6:33 Untitled document 95 2 of 3 5G 24 Done Collins Cortes was traveling with Cortes told the Cholula n-'s however that he was traveling to Tenochtitlan on an official state visit to see emperor Montezuma and need a quarter in the town as a favor to their overlord the true lieu lands reluctantly agreed while their Marina made friends with local women and soon found out about a plot that the Cholula Army was planning to attack the Spanish unsuspectedly marina told Cortez and the Spanish quickly attacked the Cholula n-'s killing thousands and disabling their army the path to the Aztec capital was now clear the initial arrival at the Aztec capital was peaceful on November 8th 1519 Cortez followed by thousands marched on the causeway across Lake Texcoco connecting Tenochtitlan to the mainland in the middle of the causeway Cortez was met by Montezuma himself and his entourage gifts were exchanged and so were pleasantries with marina as the go-between the Emperor invited the Spanish to enter the city the two lush Collin warriors and all other non Spaniards with the exception of marina were told to stay on the mainland Marina would serve a vital role in the ensuing two weeks during which time the Spanish were received as honored guests it's important to note how marina completely broke the standards of behavior of Mesoamerican women at the time women in the Aztec empire were prohibited from speaking in public places especially at public events anyone surrounding the Aztec emperor was required to look away from him Marina however boldly spoke directly to Montezuma on Cortez's behalf and always conducted herself in a noble way according to Spanish and native observers all would agree that she had a powerful commanding presence which served only to enhance her physical beauty at one point now a devout Christian Medina even spoke fearlessly to Montezuma about converting to Christianity telling him that the gods he worshiped were evil this was definitely a bold woman the weeks of talks and deal-making did not yield what Cortes wanted and he had Montezuma taken prisoner it was marina who informed the Emperor that he was to be taken captive for six months Montezuma was in custody a prisoner in his own land many people who were dissatisfied with Montezuma's rule were indifferent to the Spanish takeover or even welcomed it during the time of Montezuma's captivity however the relations between the Spanish and the Aztecs slowly deteriorated when Cortes was away from the city and when the Aztecs were having a nighttime celebration to honor one of their main gods which silly portly Cortes lieutenant Pedro de Oliver oddo attacked the celebrants mistaking the fiesta for the beginnings of an armed insurrection against Spanish rule hundreds of unarmed nobles were killed and soon after when Cortes returned to Tenochtitlan the Aztecs were furious and began their open rebellion against the Spaniards some accounts say that Montezuma was hauled out of prison and stoned to death by his own people other accounts say that Cortes had Montezuma killed right after Montezuma's death on the night of June 30th 1520 the Spanish retreated and fled Tenochtitlan hundreds of Spaniards and possibly over a thousand plush Collins were killed as a full force of Aztecs attacked theinvaders on the causeway and on the mainland the night in history is knownin Spanish as la noche triste thus at night Marina survived the battles by hiding under a bridge she regrouped with Cortes and his forces nearly a year later and with more help from surrounding tribes the Spanish reentered Kendall Katelyn and completely subdued the Aztec capital Marina was there at the side of Cortes to translate for the formal surrender on August 13th 1521 during the whole time of the expedition Medina became closer to Cortes remember Marina was given to the man named Porto Carreiro but Cortes had sent him back to Spain halfway through the expedition after portal Corrado's departure cortez look marina as his mistress and they remained together for four years after the fall of Tenochtitlan and after the new city of Mexico was built on its ruins Medina lived with Cortez and gave birth to his first son Martine in May of 15 22 Martine Cortez was the first publicly acknowledged person of mestizo or mixed-race heritage in Mexican history this is the reason why morena is sometimes referred to as the mother of Mexico morena took one last journey with Cortes to the Maya area of on Duris in 1524 because Cortez had a legal wife in Cuba Marina was free to marry and on this 1524 trip she married a man named Juan Jaramillo they Salvatierra on the journey to Honduras theexpedition stopped in marinas birth town or she was able to visit family members instead of staying in this town she opted to continue the journey with the spaniards to Central America while there are no records of the rest of the life of Marina there was a lot of speculation as to what happened to her it is certain that after the Honduras