Prompt week 11

Are there good guys and bad guys (or heroes and villains) in Clendinnen's book? This is a question about how she characterizes the people about whom she writes and how she explains and contextualizes their actions. Remember to use examples from the last part of the book.

Ambivalent Conquest week 10

After having to look up the definition of ambivalent, I was able to understand why Clendinnen would choose 'Ambivalent Conquests' as her title in this textbook. The definition ambivalence indicates having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone. In the first chapter Clendinnen already introduces ambivalence, when the Spaniards had arrived on their land the Natives had shown "No sign of fear" (P.6) they demonstrated hospitality where the Spaniards were able to indicate that they were easily welcomed on their lands. The Spaniards were skeptical at this point, on one perspective they could believe the Natives were being genuine without any ulterior motives although another perspective would be the opposite. Not knowing what to expect the Spaniards could not show fear on their behalf, "...there could be no question of refusal: honour, curiosity and avarice drove them on" (P.7) the Spaniards moved forward although cautiously. The Spaniards then had been immediately attacked and fooled by the Native's friendliness and hospitality. Clendinnen demonstrates the ambivalence between the Spaniards and Natives; this attack could have been avoided although the Spaniards were unsure of what the right motives of the Natives were and the decisions that should have been made.

Ambivalent Peninsula

          Inga Clendinnen titled her book Ambivalent Conquests.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ambivalent as being “simultaneously attracted toward and repulsed from a person, object, or action.”  In her book Inga Clendinnen discusses how both conquistadors and missionaries found the Yucatan Peninsula to be both attractive and repulsive.

            In 1517 a small Spanish exploring expedition landed on the Yucatan Peninsula.  They were initially greeted by the natives who subsequently ambushed, attacked, and threatened them.  When the conquistadors returned to Cuba, their tales of the expedition gave both a sense of longing to return because of the possibility of riches and hesitancy due to the danger.  However, before the Spanish could overcome the Yucatan Peninsula, they first set out to conquer Mexico, a land of greater promise.  By the time they returned to Yucatan, it was the year 1527, a decade after their initial expedition.  The second expedition explored the interior as well as the coastal areas.  However, they could find no cities of gold.  What they found was a harsh landscape which was flat and featureless, while the ground was rocky and treacherous underfoot.  “The whole peninsula was a great limestone shelf, and permanent water could be found only where the surface crust had broken away to form sinkholes” (page 27).  In addition, they had to deal with insects such as mosquitoes.  This expedition stayed until 1535, when they were lured away by the tales of gold in Peru.  They returned to the Yucatan Peninsula in 1540, this time to stay.  They came not for gold but for modest and useful goods such as cotton garments made by the natives, honey, wax and indigo, that could be traded in Europe.  The most promising trade of all was the sale of Maya slaves to the Caribbean Islands.  By late 1544 the majority of the Yucatan Peninsula was under Spanish control.  The Spanish settlers in Yucatan may have missed out on the great prize of Mexico but they were able to establish decent lives for themselves here.  They were served by natives who built houses, prepared meals and gave tribute to them. 

            As the settlements in Yucatan were coming together, a new wave of Spaniards arrived.  These were the Franciscan missionaries.  They found the land welcoming and the natives willing and eager to become Christians.  On the other hand, the missionaries found the Spanish settlers repulsive in the way they treated the natives.  The missionaries continuously fought legal battles with the settlers, in order to reduce the labor and tribute demanded of the natives.   In 1562 the Franciscans found a cave near one of the Spanish settlements filled with native idols and human skulls.  This discovery lead to a huge inquiry to determine how many Maya had backslidden into their old religion.  During this inquiry the Franciscan friars did not hesitate to use torture techniques to retrieve information from native suspects.  The missionaries felt betrayed by the very people they had protected from the cruelty of the settlers. 

            The Yucatan Peninsula was a land of both promise and dread.  To the conquistadors the treacherous terrain and lack of gold was enough to discourage further exploration until both Mexico and Peru were conquered.  When they returned they soon found an alternative source of wealth in the natives themselves.  To the missionaries the peninsula started as a great evangelistic opportunity as the natives were converted to Christianity.  However, it turned into a nightmare when they found evidence of native backsliding. 

