Letras Hispanas Volume 15

Title: Dueling Portrayals of La Malinche in Twenty-First Century Mexican Historical Fiction Author: Julee Tate Email: [email protected] Affiliation: Berry College; Department of Foreign Languages; EVA 206 B; 2277 Martha Berry Hwy NW; Mount Berry, GA 30149 Abstract: La Malinche, the indigenous adolescent who served as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and concubine during the Conquest of the Aztec Empire, is a foundational figure in the Mexican cultural imaginary who continues to inspire literary explorations of her life nearly five centuries after her death. This article explores her characterization in two recent Mexi- can historical novels: Malinche (2006) by Laura Esquivel and Isabel Moctezuma (2008) by Eugenio Aguirre. These novels naturally enter into an intertextual conversation with other texts written about Malinche in the extensive bibliography of works that hypothesize about her life and perspectives. I argue that the key textual interlocuter for both novels is Octavio Paz’s influential essay, “Los hijos de la Malinche” (1950), in which he solidifies her reputa- tion as “La Chingada,” or the passive, yet violated, symbolic mother of mestizo Mexico. I further contend that Esquivel and Aguirre engage with Paz’s pronouncement on Malinche in starkly different ways, yet both aspire through their novels to help her mestizo children reconcile with their symbolic lineage. Keywords: Malinche, Octavio Paz, Laura Esquivel, Eugenio Aguirre, Isabel Moctezuma Resumen: La Malinche, la adolescente indígena que sirvió de intérprete y concubina de Hernán Cortés durante la conquista del Imperio Azteca, es una figura fundamental en el imaginario cultural mexicano que continúa inspirando exploraciones literarias de su vida casi cinco siglos después de su muerte. Este artículo explora su caracterización en dos novelas histó- ricas mexicanas recientes: Malinche (2006) de Laura Esquivel e Isabel Moctezuma (2008) de Eugenio Aguirre. Estas novelas entran naturalmente en una conversación intertextual con otros textos escritos sobre Malinche en la extensa bibliografía de obras que proponen hipótesis sobre su vida y sus perspectivas. Sostengo que el interlocutor textual clave para ambas novelas es el influyente ensayo de Octavio Paz, “Los hijos de la Malinche” (1950), en el cual se solidifica la reputación de Malinche como “La Chingada,” o la pasiva, aunque violada, madre simbólica del México mestizo. Además, arguyo que Esquivel y Aguirre res- ponden al veredicto de Paz sobre Malinche de maneras completamente diferentes, aunque ambos aspiran a través de sus novelas a ayudar a sus hijos mestizos a reconciliarse con su linaje simbólico. Palabras clave: Malinche, Octavio Paz, Laura Esquivel, Eugenio Aguirre, Isabel Moctezuma Date Received: 6/17/2018 Date Published: 7/3/2019 Biography: Julee Tate is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Berry College. She joined the Department of World Languages and Cultures in 2003 after completing graduate studies in Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University. Her area of specialization is twen- tieth and twenty-first century Latin American literature and culture. She is also interested in service-learning and serves as Faculty Associate of Berry College’s Bonner Center for Community Engagement. ISSN: 1548-5633 38 Letras Hispanas Volume 15

Dueling Portrayals of La Malinche in Twenty- First Century Mexican Historical Fiction Julee Tate, Berry College

Nearly five centuries after her death, the protagonist of his novel, as Esquivel does La Malinche, the indigenous adolescent who in Malinche, Aguirre casts her as la Chingada served as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter and and the antagonist to the noble Isabel. These concubine during the Conquest of the Aztec two starkly different portrayals reflect an un- Empire, continues to capture the imagina- settled debate in Mexican society about Ma- tion of Mexican writers and their readership. linche’s role in the Conquest and her place in She is a figure about whom relatively little is the symbolic lineage of the Mexican people. known, and, over the centuries, a multitude The object of this study is to elucidate the du- of writers have endeavored to fill in the many eling portrayals of Malinche in both novels as blanks left by her contemporaries. One of intertextual interlocutors with Paz’s work as the most influential literary reflections on Esquivel contests and Aguirre confirms her Malinche is the mid-twentieth century essay characterization as la Chingada. by Octavio Paz, “Los hijos de la Malinche” Before embarking on an analysis of the (1950). In it, Paz famously frames Malinche competing portrayals of Malinche in the nov- as “la Chingada,” a passive rape victim who els in question, it seems fitting to offer some aligns herself with the Spaniards during the biographical information on this little under- Conquest of the Aztec Empire, thus earn- stood figure, a task made challenging by what ing her the disdain of her symbolic children: historian Georges Baudot has aptly called “la mestizo Mexicans. Most subsequent publica- parquedad, la pobreza y la fragilidad de la in- tions on Malinche have in one way or anoth- formación disponible” (54). Malinche is the er engaged with Paz’s verdict on her life and mestizo name of the adolescent slave whose ongoing importance in Mexican identity pol- indigenous name is believed to have been itics. Over half a century after the publication Malinalli, or Malintzin (zin being an hon- of Paz’s essay, one might surmise that any orific suffix), and whose Christian name was lingering debate over Malinche’s place in the Marina (Karttunen 292). It is largely thanks Mexican cultural imaginary would have been to the chronicles of one of Cortés’s soldiers, settled. Here, though, I argue that the oppo- Bernal Díaz del Castillo, that we know of Ma- site is the case as can be seen in two of the linche’s pivotal role in Cortés’s expedition. most recent entries into the ever-expanding In Historia verdadera de la conquista de la bibliography of works on her life: Malinche Nueva España, Díaz del Castillo relates how (2006) by Laura Esquivel and Isabel Moct- doña Marina (the name that he invariably ezuma (2008) by Eugenio Aguirre. uses to refer to Malinche) was handed over While Esquivel’s historical novel fo- to Cortés, along with nineteen other young cuses almost entirely on Malinche and re- women, by the Chontal Maya during his sponds to Paz’s accusations with a vigorous march toward Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capi- defense, Aguirre’s novel, as the title suggests, tal. In his chronicles, Díaz del Castillo does focuses primarily on another young indig- what Cortés failed to do in his letters to the enous woman, Isabel Moctezuma, the first- king: he credits Malinche with having played born daughter of the Aztec Emperor, Moct- a crucial role in the enterprise of conquest by ezuma II. Rather than casting Malinche as pointing to her bilingualism as the key to the Julee Tate 39 formation of alliances with indigenous rivals or true feelings. As Mexican feminist scholar of the Aztecs: “sin ir doña Marina no podía- Margo Glantz observes, mos entender la lengua de la Nueva España y México” (76). Without these alliances that [e]n las crónicas españolas, Malinche were made possible by Malinche’s linguistic carece de voz. Todo lo que ella inter- collaboration, Cortés and his men, who were preta, todos sus propósitos se manejan vastly outnumbered, would