La Malinche

Throughout history, countries have been conquered; civilizations destroyed; cultures eliminated; people killed by the masses. All for God and gold. Jane Eppinga's interest and vast experience in writing about history culminates in a fascinating, multilayered story in La Malinche. Eppinga takes the conquest of Mexico to a deeper level as we follow the people whose lives were changed forever, or lost to the sweep of history. We travel with the Spaniards from the narrow streets of the Old Jewish Quarter in Seville on their search for unconquered land. We march with the Conquistadors from the Guadalquivir River to the massive pyramids and stone ruins of Mexico. We love and hate, pity and admire the characters who die, endure or conquer. We live in the violent and complex Aztec culture through their food, medicines and fearful family life. We see how the Spaniards fulfilled the visions and prophecies of the native people in their push for more gold than they could carry. We follow Malinche, pampered Maya princess, from her betrothal to the powerful Moctezuma to the bed of the conqueror, Cortés. Cuernavaca, a town outside Mexico City, holds Cortés's grand summer palace. And a few miles away, is the lovely country estate he built for Malinche. I was told she was "Cortés's beautiful Indian lover." As I wandered through the gardens and shops, I wondered about this little-known woman.

In La Malinche, Jane Eppinga has given us her story - and much more. Malinche was a woman caught in an epic battle for God and gold. But she, like most of us, only wanted love. Mary Tate Engels, Author, teacher, storyteller.

Jane Eppinga's writing credentials include more than 200 articles for both popular and professional publications covering a broad spectrum of children's fiction, travel, personal profiles, biology, construction, food, and public relation pieces. Her books include a biography of Henry Ossian Flipper, West Point's First Black Graduate, Arizona Twilight Tales, and books in Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series focusing on Arizona towns including Tucson, Nogales, Apache Junction and Tombstone. She writes regularly for Biology Digest. In 2009, Globe Pequot published her book. They Made Their Mark: An Illustrated History of the Society of Woman Geographers. That same year she made a presentation on the Society of Woman Geographers at the 10th International Congress of Women in Madrid, Spain.

"La Malinche (c. 1496 or c. 1505 – c. 1529, some sources give 1550-1551), known also as Malintzin, Malinalli or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés. She was one of twenty slaves given to Cortés by the natives of Tabasco in 1519.^[1] Later she became a mistress to Cortés and gave birth to his first son, Martín, who is considered one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry).

The historical figure of Marina has been intermixed with Aztec legends (such as La Llorona, a woman who weeps for lost children).^[2] Her reputation has been altered over the years according to changing social and political perspectives, especially after the Mexican Revolution, when she was portrayed in dramas, novels, and paintings as an evil or scheming temptress.^[3] In Mexico today, La Malinche remains iconically potent. She is understood in various and often conflicting aspects, as the embodiment of treachery, the quintessential victim, or simply as symbolic mother of the new Mexican people. Her sexual relationship to Cortés gave birth to Martin a Mestizo. The term malinchista refers to a disloyal Mexican."