La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth

by Sandra Messinger Cypess

Of all the historical characters known from the time of the Spanish conquest of the New World, none has proved more pervasive or controversial than that of the Indian interpreter, guide, mistress, and confidante of Hernán Cortés, Doña Marina—La Malinche—Malintzin. The mother of Cortés's son, she becomes not only the mother of the mestizo but also the Mexican Eve, the symbol of national betrayal. Very little documented evidence is available about Doña Marina. This is the first serious study tracing La Malinche in texts from the conquest period to the present day. It is also the first study to delineate the transformation of this historical figure into a literary sign with multiple manifestations. Cypess includes such seldom analyzed texts as Ireneo Paz's Amor y suplicio and Doña Marina, as well as new readings of well-known texts like Octavio Paz's El laberinto de la soledad. Using a feminist perspective, she convincingly demonstrates how the literary depiction and presentation of La Malinche is tied to the political agenda of the moment. She also shows how the symbol of La Malinche has changed over time through the impact of sociopolitical events on the literary expression.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Martin Hernandez]

Una recomendación de la librería Hyperion (https://hyperion-libreria.negocio.site/), "La Invención de la Malinche: de la historia al mito" es una edición revisada de un ensayo publicado originalmente en inglés, "La Malinche in Mexican Literature: From History to Myth". Se trata de una investigación y reflexión sobre la compleja figura de La Malinche y su papel en la historia y la cultura mexicanas. El libro profundiza en la evolución de La Malinche desde una figura histórica, una mujer indígena que jugó un papel fundamental en la conquista española de México, hasta un personaje simbólico y mítico que representa una multitud de temas en la literatura mexicana.

Siendo mexicano, en realidad nunca me había preocupado mucho por saber más de esta figura histórica, más allá del ensayo que forma parte de El Laberinto de la Soledad, que leí hace muchos años. Me pareció muy interesante descubrir cómo la narrativa de La Malinche se ha ido moldeando a lo largo del tiempo, reflejando perspectivas cambiantes sobre género, identidad y dinámicas de poder en México. El libro comenta varias obras literarias, arrojando luz sobre cómo los autores han utilizado a La Malinche como símbolo para abordar cuestiones de nacionalidad, colonialismo y feminismo.

En resumen, "La Malinche en la literatura mexicana: de la historia al mito" es un libro bien investigado que ofrece una perspectiva interesante sobre el impacto duradero de La Malinche en la literatura y el discurso cultural mexicanos. Es una lectura obligada para aquellos interesados en la historia, la literatura y los estudios culturales de México.

[Brandon]

Frustratingly "white feminist": disengaged from the importance of La Raza in feminizes of mestizaje, indigenismo, and non-europeo/indígena Mexican nationalities, leaving all women involved in those nationalities unmentioned and unconsidered; no particular interest in pre-Hispanic femininities except repetitive repetitions of the "woman-as-object" thesis (thereby disengaged from the experience of being a slave /and/ woman, through simply conflating the two—which also gives "patriarchy" a bizarrely ahistorical tint); underexplored analysis of most texts—cf. Joshua Lund's much more thorough and persuasive analysis of the same texts in The Mestizo State (Elena Garro, for example); and the writing itself is frequently turgid. The possibility of Malinche as "root paradigm" offers intriguing possibilities, but is ultimately substantiated with a frustratingly uncritical eye and lack of concern for intra-national context.

[Shannon Laughlin]

Dnf

[Zoë]

This is a really excellent and thorough investigation of La Malinche in her many guises.