La Malinche and Inés Suárez

For centuries both women have been reviled as collaborators in Spanish conquests of the new world that verged on genocide. La Malinche was an Aztec turncoat who helped Hernán Cortés conquer Mexico; Inés Suárez was a Spanish seamstress who joined another conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia, in slaughtering the inhabitants of Chile.

Now two of Latin America’s female literary giants, Laura Esquivel and Isabel Allende, have come to the rescue by writing novels casting them as misunderstood heroines who could be role models for today’s women.

Some critics have balked at the revisionism, saying the novels gloss over the rape and savage subjugation that accompanied the 16th century colonial invasions of Central and South America.

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Latin American Literature

Malinche by Laura Esquivel

Some writers learn early in their careers to find a niche, then it’s up to readers to decide if they will embrace it. Such is the case with Laura Esquivel.

She set the tone for a highly respected career in the early 1990s with her first book, “Like Water for Chocolate,” detailing a young girl’s expression of passion through cooking.

That novel sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide, was made into a movie and earned an award from the American Booksellers Association.

Above all, “Chocolate” displayed Esquivel’s knowledge and familiarity with her native Mexico and established her comfort level with magical realism. Her new book, “Malinche,” doesn’t stray from either of those expressions.

“Malinche” is a historical novel about Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes and his translator. The story is a lyrical interpretation of their relationship during Cortes’ destruction of Montezuma’s 16th-century Mexicas empire.

Mallinalli, also called Malinche in the book, is sold into slavery as a child and later becomes Cortes’ interpreter. Cortes and Mallinalli share an intimate relationship that leads to the birth of a child and lends itself to vibrantly written scenes by Esquivel.

You can find the review here

Displaying ambition bordering on recklessness, Laura Esquivel (``Like Water for Chocolate") revisits a tale infamous in her native Mexico but little known north of the border, the story of the slave woman who accompanied Cortés as his concubine and interpreter on his bloody march of conquest across Montezuma's kingdom.

In ``Malinche," Esquivel puts imaginative flesh on the bones of legend. Her Malinalli is not a traitor but an Edenic innocent, an artist and a mystic who believes that the Spaniard Cortés is the reincarnation of the god Quetzalc ó atl, come to rescue her people from their Aztec oppressors.

You can find the review here

La Malinche by Laura Esquivel

Nearly five centuries after she helped Hernan Cortes conquer the Aztec Empire, Malinche is still a controversial figure in Mexican history.

A noble-born child sold into slavery by her mother, she used her unusual ability as a linguist to enable the Spanish to negotiate alliances with the native tribes against the Aztec Emperor Montezuma. As a result, she's reviled as a traitor to her people and, because she was Cortes' mistress and bore him a son, regarded as the symbolic mother of the Mexican people.

In "Malinche," Laura Esquivel, known best for her 1992 best seller "Like Water for Chocolate," reimagines her in this latter role, as a deeply devout woman caught in a clash of civilizations and attempting to make sense of what she experiences.

You can find the review here

La Malinche by Laura Esquivel

It ought to be difficult, if not impossible, to make the Spanish conquest of Mexico lyrical, but Laura Esquivel comes close in her fifth novel. This is not a good thing either for history or for literature.

Most readers will remember Esquivel for her debut novel, Like Water for Chocolate, the story of how a woman transforms heartbreak into culinary astonishments, using recipes and magical realism to explore life in early 20th century Mexico. In Malinche, the eponymous heroine encounters her share of heartbreaks, but there's little magical or realist about the process.

Mexican national memory hasn't been kind to La Malinche, the Mexica woman who came into the possession of Herman Cortes as a slave, learned Spanish and as Cortes' translator helped talk Montezuma out of an empire, with ghastly, near-genocidal results. She mediated between the Spaniards and the Mexica (Aztec) people whom Montezuma governed. She also bore Cortes a son, Martin, the first true mestizo Mexican.