likely have met por discurso indirecto. (Glantz 124) with annihilation (Restall 84-5). In addition to lauding her linguis- Because of the dearth of verifiable biographi- tic skills and strategic importance, Díaz del cal information about Malinche, it is not sur- Castillo recounts a dramatic tale of riches to prising that many writers have hypothesized rags and back to riches. In short, he relates about her life in their works. Such hypotheti- that Malinche was the firstborn daughter of a cal renderings, however, are colored by the powerful Nahua cacique. As such, her privi- writers’ varying ideological stances with re- leged future should have been assured, but gard to the nature of her role in the Conquest. following her father’s death and her mother’s As Rachel Phillips puts it, those who have remarriage, Malinche’s fortunes changed sought to capture her likeness have essentially dramatically. Her mother abandoned her used her “as an empty vessel ready to be filled with traveling merchants from another tribe by their formulations” (98-99). This is due in in order to assure her son’s (the product of no small part to the fact that because of her her new marriage) noble inheritance, which subaltern status, we have no way of knowing should rightfully have belonged to Malinche. Malinche’s own views of her role. As Matthew Thus at a young age, Malinche is believed Restall reminds us, this historical silence to have gone from minor nobility to slav- ery, possibly at the hands of her own people. has allowed her to become many things to many people: a symbol of While it is impossible to confirm Díaz del betrayal; an opportunistic sexual si- Castillo’s account, it is easy to surmise that ren; a feminist icon; an Aztec goddess however Malinche came to live with the in disguise; the mother of the first Chontal Maya, who handed her over to Cor- mestizo, and thus of the Mexican na- tés, it was because of her existence in different tion; the ultimate rape victim of the indigenous communities that she became bi- Conquest. (86) lingual, a reality that made her indispensable to the Spaniards. In spite of her critical role in Over the past five centuries, depending on the Conquest, very little is known of her life the particular bent of the writer, she has been after the fall of Tenochtitlán. We know that portrayed as all of these characters in literary she bore Cortés a son, Martín, and later was reconstructions of her life. It is doubtlessly given in marriage to one of his officers, Juan this ongoing project that prompts Ricardo de Jaramillo, with whom she had a daughter Vivancos Pérez to affirm that the subject of prior to her death. Historians postulate that Malinche’s role in Mexican history is “un con- she died in 1527 or 1528, but the circum- flicto no resuelto en el seno del imaginario stances of her death are unknown (Karttunen nacional” (113). 309). The roots of this ongoing conflict extend While Díaz del Castillo’s account of Ma- back to the years of the Conquest when indig- linche’s life rescued her from anonymity, it enous artists recorded Malinche’s presence raises as many questions as it answers. In spite in codices. While her position in these artis- of the importance of her spoken words during tic renderings is a privileged one and denotes the Conquest, Malinche herself left us no let- her status and importance (Karttunen 295), ters or testimonies that reveal her perspectives later representations of her were often less 40 Letras Hispanas Volume 15 flattering. This was especially true during and Mexico that condemns Malinche in the eyes after the years of struggle for independence of her symbolic children, the Mexican people: from Spain when Mexicans sought to dis- tance themselves from any identification with Y del mismo modo que el niño no Spaniards or their allies. As Todorov puts it, perdona a su madre que lo abandone para ir en busca de su padre el pueblo mexicano no perdona su traición a la the Mexicans, since their indepen- Malinche. (110) dence, have generally despised La Malinche as an incarnation of the betrayal of indigenous values, of ser- In “Los hijos de la Malinche,” Paz offers vile submission to European culture a literary diagnosis of the root cause of Mexi- and power. (101) cans’ deepest psychic wound—their symbol- ic, unresolved filial relationships: It was the post-independence context of na- tion building, according to Roger Bartra, that La extraña permanencia de Cortés y birthed “la leyenda negra de la Malinche” de la Malinche en la imaginación y (2261), and in that legend she was por- en la sensibilidad de los mexicanos trayed as “Desirable Whore/Terrible Mother” actuales revela que son algo más que (Messinger Cypess 9). This caustic portrayal figuras históricas: son símbolos de un conflicto secreto, que aun no hemos has to varying degrees waxed and waned over resuelto. (111) the past two centuries, but it has never en- tirely disappeared. One would think that after Paz argues that the unresolved internal con- five centuries of intertextual hypothesizing flict with “vestigios del pasado o fantasmas about the role and character of one figure, the engendrados por nosotros mismos” traps verdict would be in about her role in Mexi- Mexicans in shameful solitude (96). He cites can history and present-day identity politics. an understanding of history as important However, as the twenty-first century novels in the process of identifying and confront- that are the focus of this study demonstrate, ing these phantoms, but he is not optimistic she continues to be a divisive and contested about its power to overcome them: “la his- figure whose controversial case remains un- toria podrá esclarecer el origen de muchos settled, at least in the popular imagination. de nuestros fantasmas, pero no los disipará” While all texts written about Malinche (97). Instead, as Norma Alarcón reminds us, naturally enter into an intertextual dialogue Paz and other influential Mexican writers, with other works that have been written like Carlos Fuentes and Rosario Castella- about her, for the purposes of this study it is nos, have proposed that literature is the true important to consider a text that was doubt- agent of change that can propel Mexicans lessly present in the minds of both Esquivel forward in their process of identity negotia- and Aguirre as they wrote their novels: Octa- tion and reconciliation with their symbolic vio Paz’s (in)famous mid-twentieth century heritage: essay, “Los hijos de la Malinche.” In his essay Paz solidifies Malinche’s reputation as “la Ch- In suggesting that their literary pro- ingada,” which he defines as “la Madre abier- duction is a theory of history, these ta, violada o burlada por la fuerza” (103). Paz Mexican writers also appear to sug- emphasizes the passive nature of la Chingada: gest that it is capable of effecting his- “Su pasividad es abyecta: no ofrece resistencia torical changes. (67) a la violación, es un montón inerte de sangre, huesos y polvo” (103). According to Paz, it is These writers implicitly or explicitly point this passive response to the violence visited their readers toward alternative interpreta- upon herself and the indigenous peoples of tions of history in their texts, something that Julee Tate 41

