Descripción
Five centuries have passed since the conquest of Mexico, yet time has not been enough to fully analyze those events with a clear and objective historical perspective.
Among the most complex figures of this era is La Malinche, a woman often vilified by history. To many, she is seen as a traitor—a woman who sided with the Spanish—giving rise to the term malinchismo, which in Mexico refers to a preference for foreign culture over one’s own.
But how can a slave—a woman humiliated, mistreated, and cast aside by her own people—be considered a traitor? La Malinche was not just a victim; she was an extraordinary woman. From servitude, she rose to become the key negotiator between Hernán Cortés and Emperor Moctezuma, a role unimaginable for both the Spanish and the Nahua people.
In the end, she achieved her freedom. By her own choice, she had a daughter with a Spanish soldier, thus forming the first Hispanic-American family. Her legacy leaves us with a lingering, almost Shakespearean question that has endured for 500 years:
Should we admire or condemn La Malinche?