Esquivel deserves credit for attempting the difficult task of imagining herself into the skin and heart of a woman whom history has found it easy to scorn. Some revisionists argue that La Malinche saved her people from total destruction because she gave Cortes the chance to negotiate with words instead of swords.

It's unclear whether Esquivel shares this particular revisionist point of view, but then many things in this novel are unclear. We get a few scenes of pillage and massacre, fever dreams that interrupt the story that Esquivel really cares about: one woman's spiritual journey.

The novelist treats her heroine with refreshing sympathy. How can you not feel for a 5-year-old girl whose mother, eager to remarry after the death of her first husband, gives her away to slave-traders? All the young Malinalli has to hold on to are memories of her grandmother, a loving woman rich in the spirituality of Mexica culture. But by the time Malinalli travels with Cortes to Tenochtitlan, Montezuma's capital, her grandmother's indigenous lyricism has given way to self-aggrandizing, almost New Age escapism.

You can find the review here

La Malinche by Laura Esquivel

It ought to be difficult, if not impossible, to make the Spanish conquest of Mexico lyrical, but Laura Esquivel comes close in her fifth novel, "Malinche." This is not a good thing either for history or for literature.

Most readers will remember Esquivel for her first novel, "Like Water for Chocolate," the story of how a woman transforms heartbreak into culinary astonishments. That book used recipes and magical realism to explore life in early 20th-century Mexico. In Esquivel's new book, the eponymous heroine encounters her share of heartbreaks, but there's little magical or realist about the process.

Mexican national memory hasn't been kind to La Malinche, the Mexica (Aztec) woman who came into the possession of Herman Cortes as a slave, learned Spanish and as "The Tongue" — Cortes' translator — helped talk Montezuma out of an empire, with ghastly, near-genocidal results. She mediated between the Spaniards and the Mexica people whom Montezuma governed. She also bore Cortes a son, Martin — the first true mestizo Mexican, or at least the most famous one — before the conquistador married her off to a much nicer man named Juan Jaramillo, with whom, according to Esquivel's account, she had a daughter.

As far as I can tell — one of the many shortcomings of Esquivel's book is that it leaves the reader grasping for details — Malinche was one of the names by which Cortes was sometimes known. It means something like captain, so the captain's translating mistress became La Malinche. Esquivel gives her the birth name of Malinalli, which refers to a sacred grass and also seems to have associations with death.

Esquivel deserves credit for attempting the difficult task of imagining herself into the skin and heart of a woman whom history has found it easy to scorn. Some revisionists have argued that La Malinche saved her people from total destruction because she gave Cortes the chance to negotiate (sometimes) with words instead of swords — not that he was afraid to use those.

You can find the review here

Malinche by Laura Esquivel

Malinche, the Amerindian slave who accompanied Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés through his invasion of Mexico, serving as both his translator and lover, has long been reviled by the Mexicans. In a country where the "feminine" is divided very clearly along the virgin-whore polarity, the much revered Virgen de Guadalupe is often starkly juxtaposed against the traitorous Malinche, who, in giving herself to Cortés, not only facilitated the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica, but also helped to found the new mestizo or mixed-blood race through the son she had with the conquistador.

The psychological dimensions of this rejection in a country where more than 90 per cent of the people are mestizos have been extensively and fascinatingly explored by Mexican writer and Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz. Malinche herself, though, remains an enigma. Little is known about her, and that little does not allow us any insight into her motivations. Now, Paz's compatriot, Laura Esquivel, best known for her popular novel Like Water for Chocolate, has attempted to bring this controversial figure to life in a new novel, Malinche.

You can find the review here

La Malinche by Laura Esquivel

Another review of Esquivel's "La Malinche".

The Spanish encounter with Mexico was many things, but "confusing"? I'm tempted to blame the translator for some of the novel's more unfortunate moments, such as Malinalli's realization that "she was tired, extremely tired of Cortés and all his strategies." But the problem surely goes deeper than diction in whatever language. For instance, in an early scene when the hirsute Spaniard "takes" Malinalli for the first time -- on a riverbank, no less -- Esquivel tells us that the pair "looked into each other's eyes and found their destiny and their inevitable union." Are those literary terms for rape?