Ambivalent Conquests

When I first started reading this book I had a hard time seeing the ambivalence in the conquests. The definition of ambivalent is to have mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about someone or something. The first expedition that was led by Cordoba was basically a slave finding mission. They were looking for more slaves to take back to Cuba. The Spanish weren't looking to conquer at that time but the idea that there was gold in this new land would lead the Spanish to try to conquer the Mayans (13). The next expedition led by Montejo while not very successful was not ambivalent at all. They went out with the intention of conquering the Mayans. Montejo made sure he had the ships, supplies, and necessary people to create a new settlement in the Yucatan (20). I think when Montejo the Younger took over there was more ambivalence toward the conquest. By now the men were tired and new that there was no great treasure to be found in the area so they stayed because they did see some potential for gain with the slaves and textiles the Mayans created (29). There were mixed feelings in the end because the men had left on this adventure to find riches only to be hit with the reality that there were none to be had, and the indigenous people were not as easy to control as the Spanish thought they would be. The other place I see ambivalence is in the religious conversion of the Indians. The friars were very excited to be embarking on this quest to convert the Indians. The contradictory ideas occur between the secular leaders and the friars. One group didn't necessarily agree with the way the other treated the indigenous people. The encomienderos were said to be treating the Indian's badly (52).
The reverse was true when the friars were dealing with the Indians and their idols. I didn't see a lot of ambivalence with the actual idea of the conquest. The Spanish wanted to go out and gain the gold they believed was to be found in the Yucatan. Where I saw most of the ambivalence was in the fact that there wasn't really a fortune to be found so the Spanish basically settled for what they could find. I also saw ambivalence in how the conquistadors and the friars dealt with each other and the Mayans.

Week 10 prompt

This book is titled very well as ambivalent conquests since it signifies nothing more than ambivalence as the Spanish attempted to trek through the Yucatan. Ambivalence signifies best what happened with the attempts of conquering the Yucatan as they were anything but glorious or easy conquests for the Spaniards. The initial exploratory expedition through Cape Catoche, where Cordoba “knew that as their discoverers they could become their masters (6)” stood out greatly because the Mayas would not bow so easily. In what he believed to be an invitation by the Yucatans, actually turned out to be an ambush where Cordoba and his men were handily defeated and forced back to Cuba. As the Spaniards soon discovered they were very well in over their heads exploring a new territory, and instead of having the success that Cortes and Pizarro had they did anything but that. Instead the trek through the Yucatan to find gold and other riches was more of a great failure The failure in the Yucatan cannot be signified better by anyone than by Montejo’s expedition. When Montejo arrived again they arrived without event and established camp, however due to his error by not bringing a translator his men would suffer. Within two months two months of arriving the Spaniards were unable to adjust to the new terrain and could not establish a formidable conquest. Montejo reflected on it best summarizing his time between 1529 and 1534. “In those five years they had learnt some lessons, none of them welcome about Yucatan, and about the Maya (23).” During this period as Montejo and his men explored further inland they had learned no riches were awaiting them, and the interior lands were much less developed than the area along the coast.

Week 10: Ambivalent Conquests

Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucutan, 1517-1570 is a very appropriate title to Inga Celendinnen's book.  The Yucatan was a region unlike any the Spanish had encountered during their exploration and conquest of the New World.  Whereas other areas had many incentives to draw new arrivals from Spain, the Yucatan possessed many attributes which would drive people away.  Celendinnen sums up the situation well: "The subjugation of the Yucatan required not heroism, but a kind of dour tenacity little valued and therefor little practiced in Spanish performance...What made the hardships intolerable and the place and people detestable was that there was neither gold nor silver nor precious stones in the peninsula" (28).  These are the factors which caused Spaniards to feel ambivalent about going to the Yucatan, as there did not seem to be any real reward in store for those who committed themselves to the conquest of the region.  This is shown by the way the original Spanish settlers in the Yucatan, under Monetjo's command, had left the peninsula by 1535, less than twenty years from when they had first entered the Yucatan.  The Spanish would return, but the group would be different than the typical Spanish explorers.  They were older men who were hoping to establish some sort of prosperity in the New World, though they knew the region did not hold potential for great riches.  All the Spaniards who still sought to achieve great wealth had gone elsewhere.  As Celendinnen said, it took a certain kind of mentality to decide to seek prosperity in the Yucatan, and most Spaniards were not willing to test their resolve in the harsh region.

