Two native women: Malintzin and Anacaona
Spoiler Notice
This chapter describes colonial violence, including a massacre and execution.
Summary
The chapter contrasts the lives of two indigenous women caught in the Spanish conquest. Malintzin, a Nahua woman, was traded into the hands of Hernán Cortés. Bilingual in Maya and Nahuatl, she became an indispensable interpreter and negotiator, smoothing relations, warning of an uprising, and advising Moctezuma during his capture. She bore Cortés a son, Martín, and later married a Spanish nobleman. Her legacy as La Malinche remains contested.
Anacaona, a Taíno cacique of Hispaniola, first encountered the Spanish in 1496 when Bartolomé Colón arrived seeking tribute. She and her brother Behechio welcomed the invaders with feasts and diplomacy, and she personally conducted negotiations and gave lavish gifts. After her brother’s death, she ruled alone as queen of Xaraguá. In 1502 Governor Nicolás de Ovando deceived her nobles into a house, burned them alive, and hanged Anacaona. The Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas recorded this atrocity as part of his indictment of Spanish genocide. Both women’s stories survive only through the self-serving accounts of their conquerors.
Key Events
- Malintzin is traded as a girl after her father’s death and eventually given to Cortés’s expedition.
- Baptised and renamed Doña Marina, her fluency in Maya and Nahuatl makes her Cortés’s interpreter.
- She accompanies Cortés to Tenochtitlán, where she warns him of a native plot and advises Moctezuma to submit peacefully.
- Malintzin becomes Cortés’s lover and gives birth to one of the first mestizo sons, Martín.
- She later marries a Spanish nobleman and dies, possibly in 1529 or the 1550s.
- Anacaona and her brother Behechio receive Bartolomé Colón with elaborate ceremonies, dances, and gifts in 1496.
- A tribute agreement is negotiated: food and cotton in exchange for peace.
- Anacaona independently conducts diplomacy with Colón, riding in his boat and presenting fine duhos and cotton.
- By 1502 Anacaona rules alone; Governor Nicolás de Ovando arrives and feigns friendship.
- Ovando summons over three hundred nobles, locks them in a house, burns them alive, and hangs Anacaona.
Character Development
- Malintzin (La Malinche): Transitions from a disenfranchised chattel to a powerful intermediary. Her linguistic skills, quick wit, and intimate relationship with Cortés gave her agency, but her legacy as a traitor to native peoples highlights the moral ambiguity of collaboration. Later generations re-invent her as a symbol of mestizaje and betrayal.
- Anacaona: A Taíno female cacique who moved from co-rulership with her brother to sole queen. Her diplomatic instinct was to offer hospitality and gifts to secure her people’s sovereignty. The betrayal by Ovando shows how indigenous forms of power were violently erased, while de las Casas’s account transforms her into a martyr for colonial critique.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- The interpreter as a political force: Malintzin’s translation work was not neutral; it directly shaped momentous decisions like Moctezuma’s capture.
- Diplomacy and tribute as survival strategies: Anacaona’s lavish gift-giving and feasts aimed at alliance-making but were ultimately exploited.
- Gendered power in contact zones: Both women exercised influence through distinctly female roles—sexual partnership, ceremonial hospitality, and horizontal diplomacy.
- Eyewitness chronicles and contested memory: Díaz’s self-justifying narrative and de las Casas’s polemical account filter the women’s stories, leaving only fragments and later myth-making.
- Mestizaje and cultural hybridity: Malintzin’s son Martín embodies the biological merging of Old and New Worlds, a recurring motif in colonial history.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter places two often-silenced women at the center of the conquest narrative. It demonstrates how indigenous women used language, sexuality, and ritual to negotiate with—and sometimes resist—European invaders. By pairing Malintzin’s ambiguous survival with Anacaona’s brutal execution, Adams illustrates the spectrum of outcomes for native leaders and exposes the reliance of Spanish conquest on local intermediaries. The chapter also critiques the reliability of colonial sources, showing how women’s actions were recorded only because they served the chroniclers’ political or moral purposes.
Study Questions and Answers
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In what ways did Malintzin’s linguistic abilities alter the balance of power during the conquest of Mexico?
- Malintzin bridged the communication gap between Cortés and the Aztecs, enabling strategic alliances, intelligence gathering, and psychological manipulation (e.g., her advice to Moctezuma). Without her, Cortés would have been unable to exploit internal rivalries or negotiate with Nahuatl-speaking elites. Her role turned translation into a tool of conquest.
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How do the differing accounts of Bartolomé Colón’s and Nicolás de Ovando’s visits to Xaraguá reflect the unstable nature of Spanish colonial policy?
- The first visit under Colón was pragmatic: he sought food and tribute, and Anacaona’s hospitality was reciprocated with a show of firepower. Ovando’s later visit, however, treated indigenous sovereignty as a threat, using deception and mass murder to assert total control. The contrast shows that indigenous political skills mattered little when Spanish priorities shifted from tribute extraction to territorial domination.
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Why is it significant that both women’s stories survive only through European male chroniclers?
- The lack of indigenous or female-authored sources means we see Malintzin and Anacaona through the lenses of self-justifying conquistadors (Díaz) or reformist clerics (de las Casas). Their motives, values, and self-perceptions are filtered and possibly distorted. This forces readers to read against the grain, recognizing that these women’s true agency and interior lives remain largely invisible.