Paz was clearly aiming to do in his essay and own people. She is “vendida,” “esclava,” “ar- that others have endeavored to do in their lit- rojada,” “expulsada.” Likewise, in the play, erary responses to his theory of history vis-à- “El eterno femenino,” Castellanos defies vis Malinche. traditional representations of Malinche as a Since its publication in 1950, “Los hi- traitor, this time by highlighting her nation- jos de la Malinche” has functioned as the less status. The play also counters any ideas primary textual interlocutor of subsequent of Malinche as blinded by infatuation, or as characterizations of Malinche. For some, his Paz suggests in his essay, “fascinada” (110). essay solidified her reputation as a traitor, but In fact, when Malinche’s character is queried for others his work served as a gauntlet that on the topic of her relationship with Cortés, provoked vigorous literary defenses of the she is bewildered and asks, “¿Cuál romance?” woman who was never able to defend her- (92). In Castellanos’s recasting, Malinche is self. In the novels of Aguirre and Esquivel, neither a traitor nor an enamored subaltern. we see examples of both postures: confor- She is a pragmatic survivor, serving her new mity with Paz’s description of Malinche as la master in a way that might best ensure her Chingada in Isabel Moctezuma and a defense own survival, which, of course, is inexorably of her as both victim and powerful mother linked to his. in Malinche. Not surprisingly, Esquivel’s ap- Another important Mexican feminist proach has much in common with that of writer who challenges Paz’s formulation of other Mexican and Chicana feminist writers Malinche is Margo Glantz. In her essayistic who have responded to Paz’s essay by way of reflections she frames Malinche as a savvy and what Elba Birmingham-Pokorny calls “revi- talented survivor who owes loyalty to no one, sions, re-formations, reinterpretations, and save herself. In her aptly titled essay, “Las hijas rewritings” (122). In Malinche, her sixth de la Malinche” (a pointed response to Paz’s novel, Esquivel continues her own trajectory “Los hijos de la Malinche”), Glantz accuses of novelistic productions with a feminist bent Paz not only of participating in a marginaliza- and at the same time joins her voice with that tion of Malinche, but of Mexicans in general. of a chorus of other Mexican and Chicana According to Glantz, from Paz’s perspective, feminist writers who have risen to Malinche’s “ser mujer y mexicana no sólo implica una defense in their works. doble marginalidad, sino también la desapar- Perhaps the most prominent Mexican ición” (298). Basing her arguments in part on feminist writer to take up Malinalli’s cause the chronicles of Malinche’s contemporaries, was Rosario Castellanos, who defends her in Glantz refutes Paz’s assertion that Malinche essay, poetry and dramatic prose. In her es- was—and that women in general are—pas- say on the triumvirate of Mexican feminine sive. She points to the proliferation of female- archetypes, “Otra vez Sor Juana,” Castellanos authored texts in Mexico from the late 1960s points to Malinche as “uno de los persona- onward as evidence that the Mexican woman jes claves de nuestra historia. Traidora la is neither passive nor silent, but rather that she llaman unos, fundadora de la nacionalidad has claimed her voice and seeks her identity otros” (446). In the poem, “Malinche,” Cas- through texts, a privilege that Malinche was tellanos makes clear her position in the de- denied (313). Glantz’s view of Malinche rep- bate by inverting the narrative that Malinche resents a general consensus among Mexican was a traitor to portray her as the betrayed. intellectuals in the second-half of the twenti- She lends Malinche what she was denied in eth century and beyond, as evidenced by the history: a voice. The poem, narrated from host of writers, historians and cultural critics the first-person perspective, recounts the who lent their voices to a defense of Malinche suffering that Malinche endured, not at the in Glantz’s edited volume, La Malinche, sus hands of the Spaniards, but rather of her padres y sus hijos. 42 Letras Hispanas Volume 15

While Mexican feminist writers like of the novel’s portrayal, “[n]ada más alejado Castellanos and Glantz have tended to defend de la madre abierta y violada, retratada por Malinche by portraying her as a victim and as- Paz hace más de cincuenta años” (633). In tute survivor rather than a traitor, the tenden- the same article Estrada makes mention of cy of Chicana feminist writers has been to fo- Eugenio Aguirre as one of the lesser known cus on Malinche not as a victim or an accused authors of Mexican historical fiction whose traitor, but rather as a powerful mother-figure. works, like those of the more widely known As Messinger Cypess notes in her chapter on Esquivel, Chicana feminist writers’ reclaiming of Ma- linche, these women “view themselves as [her] revelan reescrituras históricas auto- symbolic daughters” (142). Their focus is on conscientes, cuyo propósito principal redeeming Malinche by not shying away from es replantear cuestiones de identidad their symbolic lineage since, for them, she is que surgen durante la conquista y si- not a source of shame, but of pride. They reject guen vigentes en el México de nuestra Paz’s assertion that her mestizo children will era. (Estrada 618) not forgive her and instead assert that there is nothing to forgive. Likewise, they reject However, in stark contrast to Esquivel’s ap- his view that they are ashamed of their raped proach, Aguirre seems to use Paz’s essay as mother and instead paint her as a powerful the very basis for his portrayal of Malinche. figure who was not used or raped, but rather She is la Chingada, a complicit victim of an active agent in the birth of a new world. outsiders who forfeits any claim to the title One example of a Chicana feminist response of symbolic mother of the Mexican people. to Paz’s essay is Carmen Tafolla’s poem, “La In his novel, Malinche’s past as a slave of the Malinche,” where she calls her “interpreter, Maya, who was given away by her own peo- advisor and lover,” but not victim. The poem, ple, is never referenced, and she is portrayed narrated by Malinche in the first-person in a manner that is almost indistinguishable voice, mocks the label “la Chingada.” Tafolla’s from Paz’s conception of her in “Los hijos de Malinche is a strong, confident survivor, not la Malinche.” the naïve young woman who Paz claims rep- While Esquivel’s novelistic portrayal of resents all indians who are “burladas” or “fas- Malinche echoes that of both Mexican and cinadas” (110). Instead, like Cortés, she has Chicana feminist writers, Aguirre’s depiction an objective: “Another world... la raza.” This more resembles that of canonical Mexican approach to framing Malinche as the proud male writers who have responded to Paz’s es- mother of a new race of people also forms say with their own nuanced rewritings of Ma- part of the strategy that Esquivel employs in linche. Writers like Carlos Fuentes, Rodolfo her own vindicatory portrayal of the figure. Usigli and Celestino Gorostiza, to mention It is Esquivel’s deployment of both the only a few, primarily harness the medium of Mexican and Chicana feminist defenses of theatre to respond to Paz’s challenge of using Malinche that distinguishes her text from its literature as a vehicle to resolve the inher- predecessors. In her novel, Malinche is both ited conflict with Malinche. InDoña Marina victim and powerful mother-figure, and, in (La Malinche) y la formación de la identidad this sense, “Malinche se sitúa en una posición mexicana, Cristina González Hernández pro- intermedia o mediadora entre las dos tenden- vides summaries and analyses of their works cias feministas, mexicana y chicana” (Vivan- and