Week 10 Ambivalent Conquests

Ambivalent Conquests

In order to answer that question we must first define ambivalent.  According to Webster’s dictionary ambivalent is defined as “having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about someone or something”.  In Clendinnen’s book, she offered several examples of this ambivalence among the natives, the Spanish, and the friars. 

Clendinnen clearly provided examples of knowledge the natives had regarding the presence of the Spanish.  On page 8, Clendinnen stated, “the Indians of the Yucatan also had other sources of information regarding the Spanish nature and intentions.”  It appears the natives often offered support if they believed the Spanish were merely transient offering them water and food but hostile if they believed the Spanish intended to settle in their region.  Clendinnen suggested that two factors played into Mayan response to the Spanish the first being “whenever the Spaniards made unequivocal their intention to settle” led the Maya to revolt and the latter being “when they appeared as transients” the Mayan allowed the Spanish to “wander blindly through the forests.”(35)

In chapter 2, Clendinnen also suggested the explorers were also ambivalent to conquer this territory because it was found to not be profitable in gold, silver, or stones, but perhaps in encomienda and slave trade.  Clendinnen stated, “there was neither gold nor silver nor precious stones in the peninsula”. (28) The conquerors knew they could not send back vast wealth to Spain but be granted encomienda and accrue the closest wealth for themselves as possible.  This appears to be ambivalence toward the region from the view of a conquistador, not winning the great prize of Mexico, but settling for a lesser treasure in the Mayan territory that did not offer great wealth.  Once Montejo took command over the Yucatan area and most of the native uprising had subsided, at least temporarily, Clendinnen stated, “The encomienda system did not disturb the internal organization of the native political structures”. (38) Again, this provides further insight as to how the natives themselves would have this feeling of ambivalence towards the Spaniards. These statements together begin to reveal how the natives were for the most part allowed to live as they wished as long as they provided labor and tribute to the Spanish and how being exploited by the Spanish would also create uncertainty among them as well.    

Clendinnen continued by saying there were continuous native uprising but also acculturation and assimilation by the Spanish and the natives.  This idea is at the heart of this book; the continued conflict and yet mixed feelings towards the native population and the natives towards the Spanish colonists.  Once the Franciscans arrived there would be initiatives to convert the natives to Christianity.  In fact, Clendinnen suggested that the Franciscans would first work “within the context of coercion”. (47) By this the friars, would insist that the natives and their children would attend catechism.  This is another example, as to how the natives were no longer permitted to teach their religion but be transformed into Catholicism.  Clendinnen pointed out that the natives pretended to be teaching the way the friars would have them, but secretly would hold meetings to impress upon native ideology.  Clendinnen stated, “they pretended to teach Christian doctrine, and to marry, baptize and divorce their followers with fine disregard to the friars’ monopoly over those functions”. (58) Again, this revealed another example of native ambivalence toward the friars and their religious ideology. 

The friars themselves showed ambivalence towards the Spanish conquistadors and the manner in which they treated the native population.  Fray Villalpando demonstrated this in a letter to the Crown in which “he named and listed the delinquencies of ten encomienderos” and described in great detail the hangings and killings of the indigenous. (55) The friars showed ambivalence toward the encomienderos and they displayed the same toward the friars, especially when we look at the accounts by Francisco Hernandez.

Hernandez “charged the friar with having flogged some Indians so savagely that they had died”. (60) As Clendinnen pointed out Hernandez “had shouted aloud what many of his fellows had muttered”. (62) These examples further demonstrate the reason Clendinnen chose to name the book Ambivalent Conquests, Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570.

Clendinnen's Ambivalent Conquests

I believe the book is called Ambivalent Conquests because the Spanish did not care about the Maya.  They did not care about their culture and religion or even their personal well-being, as Clendinnen demonstrates.  We know that they did not care about Maya culture because of how few of them bothered to learn the native language, even though they expected the Maya to learn Spanish.  We know that they did not care about their religion because of their reactions to the human sacrifices.  It did not matter that the sacrifices had Christian themes to it, like being sacrificed on a crucifix, it was still human sacrifice which was foreign and therefore bad.  Finally, we know that the Spanish did not care for the Maya's well-being because of how cruelly the enconmenderos treated their native slaves.  Clendinnen points out that the enconmenderos would beat the natives, sometimes to death, for just about anything, especially if it involved not acting like a Spaniard.  The reasons these conquests were ambivalent was due to the Spaniards lack of interest in the people they were conquering. 

