Malinche
(Excerpt)
by Laura Esquivel
(Mexico)
Malinalli needed that silence to create new and resonant words. The right words, the ones that were necessary. Recently, she had stopped
serving Portocarro, her lord, because Cortes had named her “The Tongue”, the one that transcribed what he said into Nahautl language, and what
Montezuma’s messenger said, from Nahuatl to Spanish. Malinalli had learned Spanish at an extraordinary speed, in no way could it be said that she
was completely fluent. Often she had turned to Aguilar to help her to translate it correctly, so that what she said made sense in the minds of both the
Spaniards and the Mexicans.
Being “The Tongue” was an enormous responsibility. She didn’t want to make a mistake or misinterpret, and she couldn’t see how to prevent
it was so difficult translating complex ideas from one language to the other. She felt as if each time she uttered a word she journeyed back hundreds of
generations. When she said the name of Ometeotl, the creator of the dualities Omecihuatl and Ometecuhtli, the masculine and feminine principles, she
put herself at the beginning of creation. That was the power of the spoken word. But then, how can you contain in a single word the god Ometeotl, he
who is without shape, the lord who is not born and does not die; whom water cannot wet, fire cannot burn, wind cannot move, and earth cannot bury?
Impossible. The same seemed to happen to Cortes, who couldn’t understand certain concepts of his religion. Once she asked him what the name of
God’s wife was.
“ God doesn’t have a wife,” Cortes answered.
“It cannot be.”
“Why not?”
“ Because without a womb, without darkness, light cannot emerged. It is from her greatest depths that Mother Earth creates precious stones,
and in the darkness of her womb that gods and humans take their forms. Without a womb there is no God.”
Cortes stared intently at Malinali and saw the light in the abyss of her eyes. It was a moment of intense connection between them, but Cortes
directed his eyes somewhere else, abruptly disconnected himself from her, because he was frightened by the sensation of complicity, of belonging, and
he immediately tried to cut off the conversation between them, for, aside from everything else, it seemed too strange speaking about religious matters
with her, a native in his service.
“ What do you know about God! Your gods demand all the blood in the world in order to exist, while our God offers His own to us with each
Communion. We drink his blood.”
Malinalli did not understand all the words that Cortes had just uttered. What she wanted to hear, what her brain wanted to interpret, was that
the god of the Spaniards was a fluid god , for he was in the blood, in the secret of the flesh, the secret of love; that he was contained in the eternity of
the universe. And she wanted to believe in such a deity.
“ So then your god is liquid?” Malinalli asked enthusiastically.
“Liquid?”
“Yes. Didn’t you say that he was in the blood that he offered?”
“Yes, woman! But now answer me, do your gods offer you blood?”
“No.”
“Aha! Then you shouldn’t believe in them.”
Malinalli’s eyes filled with tears as she replied.
“ I don’t believe that they have to offer blood. I believe in your liquid god, I like that he is a god who is constantly flowing, and that he
manifests himself even in my tears. I like that he is stern, strict and just, that his anger could create or make the universe vanish in one day. But you
cannot have that without water or a womb. For there to be songs and flowers, there needs to be water; with it, words rise and matter takes on form.
There is life that is born without a womb, but it does not remain long on the earth. What is engendered in darkness, however, in profundity of caves,
like precious gems and golds, lasts much longer. They say that there is a place beyond the sea, where there are higher mountains, and there, Mother
Earth has plentiful water to fertilize the earth; and here, in my land, we have deep caves and within them, great treasures are produced.
“Really? What treasures? Where are these caves?
Malinalli did not want to answer him and said that she did not know. His interruption bothered her. It proved that Cortes was not interested in
talking about his religion, or his gods, or his beliefs, or even about her. It was clear that he was only interested in material treasures. She excused
herself and went to weep by the river.
This and many other things made it difficult for them to understand each other. Malinalli believed that words colored memory, planting
images each time that a thing was named. And as flowers bloomed in the countryside after a rainfall, so that which was planted in the mind bore fruit
each time that word, moistened by saliva, named it. For example, the concept of a true and eternal god, which the Spaniards had proclaimed, in the
mind had borne fruit because it had already been planted there by her ancestors. From them she had also learned that things came to exist when you
named them, when you moistened them, when you painted them. God breathed through his word, gave life through it, and because of this, because of
the labor and grace of the God of All Things, it was possible to paint in the mind of the Spaniards and Mexicas new concepts, new ideas.
Being “The Tongue” was a great spiritual duty, for it meant putting all her being at the service of the gods so that her tongue was part of the
resounding system of the divinity, so that her voice would spread through the cosmos the very meaning of existence. But Malinalli did not feel up to
the task. Very often, when translating, she let herself be guided by her feelings, and then the voice of fear, fear of being unfaithful to the gods, of
failure, fear of not being able to bear responsibility. And truthfully, also fear of power, of taking power.
Never before had she felt what it was like to be in charge. Soon she found that whoever controls information, whoever controls meaning,
acquires power. And she discovered that when she translated, she controlled the situation, and not only that but that words could be weapons. The
finest of weapons.
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What is the difference between Malinalli’s and Cortes’s view of the world?
Why do you think they have different ways of looking at the world? Is your view closer to Malinalli’s or Cortes’s? Explain.
From the characterization of Cortes and Malinalli, what kind of relationship do you think will they have? Explain your answer.
Do you think that the text was sympathetic toward Malinalli? Why do you say so?
How does it change the way people view Malinalli?
How would you describe the misunderstanding that happened between Malinalli and Cortes? What kind of relationship do you think they
have?
7. Is this something that happens a lot? What are your personal experiences regarding cross-cultural exchanges?
8. Do you agree that words are “the finest weapons”? Do you think this is applicable today? Give examples to prove your answer.
9. What is the power of the word or the power of language according to the text? Do you agree?
10. Compare and contrast the two colonial experience of Mexico and the Philippines.
AFTER READING ACTIVITIES
1. Create a poster that has Venn Diagram filled with images about the differences in world view of Malinalli and Cortes. In short paragraph,
discuss how these two different world views somehow create certain behavior, a way of interacting with the world.