frames them as efforts toward innovative cos Pérez 121). Esquivel adopts this hybrid reformulations of the Malinche myth, but she approach to distance herself from Paz’s con- concludes that they fall short: “no consiguen demnatory assessment of Malinche, or as Os- su propósito de renovación y, si bien con su valdo Estrada notes in his incisive assessment sello personal, recrean los viejos arquetipos y Julee Tate 43 paradigmas” (164). The same may be said of In Gonzalo, Aguirre’s overt intention is to res- Aguirre, whose characterization of Malinche cue a little-known figure of the Conquest and does not represent “renovación,” but rather to reframe his relationship and children with confirms Paz’s formulation and offers a new a Mayan woman as the true origin of Mexican figure for consideration as symbolic mother: mestizaje. In Isabel, his intention is similar. Isabel Moctezuma. While Isabel has not been the victim of his- In Aguirre’s prolific literary produc- torical character assassination as has Guer- tion, which includes more than thirty novels rero, Aguirre mythologizes her in his novel to that span a breadth of genres including west- replace the figure of Malinche as the symbolic ern, testimonial, mystery and historical (Me- mother of Mexicans. dina 148), the one that bears the most resem- Although Esquivel and Aguirre address blance to Isabel is Gonzalo Guerrero (1980). accusations of Malinche’s treachery in stark- In it, Aguirre explores another vilified figure ly different ways, both offer a solution to the from the Conquest era, Gonzalo Guerrero, a identity issues raised by Paz and subsequent- Spaniard who arrived at the coast of the Yu- ly decried by many scholars as a scapegoat- catán in 1511 as the result of a shipwreck. He ing of the woman who came to be considered was taken captive by a group of Mayans and the mother of mestizo Mexico. According initially lived among them as a slave, though to Zinam and Molina, this scapegoating is he eventually married and had children with to blame for “the negative self-image” and a Mayan woman. His assimilation into the “so-called ‘burden of heritage’ which tor- Mayan culture was so complete that he not ments some Mexicans and Chicanos up to only refused to join Cortés’s expedition, but the present time” (4). Both novels attempt to also fought against the Spaniards and was lighten this burden of heritage, but in radi- killed in battle (Medina 148). In his novel, cally distinct fashions. Esquivel’s novel might Aguirre contradicts texts from the Conquest be called a practice in apologetics as she tries and Colonial eras that paint Guerrero as an to humanize the mother-figure who is more antihero or traitor: myth than woman and defend her actions as those of a subaltern who finds ways to navi- La novela revisa esta posición, y Gon- gate untenable realities in order to survive the zalo Guerrero representa un luchador Conquest. Aguirre’s goal, on the other hand, temerario, padre de familia dedicado is to present these tormented Mexicans and y hombre muy honesto. (Medina 154) Chicanos with an alternative to Malinalli in the form of Isabel Moctezuma. Aguirre pres- Aguirre mythologizes Guerrero as a noble ents Isabel as the legitimate symbolic mother warrior who defends his adopted homeland of Mexicans because she was the daughter of and, significantly, displaces Cortés as the sym- an Aztec emperor, not a slave whose noble bolic father of mestizo Mexico. This project of ancestry was lesser and never verified. displacement extends to Malinche, as well, as Both novelists have been candid in in- she is replaced by Guerrero’s Mayan wife: terviews about the motives behind their char- acterizations of Malinche (whom they refer Gonzalo Guerrero brinda una versión to primarily as Malinalli in their novels). For diferente a la de los discursos de la his part, Aguirre openly reveals that Isabel Conquista al trazar el origen del mes- tizaje a Gonzalo Guerrero y su esposa is Malinalli’s “antítesis ética” in the novel en vez de a Hernán Cortés y la Malin- (La Jornada). He goes on to describe Isabel che. [...] [E]sta historia de amor y de as “una mujer activa, de convicciones, infor- heroísmo reemplaza la de violación mada, una princesa Mexica con una amplia asociada con Cortés y la Malinche. educación, arraigada en su cultura” (La Jor- (Medina 158) nada). Meanwhile he portrays Malinalli as 44 Letras Hispanas Volume 15 the counterpoint to these laudable qualities. While Esquivel’s tack is radically different For each of Isabel’s good and noble char- than that of Aguirre, she also aspires to more acteristics, Malinalli has a correspondingly than simply another retelling of Malinche’s bad character flaw. While many writers role in the conquest; she too hopes to inspire have sought ways to rescue and redeem the Mexicans to reject an inferiority complex memory of Malinche from her scapegoating, birthed of myths and misplaced blame: “más Aguirre continues with the process and uses que la reivindicación de un personaje es la re- her as the antagonist to Isabel who, according valoración de todo lo que somos los mexica- to Aguirre, “merecía una novela histórica para nos” (La Jornada). reivindicarla a ella y a otras mujeres como una One way that Esquivel writes toward imagen positiva de lucha” (La Jornada). Ironi- repairing Malinche’s tarnished reputation cally this is precisely the language that many (and the psyches of her children) is by fo- Mexican and Chicana feminist writers use to cusing parts of the novel on her early life as talk about their portrayals of Malinche, who is a slave who was given away multiple times. not the beneficiary of any measure of vindica- This approach distinguishes her novel from tion in Aguirre’s novel. Instead, she is the her- Aguirre’s, in which all details of Malinalli’s oine’s monstrous double, and the clear mes- early life are conspicuously absent. In Isabel, sage is that she should be cast aside in favor of Malinalli’s first appearance is in Tenochtitlán Isabel who holds the key to easing any burden and information about her history, includ- of heritage created by the Conquest. For Agu- ing how she came to be part of the Span- irre, Isabel (significantly, not Malinalli) iard’s expedition, is never brought to light. Esquivel, on the other hand, recounts Ma- es símbolo de mestizaje, de la resis- linalli’s life from birth onward, dedicating tencia cultural, pero también, pasados time to describe her special relationship with los siglos, bien podría sintetizar la ne- her paternal grandmother and highlighting cesidad urgente de reconciliación de the rejection and abandonment that she suf- los mexicanos contemporáneos con- sigo mismos. (La Jornada) fers at the hands of her mother, who, in ac- cordance with Díaz del Castillo’s version of Esquivel has expressed similarly lofty events, turns her daughter over to traveling goals with regard to her novelistic represen- merchants (124). In these pages, interlaced tation of Malinche. However, in Malinche, throughout the novel, the reader comes to instead of dismissing her as an irredeemably know a sensitive and intelligent child whose flawed mother who must be replaced, Es- sense of loss is at times overwhelming. It is quivel proposes seeing her as a complicated clear from the outset that Esquivel’s intention figure who struggles to survive while being is to present Malinalli as “a sympathetic and true to herself. The novel portrays a woman complex figure” (Gillespie 178), and that the who is intelligent, sensitive, deeply spiritual purpose of