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.
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