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Introduction to Lens
According to Nelson (2008), “in many cultures, women, far more than men, serve as archetypes” (p. 1). Nelson argued that it is through these archetypes that women are reduced to symbols, and that the actual complexities of women become dismissed and hidden. Additionally, Nelson asserted that these symbols surface through stories that appear within a culture and that these stories work to “define what it means to be male or female” (p.1) and “provide the parameters of acceptable behavior within those roles” (p.1). Furthermore, she stated that it is through the retelling of these stories that the gender system of a particular culture is reinforced. Moreover, the stories also work to establish boundaries and define punishments for those who choose to step outside these boundaries.
In regard to the Mexican/Chicano culture, Gaspar de Alba (2005) identified three archetypal roles that have surfaced regarding women: la madre (the mother), la virgen (the virgin), and la puta (the whore), and argued that all Mexican/Chicana women are identified and defined through these roles. She also noted that these three roles are not mutually-exclusive. Technically, a woman can exhibit characteristics from all three. For example, la virgen and la madre often overlap with stated characteristics of marianismo. Therefore, these two roles often blend and become one – the Virgin Mary. However, realistically, a coexistence of la virgen and la puta cannot exist; instead, they contain a natural division. As a result of these natural combinations and divisions, Mexican/Chicana women are often identified as exhibiting characteristics of la Virgen Madre or la puta; therefore, creating a dichotomy of identification for Mexican/Chicana women.
This created dichotomy has been reinforced through Chicano literature. Chicana authors, such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Cherrie Moraga, have created literary works that reinforce this dichotomy through the female figures of La Virgen de Guadalupe (la Virgen Madre) and La Malinche (la puta). In the literature, the Virgen de Guadalupe is the figure that Mexican/Chicana women should seek to mimic as she represents the ideas of marianismo. However, tiring from the inherent oppression of a patriarchal world, the women battle with the desire to rebel against these standards and create a voice of their own. However, to rebel is to move away from marianismo and inch toward whoredom as they become a traitor to their culture – a Malinche. It is noted that this may be a false dichotomy for identifying women; however, it is further noted that regardless of its possible falsity, it has been readily accepted as reality within the culture. Therefore, Mexican/Chicana women are either La Virgen de Guadalupe (the virgin mother) or La Malinche (the traitor).
Based on the created dichotomy for identifying Mexican/Chicana women, I will explore how Mirta Vidal’s article Women: New Voice of La Raza contains evidence that suggests that women involved in the Chicana Feminist Movement were considered traitors working against the ideas of marianismo; therefore, they were depicted from within their culture as becoming the modern day Malinche. In order to draw this parallel, it is now necessary to offer a thorough historical and mythical depiction of who La Malinche wasin order to appropriately establish it as my lens.
Explanation of Lens
Slave, interpreter, raped, harlot, traitor, secretary, lover of foreigners, mistress, heroine, mother of the first mestizo, political consultant, whore, La Chingada ( the screwed) – these names are all used to describe La Malinche, whom in Mexico continues to be an individual surrounded by controversy. To the majority, La Malinche continues to be reviled. More recently, to a handful of others, La Malinche has become a strong representation of a feminist and heroine (Lencheck, 1997). Regardless of one’s view, La Malinche continues to be both a historical and mythical figure in the Mexican/Chicano culture that is used to define women who are considered a traitor to their people.
Historically Speaking: Who is La Malinche?
La Malinche, born Malinal, was born to a noble Aztec familyaround 1505. Her father, who was a rich and powerful nobleman, died when Malinal was young. As a result of her father’s death, Malinal’s mother soon remarried and bore a second child, a son, who she desired to be the heir to her first husband’s estate (Adams, 1995). In order to ensure that this occurred, the mother sold Malinal into slavery to the Cacique, the military chief of Tabasco (Lencheck, 1997), and then obtained the body of a slave’s child who had died and buried it, and then told the townspeople that it was her child, Malinal, who had died (Adams, 1995).
As a slave, Malinalmoved often, which exposed her to many different Indian cultures. Historians state that because of Malinal’s personality, intelligence, and noble background, she was intellectually advanced therefore used for important tasks, such as translation. It was during this time of frequent movement that Malinal also learned Spanish, Mayan dialects, and Nahuatl.