the novel is that of “distancing her and innocent of betrayal. Instead of placing from the cultural icon and historical stigma the blame for any burden of heritage on Ma- of la chingada” (Gillespie 193). linche, Esquivel proposes a reexamination of As Esquivel’s Malinalli matures into a society that would shift blame to an adoles- an adolescent in the hands of her Mayan cent slave for the fall of an empire: masters, she is portrayed as introspective, religious and a farmer at heart. She spends La Malinche no fue una traidora ni her days tending a garden, reminiscing existía el concepto de nación, es un about her grandmother and communing absurdo. Pero, ¿qué nos lleva a querer with the gods (16). Esquivel uses the space culparla? ¿Qué no nos perdonamos of Malinalli’s reflections to show her pro- para culparla a ella? (La Jornada) tagonist’s pride in the expressions that she Julee Tate 45 associates with indigenous culture, including Chicano peoples to embrace, rather than re- the detailed and symbolic embroidery of her vile, their symbolic mother (13). Esquivel goes huipil and the sacred Mayan and Mexican about refuting the characterization of Ma- calendars (39-41). Once she is handed over to linalli as greedy and ambitious in two ways. the Spaniards, Malinalli continues to express First, she frames Malinalli’s personal goals as delight in the indigenous world. In Tenoch- humble in nature: “Lo que más deseaba, era titlán, she slips away from the palace in order tener un trozo de tierra que le perteneciera to wander in the vast marketplace where she y en donde pudiera sembrar sus granos de marvels at the exquisite artwork and revels in maíz” (66). A second refutation comes in the the smells of the seemingly limitless culinary form of Malinalli’s repeated condemnations of options (127-28). These interjections serve to the greed of the Spaniards: “el interés que los counter the accusation that Malinalli viewed españoles y Cortés en particular, mostraban Spanish culture as superior to the indig- por el oro, no le parecía correcto” (68). Rather enous cultures of Mexico, a belief so deeply than focusing on access to power and fortune, ingrained in Mexican society that it became Malinalli’s thoughts in the novel are almost in- part of the popular lexicon, with the term variably oriented toward her painful past, her malinchista being used to describe a person faith and her uncertainty about her role in the who esteems foreign things above all things Conquest. Mexican (Paz 110). Rather than ambition for wealth and In addition to making the point that status, Malinche proposes alternative mo- Malinalli does not favor the accoutrements tivations for Malinalli’s participation in the of Spanish culture over her own, Esquivel’s Conquest: self-preservation and freedom. Malinalli does not abandon her faith for Ca- The Malinalli of the novel expresses loyalty tholicism, but rather adopts the latter as an- to neither the Spaniards nor the Aztecs, but other manifestation of the pantheon of Aztec rather to herself: gods. In a transcultural take on her new faith, Malinalli accepts conversion because she be- Lo más preocupante para Malinalli, lieves that the Christian god is Quetzalcoatl independientemente de si los españo- in another guise and likewise that the Virgen les lograban su propósito de derrocar Mary is a new manifestation of the maternal a Moctezuma o no, era que su vida y su libertad estaban en juego. (69) Aztec deity, Tonantzin (44-45). As if these explanations were not sufficient to the task, Malinalli is aware of her power to help or in an internal monologue Malinalli directly hinder the Spaniards, and she is simultane- refutes the accusation that her conversion ously aware that her fate is inextricably tied was a betrayal: “En ningún momento había to theirs because of her position as a slave. traicionado sus creencias” (50). Much like the indigenous enemies of the Az- Another accusation that Esquivel di- tecs who allied themselves with the Spaniards rectly addresses in her novel is that Malinalli’s against Moctezuma, Malinalli has no loyalty primary motives for helping the Spaniards to the monarch, but rather fear of his cruelty. were greed and ambition for power and status. This combined with her own vulnerable situ- (While this is not a characterization that arises ation makes her decision to serve Cortés an in Paz’s essay, it does form part of Aguirre’s easy one: portrayal, as will be seen below.) Esquivel’s de- fense of Malinalli echoes the work of Zinam Conocía perfectamente la crueldad and Molina who insist that “branding her as a de Moctezuma y sabía que si los es- selfish person seeking her own personal grati- pañoles resultaban perdedores en su fication” is “unjust” and that such accusations empresa, ella estaba condenada a la must be refuted in order for the Mexican and muerte. (66) 46 Letras Hispanas Volume 15

In such candid reflections, Esquivel does not is loyal to herself, and she quite rightly under- shy away from addressing aspects of self-inter- stands the success of the Spaniards as a way of est in her portrayal of Malinalli, but she does assuring her own survival. so in a way that makes her protagonist’s deci- Of course, as a Mexican woman, Es- sions seem logical given her circumstances, quivel is well aware that loyalty to oneself thus justifying rather than condemning her. is not sufficient defense for a woman. It is Malinalli’s participation in the Conquest loyalty to her children that is the Mexican (both in the novel and in real terms) can eas- woman’s ultimate defense. Thus Esquivel ily be interpreted as both loyalty to herself and follows a traditional Mexican recipe for vin- to Cortés as a survival strategy. As Camilla dicating Malinche—turning her into a Mari- Townsend points out in her insightful study of anist mother who sees her entire purpose in Malinalli’s life and historical context, maternity:

[s]he did what almost anyone in her Esquivel’s Malinche is less radical than situation would have done. Over- the defiant Malinches of the earlier night, she was accorded a new level of works of many Mexican and Chicana respect; some of the men even began feminist writers. In fact, in the end she to refer to her as doña Marina, just conforms rather well to the Marian- as they referred to noblewomen in ist model of the good, self-sacrificing Spain. (Townsend 42) woman who does all for her children. (Tate 89) In very little time, Malinalli rose from the po- sition of anonymous slave to valued interpret- As Alarcón reminds us, this approach is nec- er. As such, her fortunes unarguably changed essary because by speaking and actively par- for the better, which, as Frances Karttunen ticipating in the Conquest, Malinalli broke all reminds us, might well have inspired true loy- cultural taboos, and the only possible vindi- alty toward the Spaniards, if only for reasons cation is to use her voice to speak up in de- of self-preservation: fense of her children:

By all reports, she saw her best hope of To speak independently of her mater- survival in Cortés and served him un- nal role, as Malintzin did, is viewed in waveringly. Rather than the embodi- such a society as a sign of catastrophe, ment of treachery, her consistency for if she is allowed to articulate her could be viewed as an exercise in total needs and desires she must do so as a loyalty. (304) mother on behalf of her children and not of herself. (63) Moreover, according to Townsend, there was no one for Malinalli to betray, least of all Esquivel’s Malinalli conforms with this so- Moctezuma: cietal rule by only taking a firm position vis-à-vis Cortés when it involves their child, She could not possibly have harbored Martín. She does not stand up to Cortés any loyalty to Moctezuma or desire to shield him from these well-armed for herself or for any of his victims along newcomers. Any assertion that she the way to victory in Tenochtitlán, but she should have entertained such feelings is finally willing to do so in defense of her would literally have confused her. child. It is Cortés’s insistence that she sepa- (42) rate from Martín in order to accompany him on yet another expedition that prompts Thus it makes perfect sense in the narrative Malinalli to assume agency and demand thread of Esquivel’s novel that her protagonist respect for the needs of her child, the only Julee Tate 47 demands that a woman may make without Malinche urges the Mexican people to make societal censure. amends with their symbolic mother who, in At the end of Malinche, Malinalli’s the- the novel, sees them as her raison d’être. In sis about her life is that her purpose and the addition to proclaiming her children the pur- purpose of the conquest were to usher in a pose of her role in the conquest, Malinalli’s new people, the Mexican people: parting declaration engages directly with “Los hijos de La Malinche” since “la sole- Ellos, que no pertenecen ni a mi mun- dad” is one of the consequences of Mexican do ni al de los españoles. Ellos, que orphanhood, according to Paz (112). By im- son la mezcla de todas las sangres— ploring her children to be fearless and not la ibérica, la africana, la romana, la to feel alone, Esquivel’s Malinalli challenges goda, la sangre indígena y la sangre del medio oriente—ellos, que junto Paz’s fatalistic viewpoint and urges her chil- con todos los que están naciendo, son dren to shed the last vestige of shame, as she el nuevo recipiente para que el ver- herself does in the novel. dadero pensamiento de Cristo-Quet- While the Malinalli of Esquivel’s novel zalcóatl se instale nuevamente en los is redeemed by her past suffering, pride in corazones y proyecte al mundo su luz, her culture and, most importantly, mater- ¡que nunca tengan miedo! ¡que nunca nity, Aguirre’s Malinalli is guilty—guilty of se sientan solos! (179) submission to foreign invaders, greed and, at least from the Aztec perspective, treachery. In this closing admonishment to her chil- She is the Pazian version of Malinche come dren, Malinalli exalts mestizaje, both racial to life in historical fiction. As Aguirre stated and cultural, and declares herself the proud in the previously cited interview, she is the mother of a new people. This symbolic ma- “antítesis ética” of the titular character, Isa- ternal role is almost universally accepted by bel. All of the good qualities that define Isabel scholars, though, as anthropologist Cristina find their opposite in Malinalli. This antago- González-Hernández points out, Malinalli’s nistic portrayal of Malinalli has roots that go place in Mexican history remains compli- far back in Mexican history. In fact, Alarcón cated: has suggested that there is sufficient evidence in Mexican and Chicano folklore to conclude se trata de un ser que se ha instala- that Malinalli was reinvented as the “mon- do en la memoria colectiva como un strous double” of the Virgen of Guadalupe, símbolo maldito y ambivalente: es el “especially when she is viewed as the origina- arquetipo de la traición a la patria y al tor of the Mexican people’s fall from grace mismo tiempo la madre simbólica de los mexicanos, el paradigma del mes- and the procreator of a ‘fallen’ people.” Alar- tizaje. (41) cón concludes that in this binary of Mexican identity, Guadalupe came to represent the In Malinche, Esquivel privileges Malinalli’s Virgen Mary, while Malinalli came to be seen maternal role over other contested aspects as the embodiment of Eve (58). of her story and frames it as the redeeming In “Los hijos de la Malinche,” Paz facet of her biography. As Ryan Long puts it, brings a similar binary to bear in his explora- tion of Mexican identity vis-à-vis Malinche: Esquivel’s novel transforms Paz’s mi- “[p]or contraposición a Guadalupe, que es sogynistic view of “La Malinche” as la Madre virgen, la Chingada es la madre traitor into the affirmative construc- violada” (110). According to Paz, it is Ma- tion of Malinalli, a symbol of recon- linche’s willing victimhood, her passivity and ciliation and unity, of honorific mes- her sexuality, that condemn her in the eyes tizaje. (204) of her mestizo children. In his formulation, 48 Letras Hispanas Volume 15 which echoes that of many before him, Ma- as a warrior and who lived most of her life, linche consorts with the enemy, and her ac- not as a princess, but as a subject of the Span- tions lead to the downfall of her own race of ish crown. Historical documents testify to people. This, of course, is the same judgement her devotion to the Catholic Church and leveled against Eve who was seduced by the marriages to three Spanish husbands, with serpent and whose actions led to the downfall whom she had five children, yet inIsabel , her of mankind and their expulsion from Para- conversion is framed as a survival strategy dise. As is often said of the treatment of Eve and at the end of her life she returns to and in the Judeo-Christian creation myth, Ma- embraces her indigenous roots. linche is framed as the villain to distract from Aguirre ignores and contradicts his- the ignominious defeat of the Aztec Adam, torical accounts of both Malinche and Isabel, or, as Roger Bartra puts it in La jaula de la but to different ends. As regards Malinche, melancolía, “[e]n nuestro edén subvertido— his narrative intention is to paint her in a habitado ya por un Adán agachado—hacía negative light, while he clearly writes in fa- falta una Eva mexicana” (2323). Both Eve and vor of Isabel and advocates for her as a su- Malinche are often portrayed as tainted and perior mother-figure. For instance, inIsabel , ignoble mothers who find their opposites in Tecuichpo becomes a warrior and fights holy virgin mothers, the Virgen Mary and the alongside Aztec men in several battles during Virgen of Guadalupe, respectively. In a chap- the Spanish siege of Tenochtitlán. However, ter titled, “A la chingada,” Bartra also sees la there is evidence to the contrary that indi- Malinche y Guadalupe “como dos encarna- cates that her importance as heir to Moct- ciones de un mismo mito original” (2082), ezuma would have meant that she would not or, as he more memorably puts it, “la Chin- have been risked in battle. As Inga Clendin- galupe” (2364). nen reminds us in Aztecs, “[w]omen were In Aguirre’s novel, another Manichean handed about to cement alliances” (157). In binary is established: that of Isabel/Marina or the case of Tecuichpo, we know that she was Tecuichpo/Malinalli. Malinalli is portrayed married at least twice to Aztec noblemen pri- as the monstrous double of the Aztec prin- or to the fall of Tenochtitlán—to her uncle, cess whom she displaces temporarily as the Cuitláhuac, and her cousin, Cuauhtémoc, most powerful indigenous woman in the (Chipman XX). It is clear that both marriages New World. Aguirre’s Tecuichpo (Isabel’s were politically motivated and intended to Aztec name) is portrayed throughout the insure the smooth transfer of power since novel as loyal to her roots, noble in character Tecuichpo was Moctezuma’s first-born le- and dignified in her interactions with Cortés, gitimate child. in spite of being raped by him