Ambivalent Conquest

The reason that I believe the book is called Ambivalent conquest due to the way that the Yucatan region was controlled by different forces and the fact due to the region lacking major resources the way the area wasn't the key focus of the conquest.  Throughout the time that the area was being colonized the Spanish population remained very low, as the 1580's there were only 400 Spanish households pg. 43.  Due to the low population of Spanish the indigenous were allowed keep the culture for a longer period of time and weren't as influenced by the Spanish.
The conquest was also ambivalent due to the fraction between the friars who made the Yucatan an area were the inserted a large amount of influence and the secular conquers who were more prevalent in Mexico.  The region was stuck in between two forces where if one won out then the cruelty and capital punishment would reign and if another then a faction of the church would dominate the region.  The area was passed over by the main set of conquers, ie Cortez, as they traveled to Mexico and the region was conquered sort of haphazardly by Spanish forces due to the lack of resources.
I think the book tries to showcase the overall lack of importance towards the region that the Spanish showcase due to the lack of material resources.

Prompt Week 10

Why is this book called Ambivalent Conquests? (Please give examples of ambivalent conquests from the book).

Malintzin: An Ordinary Woman who took advantage of her Circumstances

It seems to me that Malintzin was simply an ordinary woman who, because of her circumstances (learned Maya because of her enslavement, knew Nahuatl, etc), was exceptional  Townsend points out that Malintzin was brought to the Spanish as a peace offering (p. 2).  We discussed in class, however, that Malintzin could have chosen to stay behind in the Mayan village.  I think it is at this point that she starts to be considered exceptional by any meaning of the word, because she starts learning Spanish.  Malintzin could have chosen to stay behind when the Maya offered her to the Spanish , but if she had, I think another slave girl would have gone instead.  It was because of Malintzin's apparent desire to improve her life, that she is the one that, according to Restall, came to be considered as a "symbol of betrayal" (p. 86).

The Exceptional Woman!

Townsend portrays Malintzin as an exceptional woman of her time. In our class discussion we have looked at Malintzin’s choices and debating whether or not her actions were a choice or if she was forced for survival. As many women were sold into slavery Malintzin had the ability to not be recognized as another slave figure but was able to become an honorable and important figure throughout the Spanish conquest. Her contributions during the Spanish conquest had basically made the Spanish conquest happen because communication between the Natives and Spanish were imperative. On page 41 Townsend shows Malintzin’s assertiveness (which was not typical amongst other slaves), “Malintzin could have remained silent. No one expected her to step forward and serve as a conduit. But by the end of that hour, she had made her value felt” Malintzin then knew it was her opportunity to make value out of herself. Malintzin was not only able to learn the Spanish language but she was able to learn their culture, warfare and survival. This knowledge enabled her to make strategic plans when communicating with Natives. Malintzin was able to recognize her worth and significance to the conquest through translation. Malintzin knew that the Spaniards had advance technology and weapons that could cause harm and destruction, she knew the power that the Spaniards had yet she still made the choice to join their team. Rather than being frightened and intimidated Malintzin stepped forward and presented her skills that could make their conquest happen. Malinztin was an exceptional woman that created a name for herself and is remembered and honored throughout history. 

Malintzin: exceeptional or typical?

In my opinion, Townsend believes Malintzin to an exceptional native who made exceptional choices. Of course, as we discussed in class, it can debated whether or not her choices were indeed “choices,” but if one agrees that she indeed had enough independence to make her own choices then it could easily be arguee that she made ones which proved to be exceptional.