In its treatment of plot (sketchy) and character (sketchier) and its emphasis on wifty spirituality, Malinche feels half thought out, its heroine an excuse for the author to indulge her meditations on pre-Columbian (or pre-Cortésian) folkways. Esquivel hints that Malinalli is a kind of Virgin of Guadalupe, a figure in whom the blood of warring races mingles together, the mother of the Mexico that will be born out of the clash of cultures. That's a fascinating idea, but in this book it's only an idea. The more Malinalli retreats from history into spirituality, the more she melds into the universe and the vaguer she becomes as a character -- until she's lost entirely in the mists of myth. From conquistador's mouthpiece to author's is not a fate anyone should suffer.

You can find the review here

Malinche by Laura Esquivel

In the early 1990s, Laura Esquivel set the tone for a highly respected career with her first book, "Like Water for Chocolate," a supernatural tale that displayed Esquivel's knowledge and familiarity with her native Mexico and established her comfort level with magical realism. Her new book, "Malinche," doesn't stray from either of those expressions.

A historical novel that details the tragic relationship between Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his translator Mallinalli, "Malinche" (a name by which Mallinalli was also known) is a lyrical interpretation of the timeline that follows the destruction of Montezuma's 16th-century empire by Cortes.


You can find the review here

La Malinche by Laura Esquivel

The cover for Malinche describes the historical novel as a tale about the "tragic and passionate love affair" of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his translator. The story is a lyrical interpretation of the timeline that follows the destruction of Montezuma’s 16th-century Mexicas empire by Cortes. Mallinalli, also called Malinche in the book, was sold into slavery as a child and later became Cortes’ interpreter.

But the term love affair should be accepted lightly.

Yes, Cortes and Mallinalli share an intimate relationship that leads to the birth of a child and lends itself to vibrantly written scenes by Esquivel. Their first encounter, a mere exchange between their eyes with no words, is depicted with vivid passion.

But to call their relationship - which frequently included Cortes being just as forceful with Mallinalli as he was in war - one of love is extreme. Still, the relationship between Cortes and Mallinalli, a woman who has often been deemed a traitor in Mexican history, is a good launching pad for a novel.

The problem, however, comes when Esquivel tries to pack too much information into just a few pages. The novel gets clouded with Esquivel’s heavy use of magical realism and her need to explain every innermost thought of her characters. This leads to superfluous paragraphs that take characters into back story and memories. The result is a sometimes disjointed narrative.

But all these things may seem like gravy to Esquivel’s loyal fans, because overall she sticks to her pattern of richly imagined detail. Readers who like her style will devour every word. Those who do not may get lost.

Esquivel does do a nice job of showing a sympathetic side to Mallinalli that may reveal that she was an innocent trapped in Cortes’ power-hungry world instead of a traitor. Esquivel’s development of Mallinalli’s character is strong.

With Malinche, Esquivel remains true to her magical realism ways. So, loyalists will be delighted; others should move on.


You can find the review here

Laura Esquivel on La Malinche

Her new book, "Malinche," follows the relationship between La Malinche, or Malinalli as she is called in the book, and Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez, who uses Malinalli as his translator in his quest to overthrow the Aztec emperor Moctezuma and then tosses her aside after conquering Mexico. Hurt and disillusioned, Malinalli discovers true love with Cortez's lieutenant and eventually even forgives Cortez.

Like her previous books, "Malinche" is full of love and longing, with the same plain language that makes for a quick read but at times betrays the author's origins in television.

The book is also something new for Esquivel, serving as a political and historical text. As Cortez's translator, La Malinche has often been called the ultimate traitor, yet her role in Mexican history is more nuanced, Esquivel maintains.

"She is a person who we have yet to judge fairly," Esquivel says, adding that it wasn't hard to imagine why La Malinche helped Cortez. It was about cycles.

For the Aztecs, "there were always cycles that ended, and then came a struggle and a new cycle," Esquivel says. "A woman, in this time, being a slave, would have hoped that a change was coming."