and, like Ma- Another point in the novel that contra- linalli, bearing him a child. Meanwhile, Ma- dicts historical evidence is the contention that linalli is portrayed as la Chingada who dis- Isabel’s conversion to Catholicism is a sur- honors herself in her alliance with outsiders vival strategy rather than a sincere embrace and is debased by her relationship with Cor- of her new faith. In reality, there is evidence tés. While Aguirre perpetuates a Pazian myth to suggest that Isabel’s conversion was indeed of Malinche, he constructs a new mythology sincere. Unlike in the case of Malinche, where around Isabel who, as a little-known figure, we have no historical documents that reveal does not carry the centuries of baggage that to us her loyalties or feelings from her per- come with Malinche and her surrounding spective, in the case of Isabel, we have access myths. Isabel is tabula rasa that Aguirre uses to her last will and testament, a document in to write a new story of Mexican lineage. It is which she bequeaths a fifth of her wealth to a story about an Aztec warrior princess who the church (Sagaón Infante 755-56). There does not appear in any lienzos or chronicles are also records that show that such largesse Julee Tate 49 preceded her death. According to historian adopts. While Malinalli arguably took the Charles Gibson, her contributions to the same approach, the novel does not grant her church were so exorbitant that the Augustin- any measure of clemency. The first mention ians asked her to restrain her generosity. Such of her serves to show that she is viewed by the liberality, which appears to have been “wholly Aztec nobility as deceitful and vile, as dem- voluntary” (Gibson 124-25), likely reflects a onstrated by Cuitláhuac’s (Moctezuma II’s sincere devotion to her new faith. In Isabel, brother) warning, regarding her and Cortés: however, she reflects upon her new faith as one that was imposed by conquerors and accepted —¡Pídele que no se deje engañar de by the conquered as a survival strategy (1073). nuevo por las argucias y zalamerías While she expresses gratitude to certain frailes de Malinche ni por las intrigas de su for their role in her education, Aguirre’s fic- lengua y compañera Malinalli! (607) tional account dismisses the idea of any true conversion of faith, and, in the closing pages of (Cortés was referred to by the indigenous the novel, Isabel casts off the name assigned to peoples as Malinche because of her role as his her upon her conversion to Catholicism and interpreter.) Tecuichpo similarly condemns reverts to her indigenous name. Malinalli as untrustworthy and dismisses her Another, and perhaps the most telling, diplomatic efforts as further evidence of her act of historical revisionism in Isabel is Agu- perfidy: “Malinalli, ducha en el arte de enga- irre’s treatment of Isabel’s relationship with ñar, tradujo sus palabras de tal manera que Leonor Cortés Moctezuma, her daughter no ofendiesen al huey tlatoani” (4170). The with Cortés. Isabel’s last will and testament distrust of Malinalli and her conflation with reveals that she disinherited Leonor and di- Cortés are key factors in her characterization vided her assets solely between her legitimate in the novel and contribute to her condition children. (Sagaón Infante 756). We also know as Tecuichpo’s monstrous double since, as from historical record that Leonor was raised Alarcón asserts, by a cousin of Cortés and likely had no con- tact or relationship with her mother (Sagaón [i]n the eyes of the conquered (op- pressed), anyone who approximates Infante 755). In the novel, however, Isabel la lengua or Cortés (oppressor), in sends her daughter to be raised by one of her word or deed, is held suspect and lia- sisters—a decision that is portrayed as diffi- ble to become a sacrificial “monstrous cult because of her mixed feelings for Leonor. double.” (59) The implication is that Isabel would have continued to have some kind of relationship From beginning to end, Isabel offers no with her daughter since she was being raised respite in the characterization of Malinalli as by a dearly beloved sister (8033). This revi- a vessel of character flaws. In another warn- sionist history is necessary if Aguirre’s ulti- ing about the dangers posed by Malinalli, one mate goal is to replace Malinche as symbolic of Tecuichpo’s sisters calls her a “prostituta” mother with Isabel. After all, how could Isa- and compares her to a snake in the grass: bel be a superior mother if she rejected her first-born mestizo child? es más peligrosa que la culebra xical- While most of Isabel focuses on the life cóatl cuando engaña a los caminantes of Tecuichpo, or Isabel prior to her conver- con su jícara y, una vez que los tiene sion, the final chapter suggests that she was encandilados, los ahoga. Debemos te- just as noble and praiseworthy as Isabel as ner cuidado con ella. (6787) she was as Tecuichpo. Her assimilation is not portrayed as a betrayal, but rather as a survival Not surprisingly, Tecuichpo does not warm strategy that she reluctantly, yet gracefully, to the woman who essentially displaces her, if 50 Letras Hispanas Volume 15 only temporarily, as the most powerful indig- object that has been given away before and enous woman in Mexico. When she is placed can be given away again: under Malinalli’s authority, she describes the interloper as haughty and disrespectful: ¡Te voy a regalar otra vez a Alonso Hernández Portocarrero para que le Detestábamos la forma altanera con hagas a él tus pucheros! ¡Vamos a ver que nos trataba, sus extravagancias si te quiere de nuevo y si te da lo mis- para hacerse notar y los constantes mo que yo te doy en la cama! (7087) berrinches que hacía cuando se sentía desairada por Cortés o éste destinaba Again, in conformity with Paz’s characteriza- sus requiebros a una nueva manceba. tion of Malinalli as a willing victim, she not (7075) only accepts the abuse but then tries to pla- cate Cortés in a scene recounted by one of Such descriptions paint Malinalli as an arro- Tecuichpo’s sisters: gant, petty and shrill person whose insecuri- ty regarding her fragile position is a defining No, pues se soltó chillando y le pidió characteristic. perdón de rodillas. Luego, se le pren- In addition to being portrayed as dió de la entrepierna y… No, no les treacherous and haughty in the novel, Ma- puedo contar lo que hizo porque es linalli is also described as greedy and singu- demasiado vergonzoso. (7087) larly self-interested. When Cortés demands that Tecuichpo hand over her jewelry, he As is the case with Malinalli’s charac- immediately gives it to Malinalli who ac- terization in general, there is significant di- cepts the gift “con codicia” (4438). This is vergence between the two novels as regards the first of several instances in which Ma- her relationship with Cortés. Since Mexi- linalli covets the riches of the Aztec Empire, can Independence, there has been an exces- and all of her interactions with Cortés are sive interest in Malinalli’s role as Cortés’s portrayed as ways to ingratiate herself with concubine and less interest in her role as the conqueror so that she can share in the his interpreter. As Gladys Ilarregui points wealth of the Conquest. This extends to her out, traditionally the sexual relationship sexual encounters with Cortés, a topic that between the two has been characterized has essentially been an obsession of writ- as a consensual relationship, not rape, in ers over the past two centuries. Perhaps the spite of the fact that historians have gen- most telling sign of Aguirre’s adoption of erally contested this characterization (24). Paz’s declaration of Malinalli as la Chingada Karttunen, for example, is unequivocal in are the sex scenes between Cortés and Ma- her estimation of the sexual relationship linalli: between the two:

