Traitor, Survivor, Icon

Malinalli—one of the most important women in the history of the world, whose lived experience is pieced together from other's words and not her own—is the focus of this exhibition catalog. The rich visual collection included in this publication reflects the formidable amount of work necessary to bring together five centuries of herstory, countering official attempts to erase Malinalli's participation in the eventual success of Hernando Cortés's military campaign against the Mexica-Tenochca, at the time the most powerful governing body in North America. Despite disagreements in the historiography—for example, whether Malinalli was eight or sixteen years old—a careful read of this volume amplifies the facts that Malintzin was a child the first time she was taken captive, that she was again taken by the Spanish, and that she was moved around as an object at a very young age. Even her name is an issue for debate in the absence of her own voice. (I have chosen Malinalli to acknowledge her Indigenous calendrical name and Malintzin in honor of her status.) Malintzin's agency in the face of captivity should impress on the analytical reader that she acted not only in self-defense but also in defense of her people in the decade that Spanish men used her to their advantage. Thus, “La Malinche” is a term that can carry with it negative associations, particularly in Mexico, where this history unfolded.Who calls Malintzin a traitor, and why? How was she able to survive multiple transgressions against her humanity, her body, and her autonomy? What does the visual representation of her story teach us? The exhibition catalog moves these issues forward through texts and art divided into five sections: “La Lengua/The Interpreter,” “La Indígena/The Indigenous Woman,” “La Madre de Mestizaje/The Mother of a Mixed Race,” “La Traidora/The Traitor,” and “‘Chicana’: Contemporary Reclamations.” The sections begin with texts by respected scholars in the fields of ethnohistory, history, Chicana/o studies, Indigenous American studies, art history, and literature. The essays are methodologically sound and reflect the most recent scholarship, which help us conclude that the collective memory about the life of Malintzin is flawed.The introduction by the curators, Victoria I. Lyall, Terezita Romo, and Matthew Robb, provides necessary context that clarifies the divergent perspectives that inform this study. They remind us that because Malintzin lived in captivity and left no records of her own, there are many ambiguities in her story. Consequently, “historians, artists, writers, and politicians have been free to project their own agendas onto her” (p. 3). The facts we do know about Malintzin—that she was multilingual, intelligent, brave, and diplomatic—have been overshadowed by the negative labels placed on this young woman who was also a mother. At the time of her death, caused by disease brought from Europe, her two children, Martín and María, were less than ten years old (p. 2).The scholarly essays in this collection provide important reassessments of the contradictory (and often misogynist) views of those who imagined Malintzin's persona and intentions while promoting her ill repute. For example, Alicia Gaspar de Alba's essay dutifully dissects the ways in which the word Malinchista has been used in the border culture of El Paso, Texas, and within the Mexican American community in relation to their various identities and ties to Mexico. Camilla Townsend's detailed study of Nahuatl texts called xiupohualli, or “year count,” reveals the overlooked place of Malintzin in Indigenous communal histories, in which male oral historians demonstrate empathy for her and consideration for her efforts in peacemaking. Karen Cordero Reiman analyzes the influence of Chicanas on twenty-first-century Mexican artists, whose theoretical and aesthetic frameworks employed the legacy of Malinche to shed light on contemporary women's issues “as a protest to the misogyny and androcentrism they experienced” (p. 145).Readers across fields in both the humanities and social sciences will benefit from this study, and the aesthetically pleasing visuals provide many moments for thought and conversation. Even though the US, Chicana, and Anglophone perspectives dominate over the Mexican, Spanish, and Spanglish entries, there is an attempt to lessen the linguistic challenges inherent in fully appreciating such a complex topic. Essays by renowned Mexican writers are included, such as “Los hijos de la Malinche” by Octavio Paz, an excerpt of which appears in English without the Spanish original, while Rosario Castellanos's poem “Malinche” is presented in Spanish with an English translation.Still, reading this publication as a scholar of Indigenous descent, I believe that those of us who benefit from Indigenous cultural heritage have certain responsibilities. Certainly, I would have hoped that this worthwhile project (with its public exhibition) could have been made more accessible to people in Mexico, where the life of Malintzin unfolded. A Spanish version of this catalog would be most welcome. But even more important, I see a missed opportunity here to include the views of Indigenous women in Mesoamerica, who still—and most directly—continue to bear the burden of Malintzin's history. Indigenous women are still grossly underrepresented in academic spaces. I cannot help but feel that conversations about them are incomplete without also hearing their voices. Notwithstanding this, Malinalli's legacy is palpable in the bibliography. This catalog and its many contributions make it a necessary resource on the life of an icon in Latin American history

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