Essay on La Malinche

Submitted By katlynr16
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Malinche: Hero or Traitor
Mr. Bonner
Katlyn Reimer
World History
24 October 2014

If you were gifted as a slave to a strange man from a different country, what would you do? Would you do whatever you were told or defy him and risk your life? That is what the indian woman Doña Marina, had to think about. Doña Marina, better known as Malinche, was a slave,interpreter, mistress and mother to the first “mexican”. The subject on whether or not she was a traitor or a hero is extremely controversial, but to many she is thought to be a hero.
La Malinche was the daughter of a noble and powerful Aztec family. When her father died and mother had remarried, she was given to traders and proclaimed dead. She eventually become a slave to a war chief of the Tabasco Indians. Malinche had a very easy time learning different languages. By the time Cortes and his men arrived on the coast of Mexico she knew
Mayan dialects used in the Yucatan and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and most
Non­Mayan Indians, she also learned Spanish quickly.
Do
ña was given to Cortes along with 19 other women as slaves. She did not choose to go with Cortes, she had no voice in the matter. Since she had this talent for learning languages at a rapid speed, she was taught Spanish and became the new interpreter for Cortes. Not only did she help him communicate with the native people and negotiate, but she also became very close with him, and developed a strong monogamous relationship.
Malinche became so close with Cortes that she even bore him a son, Martin Cortes, the first Mexican(mixture of Spanish and Indian blood). Cortes had a wife back in Spain but he gave their son and her a house and provided for them. Doña Marina then converted to Christianity and Cortes set her up with
Don Juan Jaramillo, one of his Captains. Since she was now
Christian she could get married.

La Malinche was a hero because she saved thousands of native american lives by enabling Cortes to communicate and negotiate. By her helping Cortes it saved people from being slaughtered by
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