We know that Townsend believes Malintzin to be exceptional and are reminded of it when she observes that “we know that Malintzin was a beautiful, talented, and self-confident woman who was both practical and politically astute” (153). Surely a typical native does not warrant such an articulate description. We are also reminded that Malinztin was exceptional when Townsend observes that she, along with dona Luisa, were Cortes’ most valuable assets (108) during his near defeat. Moreover, it was Malintzin’s choices that were truly exceptional; for example, her choosing to marry Juan Jaramillo to consolidate power and security for herself and for her future children (150). Of course, Townsend points out that Malintzin “was hardly someone who would or even could be forced to accept a drunken and bumbling husband whom she did not want to marry” (150). If Malintzin had indeed been typical, she would not have had enough power to marry Cortes’ 2^nd in command or even had a choice at all in whom she was to marry.

These are but a few of the many instances one can point out in which Townsend alludes to Malintzin being more than typical. Of course, all of her actions or motives will never be known, but I think that the fact that professional scholars and students alike are contemplating her place in history centuries after her life at least indicates that she was more than an ordinary native. 

Townsend on Malintzin

Townsend most certainly considers Malintzin to be exceptional.  Malintzin's Choices describes Malintzin as someone who persevered  through very rough circumstances to become a revered figure to the Spanish.  Townsend tells the story of how she was taken as a slave by the Spaniards, who needed her knowledge of indigenous languages so she could serve as an interpreter between the Spanish and the many tribes they would encounter.  As time went on though, Malintzin would become much more than a simple translator.  Soon she would establish a strong relationship with Cortes, which gave her considerable influence within the Spanish community in the New World.  Though she would never be held to hold the same status as Spanish women of noble birth, her actions in aiding the Spanish conquest of powerful empires, such as the Aztec, earned her a strong reputation among the conquistadors  Townsend defends this by referencing various Spaniards' accounts and personal statements in which they spoke of Malintzin with high regard.  Just the fact that the Spanish came to call her dona Marina shows that she earned the respect of her Spanish captors.  Townsend further defends her image of Malintzin by describing how her children were able to attain high status in the Spanish world.  One of the main reasons they were able to do so was the reputation of their mother.

While I do not think Malintzin is a figure who should necessarily be revered, I do agree with Townsend that she was an exceptional figure.  Malintzin showed she had excellent determination to be able to maneuver her way into a prominent and powerful position among the conquistadors.  She was undoubtedly very intelligent and very strong to be able to make it through all the struggles she faced.  Another fact which confirms she was an exceptional figure is that no other indigenous interpreter has a place in history like Malintzin does.  In fact most other interpreters are unknown.  Though she served an invading enemy in their attempts to take over her homeland, something which I believe deserves to be frowned upon, Malintzin was no doubt an exceptional figure.          

Malintzin's Actions

In attempting to avoid the trap of perpetuating the history of exceptional figures, Townsend argues that Malintzin made the choices that anyone else in her position would have to ensure her survival.  However, it is impossible to deny that without her easy grasp of languages and political strategy, Malintzin would merely be yet another concubine handed over to Cortés and his crew.  Almost despite herself, I believe that Townsend views Malintzin as an exceptional person that figured prominently in the path of the Spanish expeditions.  Through her actions, Malintzin sets herself apart from others in her position.

The very premise of the book attempts to paint Malintzin as a typical person in her station; since there are no sources surviving that directly share Malintzin’s thoughts, Townsend is basing her reconstruction of Malintzin on the expectations and generalizations of other concubines and slaves of the time. Yet from the moment she is given to Cortés, Malintzin is no longer a typical slave.  Bernal Díaz asserted “‘Dona Marina was a person of great presence [importance] and was obeyed without question by all the Indians of New Spain’” (150).  While it is unlikely that she inspired such unswerving devotion in all that met her, the fact that she was acknowledged at all and given honorifics by both the Spanish and the natives, both of which had strong patriarchal societies, proves that Malintzin was far from a typical concubine.   Townsend constantly tries to couch her arguments in the assertion that Malintzin was not exceptional, she herself points out that Malintzin was instrumental to any communication with the Nahua, and “whatever the great lord Moctezuma was to say to the strangers in that first encounter, and they to him, would have to pass through her” (84).  Without Malintzin’s intelligence and critical thinking skills, communication between the two groups would have been near impossible.  Townsend credits her with playing an integral role in the events in Tenochtitlan and beyond.

