Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

by María Hinojosa

woman born to a noble family, but later sold into slavery (trafficked), where she ultimately “served” the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.2 She grew to be one of Cortés’s most trusted advisers; her ability to translate indigenous languages and brilliance as a political strategist became indispensable. La Malinche famously saved Cortés by informing him of Aztec plans to destroy his army, helping clinch his victory in the Spanish-Aztec war of 1519 to 1521. Her detractors accused her of betraying her own people and helping the white man to slaughter them; more scandalous was the fact that she gave birth to Cortés’s child, who might have been the first mestizo person.3 Yet it was La Malinche who had been sold by her own people, her mother no less, into slavery and delivered to the enemy. Hadn’t she simply used her feminine powers and intellect to survive despite the odds stacked against her?

La malinche