You can find the review here

Intervew with Laura Esquivel

Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel says it is time for a re-examination of what resulted from the clash and combination of European and indigenous cultures in Mexico since the early 16th century, and progress beyond what has become a knee-jerk condemnation of the Spanish side.

"The time has come for a better understanding of our mixture of races and to weigh all that the Spaniards brought" to the Mexico whose history began in 1519, she said in an interview with EFE at the presentation of her latest novel, "Malinche" (Suma de Letras, 2006).

"Official" Mexican culture makes something of a cult of the pre-Columbian native world while demonizing the Spanish conquerors, who engaged in widespread massacre, enslavement, rape and robbery. For example, Aztec resister Moctezuma is a popular hero, while Hernán Cortés is universally a complete villian.

At the same time, European-descended and mestizo Mexicans who speak Spanish, the language of the conquerors, have exercised political and economic power since the conquest, while the indigenous - about 10 percent of the population - have languished in abject poverty.

Esquivel called it necessary to cultivate more empathy and sympathy for La Malinche, an indigenous woman stigmatized for having been the interpreter and lover of Cortés.


You can find the interview here

Interview with Laura Esquivel

And in a twist as strange (or magical) as fiction, Esquivel is launching in Miami her new novel, Malinche -- an imaginary account of the life of Malinalli, the native woman who was conquistador Hernán Cortés' translator and lover during the conquest of Mexico -- before she does so in her beloved Mexico.
''Así es,'' Esquivel says.
So it is in this multicultural world.
Simon & Schuster's Atria Books is publishing Esquivel's novel in both Spanish and English before Santillana -- the Spanish publisher who approached Esquivel with the idea of fictionalizing the life of one of Mexico's most controversial characters -- does so in Mexico and the rest of Latin America later this year. (The U.S. Spanish-language edition is out; the English, translated by Ernesto Mestre-Reed, will arrive in May).
In Miami, where Esquivel was welcomed last month by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts and given a book signing party by the Mexican high-art Coral Gables boutique Pineda Covalin, the 55-year-old novelist's book and message has been well received.
A TRAITOR IN MEXICO
But it remains to be seen what will happen in Mexico, where ''La Malinche'' is widely considered a traitor for helping Cortés, and as an Eve of sorts, the perpetrator of Mexico's original sin. Malinchismo is a term used to express disdain against someone who sides with foreigners, who joins ``the enemy.''
Esquivel's sympathetic characterization and her call to revise history and embrace the Conquest as ''the beginning of a new and wonderful culture'' may not fare as well.
Esquivel portrays Malinche as an intelligent woman, who after being sold by her mother into slavery as child, took on the job of being ''The Tongue'' to save her people from slaughter -- and from Montezuma's practice of sacrificing humans to the Gods.
''She was convinced that it was necessary to overthrow the Aztec Empire, which had betrayed the spiritual legacy of her Mayan ancestors, and most of all, the worship of Quetzalcóatl,'' Esquivel says.
At first Malinalli also believes Cortés is the reincarnation of Quetzalcóatl.
``She saw in Cortés the hope of liberation.''
Esquivel says she's not fearful of negative reaction.
''Leaving fear behind is what this project is all about,'' she says.
She spent two years researching Malinche's life with the help of her husband Javier Valdés. The only original documents about Malinche's life are a few pages from Conquest diaries, Esquivel said, but she didn't stop there, embarking on extensive investigation of ancient Mayan culture, history and religion.
''My job was to imagine Malinalli's personality and how she interpreted what she saw and experienced,'' Esquivel says. ``Before you judge a person's behavior you have to analyze their beliefs.''
Esquivel also invented one of the book's most extraordinary characters -- Malinalli's grandmother, who guides her when her widowed mother abandons her to live with a younger man. The old woman represents ''the wisdom of the indigenous culture and their powerful vision of the spiritual world,'' Esquivel says.

You can find the interview here

But Malinche at Amazon.com

Buy Malinche at Amazon.com (in Spanish)