While I do not believe in model of history where great men served as the catalyst of change, I do believe that individual decisions can influence the manner in which events change.  In her decision to speak up and become translator, Malintzin changed the course of Cortés’ expedition.  Inevitably the conquest would have occurred, but the events played out the way they did specifically because someone who was able to convey both words and connotations to each side of the conflict translated them, and was able to promote her own survival in the process.  Her actions of running her own altepetl and accepting tribute were certainly typical of her culture, but rarely did a woman start off as a slave and work her way up to controlling her own land and directing her own path (155).  While others would have tried to survive in her situation, only Malintzin took the action to make her instrumental to Spanish success.  Malintzin was not born intrinsically exceptional, but her will to act made her exceptional.

Exceptional!

In my opinion, I believe that Malintzin is a clear example of an exceptional woman. However, in this example, one cannot but a solid and concise meaning of exceptional. In the case of Malintzin, her story demonstrates multiple levels of being ahead of her time. First of all, her ability to know multiple languages is one that cannot be over looked. But this is more importance than originally suggested. Malintzin knew that she needed to subject herself to the Spanish in order to be useful, and ultimately, not die in the conflict between the Spanish and Nauthul. Also, keep in mind that she also saw her opportunity to advance in society by aligning with the Spanish, but also end up more educated in the long run.

I believe that Townsend would concur that Malintzin is an exceptional person too. In one sense, if it were not for her life, Townsend would not have a book to write at all! Townsend’s beliefs are also confirmed by other quotes from within the text. Townsend suggests on page 175 that she is worth the same price as ten of the Spaniards that took place in the conquest. Townsend also alludes to the ability of Malintzin as a person to be able to go through such as tough time as an indigenous person, and yet be able to raise children successfully. 

Her choices made her exceptional

If Townsend didn’t consider Malintzin exceptional then why did she write a book about her? She could have written a book about the Spanish Conquest and the role of Indigenous slave girls who traveled with the conquistadors.  But instead she choose to write it about Malintzin because she was an exceptional woman who played a huge role in the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.

         At our class discussion on Thursday, we agreed that Townsend is trying to prove that Malintzin actually had choices. That Malintzin did not merely make choices to survive but she made choices that she wanted to.  For example, Malintzin choose to speak up and translate the Nahuatl that Jerónimo de Aguilar was struggling to translate. Not only did she translate Nahuatl, she taught herself Spanish customs and language. She didn’t have to go the extra mile and learn a new language but she choose to (Townsend 41).  Examples such as these shows that Malintzin choose to change her circumstances by choosing to make her own decisions.

This chain reaction of choices caused Malintzin to be viewed as one of the most key characters in the Conquest of Mexico. Not only that but She is also one of the most controversial people in Mexican history. Because of her involvement in the Conquest, she is represented many things:  a traitor, a translator,  the mistress to Cortés, the mother of the first mestizo, a victim of the Spanish Conquest, an indigenous helpmeet, bridge between three cultures (Spanish, Mexican Americans, and Mexicans), a survivor, representative of Spain, and many other things (Townsend 2-4). It all comes down to how you view Malintzin and who she was. Although we have no records left by her we do have stories, documents, and the court case by her daughter, Doña María, and records of how life was for those enslaved by the Mayan, and how life was for one that was a nobleman’s concubines’ daughter (Townsend 5). These resources enable us to examine how she could have lived and why she made certain choices throughout her life.

               Malintzin choices are what made her an exceptional woman. By choosing to stand out from the others around her and make herself known and useful. Her powerful personality, presence, and talent of speaking helped her become more than just a simple translator but one whose name would remain through the ages as one of importance and respect. If she had been told that her name would be of importance to come, Malintzin would most likely “have laughed. For she knew that she was simply surviving—as well as she could—the most ordinary of lives (Townsend 2)".  She (Malintzin) was just your typical native, but she was different. Even though she saw herself as common, she knew her importance of her role as the translator for Cortés. Thus,we can conclude that even though she was a typical slave woman given to the Spanish, her choices are what made her an exceptional woman.

              

              

Malintzin, An Ordinary Native

     The image of Malintzin has changed over the years.  In the early nineteenth century when Mexico won its independence from Spain, the Mexicans were filled with hatred for the Spanish and viewed with disdain anyone, living or dead, who had assisted or associated with their enemy.  They claimed that Malintzin manipulated the circumstances of the Spanish conquest for her own personal gain and in so doing she betrayed her people.  Starting in the 1970’s the feminist movement portrayed her as a victim rather than a manipulator because Malintzin had been given by her own people to the Mayas as a slave.  Later in the 1980’s and 1990’s, historians began to view her as a survivor.  This is the view Camilla Townsend promotes in her book. 

