"La Malinche, or Malintzin, was the primary interpreter in the retinue of Hernán Cortés during his conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century and has become one of the most divisive women in Mexican history. Though she was called Malintzin by the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of the Aztec Empire, she was known as Doña Marina or Malinche to the Spanish conquistadors, and modern scholars typically refer to her by the latter."
"Born in Coatazacoalcos near modern-day Veracruz, Malintzin was the daughter of a noble father and a low-ranking mother and was sold into slavery at a young age. Taken from her home and kin, she was brought to the Mayan coastal town of Xicallanco and traded for either beans or bolts of cloth, the currency that ruled in the trading port at that time."
Malintzin was born in Coatazacoalcos to a noble father and a low-ranking mother and was sold into slavery as a child. She was taken to the Mayan coastal town of Xicallanco and traded for goods, then moved to Potonchan where she lived among the Chontal Maya. After Maya losses in skirmishes with a Spanish expedition, she was among twenty young women handed to Hernán Cortés in exchange for peace. She served as Cortés's primary interpreter during the conquest of Mexico, facilitating communication and alliances. Perceptions of her range from traitor to a symbol of Indigenous survival and resilience.
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