La mujer sufría, entre los gemidos y doña Marina’s inevitable fate was babas que arrojaba Cortés, los emba- rape, not the making of tortillas. tes de un sexo que más que prodigar She had absolutely no choice about amor y sensualidad se comportaba whether she would be sexually used, igual que un ariete que arremete con- and very little control over by whom. tra un muro con la intención de ha- (310-11) cerle un boquete. (3763, 3772) In spite of this, Malinalli is ridiculed in Agu- Similarly, in another scene from the irre’s novel as a prostitute and portrayed in novel, Cortés calls Malinalli a “puta desagra- Esquivel’s as if she were a character from a decida,” and he reminds her that she is an romance novel: Julee Tate 51

se enamora perdidamente de Córtes, “bastante joven” (8044), after being married sufre por su indiferencia, y se muestra off by Cortés to one of his captains in what con las contradicciones y los conflic- is described as a drunken orgy because the tos personales de cualquier ser huma- conqueror “ya no sentía atracción alguna” no. (Estrada 630) (7602). This ending echoes Paz’s conclusions about Malinalli: “Es verdad que ella se da vol- Thus Esquivel portrays her as a woman in untariamente al conquistador, pero éste, ape- love while Aguirre’s Malinche is la Chingada nas deja de serle útil, la olvida” (110). Thus who is sexually submissive in order to secure the novel ends with Malinalli being discarded her position. by Cortés since he no longer needs her ser- In Isabel, Malinalli’s submissive pos- vices, linguistic or sexual. With this final in- ture with Cortés is portrayed as pathetic and sult, Malinalli disappears from the novel and undignified, and there is no indication that is not mentioned again. Meanwhile, Isabel her feelings for him go beyond the merce- finds a happy ending with her husband and nary. Tecuichpo and her sisters mock her children, and, in the last years of her life, she pettiness and jealous outbursts, but the im- is fulfilled as a wife and mother. plication is that Malinalli is fearful of losing Ironically, in Malinche, Malinalli expe- her position of privilege, not, as in the case of riences an ending that almost perfectly mir- Esquivel’s novel, that she suffers as a spurned rors that of Isabel in Aguirre’s novel. While lover. Her sexual encounters with Cortés are Aguirre may have intended for Isabel Moct- described as violent and his liaisons with oth- ezuma to be the pioneer of mestizaje, Es- er women are referenced repeatedly. Mean- quivel’s Malinalli proudly and intentionally while, Esquivel (in line with her reputation as adopts this role. In spite of Malinalli’s often a romance writer) represents the relationship contradictory positions in the novel, in the as consensual and, at least in the beginning, end she finds clarity in her role as the mother mutually satisfying. The description of their of children who bridge two worlds. At the first sexual encounter in the novel is material end of her life she is a happy homemaker, liv- worthy of a novela rosa. Malinalli is bathing ing with her two children, Martín and María, in a stream when Cortés happens upon her and her husband, Juan Jaramillo (179). She is and is unable to control his wild desire (76). at peace with herself and sees her life as one Malinalli expresses her own desire for Cortés that birthed a new race. both in the moment and later as she reflects Esquivel and Aguirre offer competing upon the encounter (85). As is often the case counternarratives in their novels. In Ma- in romance novels, the scene includes ele- linche, Esquivel counters the twentieth cen- ments of violence, of which only Malinalli is tury conception of Malinche as la Chingada, victim. On the same page that the narrator while in Isabel, Aguirre confirms Paz’s nar- assures us that the experience was pleasur- rative construction of Malinche and offers able for Malinalli, we are also told that this a counternarrative of mestizaje that centers pleasure is “a pesar de haber recibido esa around Isabel Moctezuma. It is the daughter violencia” (76). While both authors include of Moctezuma, according to Aguirre, who violence in their descriptions, it is clear that holds the keys to freeing mestizo Mexico of Esquivel is harnessing a problematic device the shame and solitude that Paz contends common in romance novels while Aguirre is holds them captive. Aguirre perpetuates the positioning her as la Chingada. myth of Malinche as a source of shameful soli- In keeping with their divergent por- tude and proposes a new myth of noble moth- trayals of Malinalli, the character finds radi- erhood. Esquivel, meanwhile, continues the cally different ends in the novels. The last we work done previously by both Mexican and are told of Malinalli in Isabel is that she died Chicana feminist writers by proposing that 52 Letras Hispanas Volume 15 the best approach to dispelling old myths is Castellanos, Rosario. El eterno femenino. Fondo de through revised mythologies that run counter Cultura Económica, 1998. to the patriarchal myths of the past. For Es- —. “Otra vez Sor Juana.” La diosa de las Améri- quivel, Malinche is a misunderstood blessing, cas, edited by Ana Castillo, Vintage Books, Kindle ed., 2000. while for Aguirre, she is an incurable curse —. Poesía no eres tú. Fondo de Cultura Económica, who must be dismissed and replaced by an 1975. untarnished mythical mother. Chipman, Donald. Moctezuma’s Children. U of As is often the case in works on the life Texas P, 2005. of Malinche, Malinche and Isabel Moctezu- Clendinnen, Inga. Aztecs. Cambridge UP, 1991. ma are novels that promote the ideological Díaz del Castillo. Historia verdadera de la conquis- agendas of their authors. While Esquivel ad- ta de la Nueva España. Linkgua, Ebook, 2009. vocates for Malinche as the rightful mother Esquivel, Laura. Malinche. Atria, 2008. of the Mexican people, Aguirre brings a his- —. Interview by Mónica Mateos-Vega. “Malinche, de Laura Esquivel, se enfila para ser otro éxito torical condemnation of the figure into the editorial.” La Jornada, 6 Apr. 2006. twenty-first century and promotes the adop- Estrada, Oswaldo. “(Des)encuentros (arque)típi- tion of a new and less maligned mother. Such cos con la nueva ficción histórica en Malinche divergent characterizations and the novelistic de Laura Esquivel.” Cien años de lealtad: en rehashing of unresolved issues bring to mind honor a Luis Leal, edited by Sara Poot Her- a verse from a poem written more than four rera, Francisco A. Lomelí and María Herrera- decades ago by Chicana poet Adaljiza Sosa- Sobek, U of California Santa Barbara P, 2007, Riddell about the life of Malinche, a woman pp. 617-37. who lived five centuries ago: “Pinche, como Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule. Stanford UP, 1964. duele ser Malinche.” Gillespie, Jeanne. “Malinche: Fleshing out the Foundational Fictions of the Conquest of Works Cited Mexico.” Laura Esquivel’s Mexican Fictions, edited by Elizabeth Moore Willingham, Sus- sex Academic Press, 2010, pp. 173-96. Aguirre, Eugenio. Gonzalo Guerrero. Lecturas Glantz, Margo. “Doña Marina y el Capitán Ma- Mexicanas, 1986. linche.” La Malinche, sus padres y sus hijos, —. Isabel Moctezuma. 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