The image here is a painting by José Clemente Orozco's and is called "Cortés and Malinche". Townsend would probably agree with the image as it shows Cortes forcefully holding back Malinitzin from the body of a native man. The wider meaning to be taken from the act of holding Malinitzin back casts as a person who was made to serve the Spanish rather than a willing participant in the conquest of the America’s, a view that Townsend makes clear as a common one held by many in south America. The painting, in my opinion, takes on the worldview of the 1970’s feminist perspective, [3] in which she had no choice being that she was a servant. The artist intentionally used the same composition as the painting the virgin of Guadalupe.[Farhat] The painting “the Virgin of Guadalupe” is one that combines native symbols with Spanish religion and also makes the assertion of virgin birth. My interpretation of the parallel between the two works is that Malinitzin was fully native and was the victim of her own cultures slavery practices and could not be blamed for her pregnancy hence the virgin birth.  The nakedness of both Cortes and Malinitzin also hints at her relations and the subsequent child Malinitzin had with Cortes. Through Cortes’s forceful position the artist shows that she may have had little say in her relations again making her a victim. While Townsend readily admits that there is no direct evidence to show that Malinitzin was not a willing participant in Spanish conquest she places Malinitzin within the context of slave women’s roles within the society. This helps put her in the role of the victim rather than the villain. In conjunction with Townsend demonstrating the roles of slave women she also discusses the value placed on motherhood within the larger cultural context which further demonstrates her lack of choice when she had a child with cortes. [29] this harkens back again to the idea of the virgin birth and her slavery not only to the Spanish but her child.

Farhat, Maymanah. "Allegory of a Revolution: José Clemente Orozco’s “The Trench”." jadaliyya. N.p.. Web. 5 Oct 2013. <http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/11541/allegory-of-a-revolution_josé-clemente-orozco’s-“t>.