Around the year 1500, in a region of the Yucatan Peninsula between the Aztec and Mayan empires, a girl who came to be known as Malitsen was born. Malitsin was enslaved at a young age. She worked in households across the Yucatan Peninsula.
As she moved, she became fluent in Yucatec and Nahuatl, the region's two most prominent languages. In 1596, Malitsin was born in Yucatan, and she was born in Yucatan. Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and his army arrived at the city of Pontonchan. City officials gave the war leader 20 enslaved women as a peace offering.
Malitzan was one of them. Most of the enslaved women became domestic workers and bed slaves for Cortes'men. But Malitzan's skill with languages made her valuable.
She taught herself Spanish and became an interpreter For Cortés, Malitzan helped Cortés conquer the Aztec Empire. Montezuma II, ruler of the Aztecs, sent all of his messages for the Spanish directly to her, and Cortés trusted her to meet with Aztec representatives without him. After the fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan in 1521, Cortés declared that Malitzan was second only to God on the list of reasons his conquest had succeeded. But for all of her stature, Malitzen was Cortés'slave. She was bound to do what he commanded or suffer the consequences.
After the fall of Tenochtitlan, Malitzen bore Cortés a son that they named Martín. We do not know if their sexual relationship was consensual. In 1524, Cortés married Malitzen to one of his captains. Upon her marriage, Malitzin rose to the status of a free Spanish noblewoman, with all the rights and privileges that class afforded. In 1526, she gave birth to a baby girl she named María.
Martín and María were two of the first mixed-race children to enter the ranks of the Spanish nobility. Today, Malitzin is considered by many to be a traitor who hastened the fall of the Aztec Empire. She is called La Malinche in popular culture.
While it's undeniable that she played a critical role in the success of the Spanish conquest, it's important to remember that as an enslaved woman, she lacked the freedom to make her own choices.