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Anzaldúa’s Mother
Malintzín was an enslaved Indigenous woman who is today better known by the nickname La Malinche, or the derogatory moniker La Chingada. In the 1500s, she helped Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés take over Mexico by serving as his interpreter. She also bore his children, who were some of the first mestizos. In Mexico today, she is a well-known and powerful symbol of treason and racial self-hatred—but she also represents the Mexican identity that has been forged through conquest and suffering. Yet Anzaldúa finds it troubling that Mexicans often use the figure of Malintzín to associate treason with Indigenous women, which she views as a way of teaching mestiza women to hate their Indigenous roots and turn toward Anglo and Spanish culture instead. Along with the Virgin and La Llorona, Malintzín is one of Chicanas’ “tres madres” (three mothers).
Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) Quotes in Borderlands / La Frontera
The Borderlands / La Frontera quotes below are all either spoken by Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) or refer to Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1, Section 3: Entering into the Serpent Quotes
La gente Chicana tiene tres madres. All three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned, and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a combination of the other two.
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Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) Character Timeline in Borderlands / La Frontera
The timeline below shows where the character Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) appears in Borderlands / La Frontera. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Section 2: Movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan
The Wounding of the india-Mestiza. The story of Malintzín (or La Malinche), the native woman who helped the Spaniards conquer Mexico, is an archetype...
(full context)
Part 1, Section 3: Entering into the Serpent
Anzaldúa argues that Chicano people have three mothers: Coatlalopeuh, la Llorona, and la Chingada (Malintzín). The church has used all three to disempower and control women, but Anzaldúa wants to...
(full context)