In around 1522, Hernan Cortes arrived on the mainland near Tabasco in hope of conquering the land of the Aztecs. As a result of his landing, Cacique offered Malinal and 19 other young women as slaves to Cortes to dodge possible bloodshed. Initially, Malinal was given by Cortes to one of his captains, but then after discovering her intelligence changed his mind and took her as his own slave.
As Cortez’s slave, Malinal, who was called Malinche by the Spaniards, was then used as an interpreter. She was utilized to help negotiate with the Indians, appearing to be on their side; however, she would then offer their information and strategiesto Cortez. This information was key in helping Cortez with the conquest of the Aztec land. Malinche’s ability to communicate with the Indians shaped the entire campaign for the conquering of New Spain. In addition to this treason, she also bore a child with Cortez, who the Indians believe to be the first Mexican. However, it is believed that shortly after the birth of her son, Cortes abandoned Malinche and took their son with him (Adams, 1995).
Mythically Speaking: Who is La Malinche?
Although little is known historically about La Malinche, “her story has become mythologized, [and] her name has come to stand primarily for the betrayal of the Mexican race and the danger of female sexuality” (Nelson, 2008). Additionally, as a result of the betrayal of her people by Malinche, the term Malinchismo “denotes the opening of Mexico to outsiders, those who have rendered Indian stock ‘impure’ and have sullied Indian culture” (Adams, 1995, p. 17).
Furthermore, a Malinche is “a Mexican who has been corrupted by foreign influence, usually that of the US” (O’Keeffe, 2007, 59). This assertion derives from the belief that Malinche was seduced and corrupted by Cortes, who was of Spanish influence. Therefore, as a result of their relationship, Malinche began to accept the Spaniards way of life as her own, and she also became a supporter of their ideas. Ultimately, it is believed that Malinche lost her cultural identity as she allowed the Spaniards to pollute the Aztec heritage by accepting their ideas, but, more so by bearing a child of both Aztec and Spaniard descent, which permanently polluted the bloodline of the once pure Aztecs.
Alarcón (1983) stated that the myth of La Malinche emphasizes her sexual relationship with Cortes, and that contemporary Chicana/o culture considers Malinche an “evil goddess and creator of a new race. . .mother-whore, bearer of illegitimate children, responsible for the foreign Spanish invasion” (p. 182), and Lanyon (1999) asserts that Malinche’s name is synonymous with “the enemy within” (p. 188-189). Furthermore, Chicano writer Octavio Paz extends the sexual weakness of Malinche to all women “expressing the belief that because of their sexuality, women inherently pose the threat of betrayal and therefore must be controlled by men” (Nelson, 2008). As a result of the sexual deviance exhibited, the Mexican/Chicano culture framed La Virgen de Guadalupe as an opposition to La Malinche. Simply stated, virgins were those women who exhibited qualities of marianismo as established through the Catholic Church, whores were any woman who worked against marianismo(Nelson, 2008).
Nelson (2008) further stated that being a Malinche is also synonymous with a woman stepping out of her role of submission and actively trying to behave as a man in terms of leadership. This argument is drawn from Malinche’s leadership and political involvement with Cortes, which led to the destruction of her own people. Therefore, Mexican/Chicano men warn their women that although other cultures may try to seduce them with their ideas, it will ultimately lead to destruction, as it did with Malinche. Her intellect, her education, her leadership, her sexuality, and her political influence all lead to Malinche’s downfall and consequently to the downfall of her people. As a result of this misfortune, Mexican/Chicana women are instructed to “support [their] men, maintain traditional roles, preserve their culture” (NietoGomez, 1976, p. 99), and remain in their subordinate roles” (Moraga, 1993) in order to avoid their destruction and the destruction of their race and culture.
As evident through this myth, La Malinche is the “root of much of the disdain Mexican men display toward Mexican women” (Krauss, 1997, p.1). Additionally, to men, the La Malinche myth has justified the need for a patriarchal culture asMalinche has shown what occurs when women are educated, political, sexually immoral, and exposed to foreigners and their ideas. Therefore, in order to adequately prevent the dissolution of the Mexican/Chicano culture, and to protect women from being seduced by outsiders and their ideas – Mexican/Chicano men must control their women, and women must submit to their control in order to avoid a similar fate as Malinche.
