Revisiting Malinche: A Study of her Role as an Interpreter

MARÍA LAURA SPOTURNO

Durham, Inglaterra

Congreso; III INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Translating Voices, Translating Regions; 2012

Durham University

This exploratory paper sets to examine and confront the recreation, both discursive and iconic, of the figure of Malinche in a set of chronicles and codices which appeared in the 16th century. On the one hand, I wish to analyse the presentation of Malinche in Bernal Díaz del Castillo?s 16th century chronicles, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, which depict her as an interpreter between the Spaniards and the Mexica in the times of the Conquest of America. On the other hand, I intend to see how the views expressed by Díaz del Castillo, Cortés?s loyal soldier, contradict, support, or extend the images of Malinche registered in two pictorial manuscripts produced in the 16th century: the Florentine Codex by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún and the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, the work of the indigenous people. Ever since the Conquest of Mexico, the figure of Malinche has been a subject of controversy. Was she a victim of the Spaniards, a faithful interpreter, a traitor of her own people, or a successful diplomat? Often regarded as the Mother of all Mexican people, Malinche still functions as a symbol of racial conflict and loyalties among the Mexicans, which has been recently re-elaborated and re-signified by Chicano feminists and writers. Accordingly, this paper has two main goals: 1. to study and confront the construction of Malinche in different 16th century documents; 2. to assess the visibility of her image in contemporary Chicana fiction and translation. Nota: Se trató de una exposición oral. Adjunto la presentación que utilicé.