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Malinche Paradigm
Discourse, andSpring
26.18c26.2(Winter pp.235-257.
2004),
2005
Copyright WayneState Detroit,
Press,
University 48201-1309.
Michigan
of his youthas an old man, much like Diaz del Castillo himself
narratedhis youthfuladventuresin the colonies fromold age.
The narratordistortsLa Nia Chole in addition to making
her fitthe mold of La Malinche. She substitutesthe objectsof the
narrator'sdesire of his previoustravels.La Nia Chole, has the
*4
eyesand bodylanguage of la raza maya" and speaksin her "vieja
lengua" despiteher being "criolla" and "de origenespaol." Evi-
dentlythischaracter- not a realisticdepictionof a woman thathe
met on his travels,forby definitionone cannot be "criollo" and
Maya- is an impossible,all-encompassingmixtureofMexicanness.
Her pan-Mexicanidadbetraysthe allegorical charge of the repre-
sentationof Mexico thatshe will take on as the plot unfolds.She
is the lostwoman and the lostterritory - here,as withla Malinche,
one and the same.
The veryfirstsentenceof the noveldeclaresthepurpose ofthe
journeythatEl Marqus willnarrate:"Quera olvidarunos amores
desgraciados,y pens recorrerel mundo en romnticaperegrina-
cin" (99). The plural of the "amores desgraciados" contradicts
the informationthatthe narratorgivesus- thathe had onlyone
past love, Lili. The plural of "loves," however,does beg the post-
imperialreading. The lost loves can be forgottenby substituting
themwithone love thatincorporatesboth the loss of the colonies
and the loss of thewoman:the love of La Malinche.While crossing
theAtlanticon the tall ship El Marqus narrates
La soberana
de losEstadoses comoel honorde la mujer: cuandolos
puebloslaconservan sonrespetados
intacta, comoloesuna
yestimables,
mujer honradaentodoslospases;
mscuandoelinters,la corrupcin,
la debilidad,
o cualquiera
otracausaleshacencedersuapreciablejoya,
nilosunosnilasotras
sonmsqueobjetos dedesprecio,
dignos, cuando
ms,delstimaydeconmiseracin.(Varela107)
to the arms of the Spanish King. ("Mi Rey querido nunca nos
hemos querido as"). This Aztec/Maya/ Criollaprincess,described
as a representativeof a pre-Conquestculturalgroup as well as a
post-colonialperson,and confusedwiththe landscape itself,is La
Malinche,the incarnationof the desiredterritory and the desired
love.
Afterfusingthe fictitiouscontemporarycharactersinto real
historicalcharactersand allegoricalrepresentatives of theirrespec-
tivecultures,Valle-Inclnmoves them about as pawns,writinga
new historicalscriptforthemto follow.The use of allegorycreates
a new historyin which the Empire recuperates,or never really
loses the colonized territory. NormaAlarconnotesin her essential
essay "Traddutora,Traditora:A ParadigmaticFigure of Chicana
Feminism"thatin the 500-yeartrajectory of the Malinche legend
fromthe Conquest to Octavio Paz and, later,the Chicana feminist
interpretations, "thereare twopreviousstages(...) thefirstcorre-
sponds to the chroniclers and inventorsof legends; the second
corresponds to the developmentof the traitormythand scapegoat
mechanism, which apparentlycame intofruitionin thenineteenth
centuryduring the Mexican Independence movement" (281).
The nineteenth-century traitormyth,begun by a Cuban exile in
Philadelphia,maynot come frompreoccupationsabout Mexican
historyat all, however.Varela, observingSpanish-U.S.-Cubanpoli-
ticsfromthe perspectiveof the U.S. uses La Malinche to present
the futureof freeLatinAmericaand to call fora pan-LatinAmeri-
can decolonization that liberatesthe Caribbean. In this second
stageofLa Malinche'slegend,her symbolicchargeofrepresenting
the lostterritory is not particularto Mexico. I would like to add to
thischronologythatLa Malinche undergoesa new reconstruction
at the pen of one of the greatauthorsof the Spanish Generation
of '98 in her capacityas a symbolof thedenial ofloss. La Malinche,
constantly reconstructed at theserviceoftheideologyofthosewho
retell her, becomes the common object of Latin American and
Spanish nationalistdiscourse.During the 19thand early20thcentu-
ries' battlesfor territory, national identity,and national culture,
La Malinche remergesto remain at the frontof nationalistdis-
course and criticism,forevera symbolof colonial and decolonial
desire.When thosediscoursesjoin, as in the filmadaptationof the
Sonata, theydrop La Malinche as if to state that her presence
makes the collaborationimpossible- whichside would character-
ize her as traitor?In Manuel Barbachano's 1959 cinematographic
interpretationof Valle-Incln's Sonata de esto,the Spanish and
Mexican productionteam omitsLa Malinche fromthe equation,
Aspartofthenationalist
movement, Agefilms
Golden succeededincre-
anidealized,
ating andimaginary
romanticized, thatilluminated
Mexico
movie inMexico
screens andLatinAmerica.
(13)
voiceandenslaving
[H]ercategorical undercut
gestures thehumilia-
tionsdemanded
bythescripts
(...) shetookonthetraits
ofthecacique
andrenouncedfemininepsychology.Shebecamesomething unheard
of:a woman
whocontrolled
herowndestiny. (122)
Notes
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