Justification for Lens
Being that it has been established through previous research and exhibited through Chicano literary works that Mexican/Chicana women are often identified according to the virgin/whore dichotomy, I believe that using this established dichotomy to analyze Mirta Vidal’s Women: New Voice of La Raza will be beneficial in uncovering how Chicana feminists were viewed from within their culture. Specifically, I will use the La Malinche myth to exhibit how Chicana feminists are portrayed as traitors, therefore being labeled as the modern day Malinche. Additionally, I will exhibit through examples of Vidal’s text how Chicana feminists faced similar issues as Malinche, and how this parallel hindered the movement regardless of Vidal’s attempt to justify their cause. In regard to justification for this lens, I will now provide a few examples from Vidal’s text and show how it draws a parallel to the La Malinche myth.
Primarily, the fifth paragraph of Vidal’s text, which housed the ultimate purpose of informing the reader of the Chicana oppression as presented in the first national conference of Raza women, provided a list of the issues that Chicana feminists challenged. These issues are highly similar to those issues highlighted in the La Malinche myth. Vidal wrote:
With their growing involvement in the struggle for Chicano liberation and the emergence of the feminist movement, Chicanas are beginning to challenge every social institution which contributes to and is responsible for their oppression, from inequality on the job to their own role in the home. They are questioning “machismo”, discrimination in education, the double standard, the role of the Catholic Church, and all the backward ideology designed to keep women subjugated. (para. 5)
As seen through the above excerpt, it becomes obvious when compared to the La Malinche myth that Chicana feminists were guilty of rising up against the same issues that damnedMalinche when she stepped out of a women’s role and acted as a man. These issues consisted of education, sexuality, women’s role in society and at home, and a plea for equality to men, which would assist in dissolving the essence of machismo. In the myth, when Malinche worked in opposition to these issues, she ultimately destroyed her culture – Chicana feminists were warned that they were doing the same thing as they were accused of dividing the Chicano movement.
Secondly, a parallel can be drawn between the La Malinche myth and the Chicana feminist movement when speaking about Malinchismo as being a lover of foreigners and their ideas, which ultimately, in Malinche’s case, destroyed the Aztec culture. This portion can be seen when Vidal seeks to reach Chicana women not currently involved in the movement. Although the Chicana women were making great progress in defining and establishing their own movement, many Chicanas were reluctant to join. Their reluctance was partly rooted in the fact that they were consistently told that the feminist movement was for Anglo women only. Vidal revealed this reluctance when she writes, “[i]nstead [Chicanas] are told to stay away from the women’s liberation movement because it is an ‘Anglo thing’” (para. 19). This reference in Vidal’s text can easily parallel with the La Malinche myth. Malinche was labeled as a lover of foreigners and their ideas. Chicana feminists were warned not to be seduced by Anglo things for it would ultimately destroy their culture, as it did with Malinche, and they would become traitors to their own culture.
Lastly, a parallel can also be drawn between Malinche and Chicana feminists on the basis of the argument of sexuality. As stated earlier in this paper, Mexican/Chicana women are often portrayed as either a virgin or a whore. This identification is partly decided in accordance to how the woman approaches and institutes marianismo into her life. In Women: New Voice of La Raza, Vidal writes about how Chicana feminists were rising up against the Catholic Church as they insisted that they be in total control of their bodies when discussing abortion and birth control. With Chicana feminists little regard for the Catholic Church, they move away from marianismo and inch toward whoredom – they become La Malinche.
In conclusion, the above three examples provide justification for my decision to use the La Malinche myth for my lens to analyze Virta Midal’s Women: New Voice of La Raza. In my final paper, I will note additional ways in which the La Malinche myth parallels with how Chicana feminist were portrayed. I will do this by analyzing the themes that surrounded the Chicana feminist movement as presented by Vidal, and then show how the discussion surrounding those themes can be linked back to the La Malinche myth. Ultimately, my paper will argue that Chicana feminists became the modern day Malinche. As a result of this transformation of identity, the Chicana feminist movement was halted regardless of Vidal’s attempt to justify the Chicana cause.
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