            Townsend claims that Malintzin was a typical person just trying to survive in the circumstances life had given her.  The author claims that Malintzin was “a typical product of the Mesoamerican world as it then was” (page 6).  Her ability to speak several native languages can be attributed to the fact she was born into a noble Nahua household whose members were descendants of conquerors who had to learn the language of those they conquered.  This was a normal fact of life in Mesoamerica.  If Malintzin had not existed, then Cortés or other Spaniard would have found another interpreter to assist.  Before Cortés met Malintzin, he had another translator named Jerónimo de Aguilar.  He was only replaced because he did not speak Aztec.  Rather than remain an insignificant concubine, Malintzin chose to tell told them that she could speak Aztec. Thus she became a valuable interpreter. 

            I agree with Townsend’s arguments that Malintzin was a normal person trying to make the best of the difficulties in her life.  As we have seen in the pictures viewed in class, Malintzin is always associated with Cortés, who is viewed as The Conqueror of Mexico.  Therefore, by her association, people tend to view her as extraordinary also.  If she had been an interpreter for a lesser known Spanish conquistador, would she still be considered extraordinary? 

Was she typical or exceptional?

I believe that Townsend would argue that the life of Malintzin was typical to the time and the region.  She was the child of a concubine wife not the head of the house.  So even though she may have been in a noble family she was sold as a slave.  This wasn't rare for the region that she lived due to the subordinate relationship her village had related to the Aztec empire.  While she was in possession of the Spanish was given as a gift for assumed advantage of Cortez. Townsend would argue that this was a common practice of the time and a typical interaction for the Conquistadors to give natives to their comrades as prizes. 
I think though that Townsend would state that even though her life path was typical, the way that she used her opportunities and her talents made her exceptional.  Even though she was a slave and given away as a gift after her experience translating for Cortez she was able to marry a man that gave her relative high status.  Her marriage to Jamarillo was at the time the gave the highest amount of advantages.  Another testament to her being exceptional is the testimony form the court case between her daughter Dona Maria and her husbands second wife Dona Beateriz.  During that trial the defendants brought witnesses to disprove Malintzins importance which non of them even 30 years later were willing to do.  This showcases her extraordinary abilities because at the time period their were plenty of translators but she was the one to make the most impact and be chosen to directly work with the Cortez.

Malintzin by Any Other Name

            Camilla Townsend clearly states from the beginning of the book “We cannot know…”(1). The difficulty of Malintzin is that there is nothing written in her own hand to tell us her thoughts. We have the experiences of others and their interactions with her, but as well documented as those are one must question their validity based on the individual motivations of those writing. What does exist is a wealth of anthropological information on the indigenous people of the era in which Malintzin lived.

            So Townsend attempts to situate Malintzin in the context of the time. But in so doing, she puts to light something that might not be at first apparent: sooner or later someone else could have been Malintzin. La Malinche’s story is not rare. She was sold as a slave, but one among many in a culture where household slaves were an established part of the economy. She spoke many languages, but in a region where many languages were spoken and it would have behooved her to speak at least one or two to function beyond her native dialect. She was given as a gift to the Spaniards, but only because she had no children or perhaps because she was recalcitrant and not working well as a slave.

            Though Townsend points to the individual skills of Malintzin, she treats her much as she treats the Spaniards: if not Cortez, then another would have come (Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, for example). Malintzin was fortunate enough to have the right skills and be in the right place at the right time. Though the book is called Malintzin’s Choices, the point I think Townsend makes quite clearly is that the choices were really non-existent. She had no say in being sold as a slave. Once a slave, being given to the Spaniards was not a choice she could make. In the care of the Spaniards she could have remained silent, but seeing her companions become communal property to five hundred conquistadors would have probably motivated her to find a way to distinguish herself. She had no reason not to help against Moctezuma, particularly if her tribe was at war with Tenochtitlan. In short, perhaps the circumstances were exceptional, but there were many women who could have been Malintzin.