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, attempting to save indigenous lives. This woman does not deserve to be an object of hatred and resentment for the Nahua people and their descendants. There are no clear lines between conqueror and conquered, just like Malinche is neither traitor, nor whore, nor hero. She is just a woman who did the best she could. .
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs:An Interpretation is an outstanding book dealing with investigations into how the Mexica peoples may have veiwed the world in which they lived. From the daily life of a commoner to the explosively, awe inspiring lives of the priests and warriors. Clendinnen has used thoughtful insights and a fresh perspective that will have general readers and specialist readers alike engaged in a powerful and elegantly written interpretation that is hard to put down without reflection upon this lost culture.
As far back as Rigoberta Manchu can remember, her life has been divided between the highlands of Guatemala and the low country plantations called the fincas. Routinely, Rigoberta and her family spent eight months working here under extremely poor conditions, for rich Guatemalans of Spanish descent. Starvation malnutrition and child death were common occurrence here; rape and murder were not unfamiliar too. Rigoberta and her family worked just as hard when they resided in their own village for a few months every year. However, when residing here, Rigoberta’s life was centered on the rituals and traditions of her community, many of which gave thanks to the natural world. When working in the fincas, she and her people struggled to survive, living at the mercy of wealthy landowners in an overcrowded, miserable environment. By the time Rigoberta was eight years old she was hard working and ...
9. Palmer, Colin A. Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
...Marina, Cortes Translator." Women in World History : MODULE 6. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.
In the first part of the document, Cortés and his men spend their time at Montezuma's palaces. Seeing the extravagant wealth of the Aztec king, Cortés begins his seduction (all the while knowing that Montezuma believes that he may be the fulfillment of a prophecy). He embraced Montezuma with the greatest reverence and "…told him that now his heart rejoiced at having seen such a great Prince, and that he took it as a great honour that he had come in person to meet him and had frequently shown him such favor" (World History: Castillo, 247). Cortés and his men are brought into the house of Montezuma and all of his riches are now at their disposal to observe and share in. Montezuma tells Cortés: "Malinche you and your brethren are in your own house…" (World History: Castillo, 247). The wealth of Montezuma is magnificent. Each soldier is given tw...
However, what words are being told in the Codex Mensoza 1964, Lám (Brumfiel 1991: 224) and more importantly what influential role did the Spanish heritage have in the artifacts? These credentials were offered as a form of recognition of Aztec women’s productive activities in Mexico. Nevertheless, Bromfiel paints a different picture of the Aztec women. In these sketches, Brumfiel draws our attention to the background in which the women are performing their “productive activities.” At first glance, these images portray Aztec women.
Over the past few decades, research on women has gained new momentum and a great deal of attention. Susan Socolow’s book, The Women of Colonial Latin America, is a well-organized and clear introduction to the roles and experiences of women in colonial Latin America. Socolow explicitly states that her aim is to examine the roles and social regulations of masculinity and femininity, and study the confines, and variability, of the feminine experience, while maintaining that sex was the determining factor in status. She traces womanly experience from indigenous society up to the enlightenment reforms of the 18th century. Socolow concentrates on the diverse culture created by the Europeans coming into Latin America, the native women, and African slaves that were imported into the area. Her book does not argue that women were victimized or empowered in the culture and time they lived in. Socolow specifies that she does her best to avoid judgment of women’s circumstances using a modern viewpoint, but rather attempts to study and understand colonial Latin American women in their own time.
Today in Mexico, the word “malinche” or “malinchista” is used to describe a person who betrays his or her own people. This term has its origins on the name of the Native American woman, la Malinche or Doña Marina. She played an important role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. La Malinche became Hernan Cortez’s translator, advisor, and lover during the conquest period. Her knowledge of Mayan and Nahuatl languages gave Cortez the necessary tools to conquer the Aztec empire.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...