Background ,
Hernán Cortés and Malinche (far right), early 16th-century indigenous pictorial manuscript of the conquest of Mexico Malinche's birthdate is unknown, but it is estimated to be around 1500, and likely no later than 1505. She was born in an that was either a part of or a
tributary of a Mesoamerican state, whose centre was located on the bank of the
Coatzacoalcos River to the east of the Aztec Empire. Records disagree about the exact name of the where she was born. In three unrelated legal proceedings that occurred not long after her death, various witnesses who claimed to have known her personally, including her daughter, said that she was born in
Olutla. The of her grandson also mentioned Olutla as her birthplace. Her daughter added that the of Olutla was related to Tetiquipaque, although the nature of this relationship is unclear. In the
Florentine Codex, Malinche's homeland is mentioned as "Teticpac", which is most likely the singular form of Tetiquipaque. Gómara writes that she came from "Uiluta" (presumably a variant of
Olutla). He departs from other sources by writing that it was in the region of
Jalisco. Díaz, on the other hand, gives "Painalla" as her birthplace. Her family is reported to have been of noble background; Gómara writes that her father was related to a local ruler, while Díaz recounts that her parents were rulers. Townsend notes that while Olutla at the time probably had a
Popoluca-speaking majority, the ruling elite, which Malinche supposedly belonged to, would have been Nahuatl-speaking. Another hint that supports her noble origin is her apparent ability to understand the courtly language of ("lordly speech"), a Nahuatl
register that is significantly different from the commoner's speech and has to be learned. The fact that she was often referred to as a , at the time a term in Spain not commonly used when referring to someone outside of the aristocracy, indicates that she was viewed as a noblewoman. But she may have been given this honorific by the Spanish because of recognition of her important role in the conquest. Malinche was probably between the ages of 8 and 12 when she was either sold or kidnapped into slavery. Díaz wrote that after her father's death, she was given away to merchants by her mother and stepfather so that their son (Malinche's halfbrother) would have the rights of an
heir. Scholars, historians, and literary critics alike have cast doubt upon Díaz's account of her origin, in large part due to his strong emphasis on
Catholicism throughout his narration of the events. In particular, historian Sonia Rose de Fuggle analyses Díaz's over-reliance on
polysyndeton (which mimics the sentence structure of many Biblical stories) as well as his overarching portrayal of Malinche as an ideal Christian woman. But Townsend believes that it was likely that some of her people were complicit in
trafficking her, regardless of the reason. Malinche was taken to
Xicalango, a major port city in the region. She was later purchased by a group of
Chontal Maya, who brought her to the town of
Potonchán. It was here that Malinche started to learn the
Chontal Maya language, and perhaps also
Yucatec Maya. Her acquisition of the language later enabled her to communicate with
Gerónimo de Aguilar, another interpreter for Cortés, who also spoke Yucatec Maya, as well as his native Spanish.
The conquest of Mexico Early in
his expedition to Mexico, Cortés was confronted by the Maya at Potonchán. In the ensuing battle, the Mayas suffered significant loss of lives and asked for peace. In the following days, they presented the Spaniards with gifts of food and gold, as well as twenty enslaved women, including Malinche. The women were baptised and distributed among Cortés's men, who expected to use them as servants and sexual objects. Malinche was given to
Alonso Hernández Puertocarrero, one of Cortés' captains. He was a
first cousin to the
count of Cortés's hometown,
Medellín. Malinche's language skills were discovered when the Spaniards encountered the Nahuatl-speaking people at
San Juan de Ulúa. Moctezuma's emissaries had come to inspect the peoples, but Aguilar could not understand them. Historian Gómara wrote that, when Cortés realised that Malinche could talk with the emissaries, he promised her "more than liberty" if she would help him find and communicate with Moctezuma. Cortés took Malinche from Puertocarrero. Aided by Aguilar and Malinche, Cortés talked with Moctezuma's emissaries. The emissaries also brought artists to make paintings of Malinche, Cortés, and the rest of the group, as well as their ships and weapons, to be sent as records for Moctezuma. Díaz later said that the Nahua addressed Cortés as "Malinche"; they took her as a point of reference for the group. From then on, Malinche worked with Aguilar to bridge communication between the Spaniards and the Nahua; Cortés would speak Spanish with Aguilar, who translated into Yucatec Maya for Malinche, who in turn translated into Nahuatl, before reversing the process. The translation chain grew even longer when, after the emissaries left, the Spaniards met the
Totonac, whose language was not understood by either Malinche or Aguilar. There, Malinche asked for Nahuatl interpreters. Karttunen remarks that "it is a wonder any communication was accomplished at all", for Cortés' Spanish words had to be translated into Maya, Nahuatl, and Totonac before reaching the locals, whose answers went back through the same chain. Meeting with the Totonac was how the Spaniards first learned of opponents to Moctezuma. . After founding the town of
Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz to be freed from the legal restriction of what was supposed to be an exploratory mission, the Spaniards stayed for two months in a nearby Totonac settlement. They secured a formal alliance with the Totonac and prepared for a march toward Tenochtitlan. The first major polity that they encountered on the way to Tenochtitlan was
Tlaxcala. Although the
Tlaxcaltec were initially hostile to the Spaniards and their allies, they later permitted the Spaniards to enter the city. The Tlaxcalans negotiated an alliance with the Spaniards through Malinche and Aguilar. Later Tlaxcalan visual records of this meeting feature Malinche as a prominent figure. She appears to bridge communication between the two sides, as the Tlaxcalan presented the Spaniards with gifts of food and noblewomen to cement the alliance. After several days in Tlaxcala, Cortés continued the journey to Tenochtitlan by the way of
Cholula. By then he was accompanied by a large number of Tlaxcalan soldiers. The Spaniards were received at Cholula and housed for several days. The explorers claimed that the Cholulans stopped giving them food, dug secret pits, built a barricade around the city, and hid a large Aztec army in the outskirts to prepare for an attack against the Spaniards. Somehow, the Europeans learned of this and, in a
preemptive strike, assembled and
massacred the Cholulans. Later accounts claimed that Malinche had uncovered the plot. According to Díaz, she was approached by a Cholulan noblewoman who promised her a marriage to the woman's son if she were to switch sides. Pretending to go along with the suggestion, Malinche was told about the plot and later reported all the details to Cortés. In later centuries, this story has often been cited as an example of Malinche's "betrayal" of her people. But modern historians such as Hassig and Townsend have suggested that Malinche's "heroic" discovery of the purported plot was likely already a fabricated story intended to provide Cortés with political justification for his actions, to distant Spanish authorities. In particular, Hassig suggests that Cortés, seeking stronger native alliances leading to the invasion of Tenochtitlan, worked with the Tlaxcalans to coordinate the massacre. Cholula had supported Tlaxcala before joining the Aztec Empire one or two years prior, and losing them as an ally had been a severe blow to the Tlaxcalans. Their state was now completely encircled by the Aztecs. Hassig and other historians assert that Tlaxcalans considered the attack on the Cholulans as a "litmus test" of the Spanish commitment to them. The combined forces reached Tenochtitlan in early November 1519, where they were met by Moctezuma on a causeway leading to the city. Malinche was in the middle of this event, translating the conversation between Cortés and Moctezuma. Gomara writes that Moctezuma was "speaking through Malinche and Aguilar", although other records indicate that Malinche was already translating directly, as she had quickly learned some Spanish herself. Moctezuma's flowery speech, delivered through Malinche at the meeting, has been claimed by the Spaniards to represent a submission, but this interpretation is not followed by modern historians. The deferential nature of the speech can be explained by Moctezuma's usage of , a Nahuatl register known for its indirection and complex set of reverential affixes. Despite Malinche's apparent ability to understand , it is possible that some nuances were lost in translation. The Spaniards, deliberately or not, may have misinterpreted Moctezuma's words. Tenochtitlán fell in late 1521 and Malinche's son by Cortes,
Martín Cortés was born in 1522. During this time Malinche stayed in a house Cortés built for her in the town of Coyoacán, south of Tenochtitlán. The Aztec capital city was being redeveloped to serve as Spanish-controlled Mexico City. Cortés took Malinche to help quell a rebellion in
Honduras in 1524–1526 when she again served as interpreter (she may have known
Mayan languages beyond Chontal and Yucatec). While in the mountain town of
Orizaba in central Mexico, she married Juan Jaramillo, a Spanish
hidalgo. Some contemporary scholars have estimated that she died less than a decade after the conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, at some point before February 1529. She was survived by her son Don Martín, who would be raised primarily by his father's family, and a daughter Doña María, who would be raised by Jaramillo and his second wife Doña Beatriz de Andrada. Although Martín was Cortés's first-born son and eventual heir, his relation to Malinche was poorly documented by prominent Spanish historians such as
Francisco López de Gómara. He never referred to Malinche by name, even in her work as Cortés's translator. Even during Malinche's lifetime, she spent little time with Martín. But many scholars and historians have marked her multiracial child with Cortés as the symbolic beginning of the large
mestizo population that developed in
Mesoamerica. ==Debates about influence and importance in the conquest of Mexico==