expedition she never saw Cortes again because he returned to Spain soon after there are various legends about the rest of her life including that she died tragically of strangulation or that she died a very old woman in any event there are no records of her existence after the Honduras trip save her brief mentioning of her still being alive in a text dated 1550 recently found in Spain marinas legacy lives on mixing historical fact with myth and full of pointed opinions as to her impact many people see her asa Judas figure a traitor to the native peoples of men of America there even exists a word in Spanish meline Kista used to describe a disloyal or unfaithful person to some Martinez arrival in Tenochtitlan symbolizes the end of great indigenous civilizations of the Americas and she should never be forgiven for her betrayal on the other hand some see her as a liberator of the peoples who are living under the Aztec jackboot with the Spanish arrival came the end of human sacrifice and the brutality of everyday life under the Aztecs as a devout convert to Christianity Marina is seen as an evangelist bringing a more peaceful religion to a new people her closeness to Cortes is seen as a softening influence on the conquistador and many believe that with this influence the conquest of Mexico was less brutal as the mother of one of the first mixed-race children in the Americas Marina is seen as the mother of a new race la raza cosmic ax or the mestizo other modern interpretations see her as a scapegoat used to take the fall for whatever opinion one may have about the conquest it is generally agreed though that the Moline tre was a woman caught in the middle a person who used her intelligence and tact to the best of her ability when faced with difficult choices we cannot know how she felt as she left no written diary and no first-hand accounts of her exist outside of those brief passages written by Bernal Diaz we can only guess what she was feeling as she saw the history of the new world unfold in front of her a history that she played more than anactive role in actually creating 6:33 5G 24 == Untitled document 95 Done 1 of 3 welcome to Mexico unexplained where wewill explore the magic the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico this series presents information based partly ontheory and conjecture the podcasters purpose is to suggest some possible explanation but not necessarily the only ones to the subjects we will examine here is your host Robert Vito welcome and muy bienvenidos to episode number 20 of Mexico unexplained where we examine the magic the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico I'm your host Robert Bidault today we are going to talk about the most important woman in the history of Mexico she is known by many names La Malinche Dona Marina Molly Molly Molly scene and disparagingly as la chingada although many of the details of her life had been lost or embellished over time history casts her alternatively in the role of Savior villain lover betrayer evangelist helper and the mother of a new race so who exactly was Dona Marina and what role did she play in the history of Mexico the woman later known by her Spanish name Dona marina was born sometime at the end of the 15th century or at the beginning of the sixteenth century her given name was Molly nalli and she was named for the 12th day of the ancient Mesoamerican calendar according to first-hand accounts published by Bernal Diaz one of the Spanish conquistadors who arrived with Cortes and who knew Marina she was from a minor noble family in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in south central Mexico Marina was most likely not a native speaker of nahuatl the language of the Aztec empire but knew it fluently because it was the lingua franca of the region and known by many non Aztec groups who were either subjugated by the Aztec empire or who interacted with the Aztecs through trade most of what we know about marinas early life comes from Diaz's written accounts recorded almost 40 years after the conquest in a book titled la historia verdadero de la conquista the Novus Ponyo in English this translates to the true history of the conquest of New Spain you can see this reference along with others for this podcast in our website Mexico unexplained calm back to Dona Marina when she was a young girl her father who's the cacique of pine ala died and her mother remarried with her new husband marinas mother had a son the mother wanted her son to inherit the family status and wealth and had a plan to send marina away when she was in her early teens marinas mother sold her to traders in the market city of Chicago and told everyone that marina had died in Chicago Marina was sold off to a Maya Lord who ruled potent chan a small Kingdom located in the present state of Tabasco when marina was brought to Colton Chan she served in the household of the noble Lord and after a short time she became fluent in the local Toronto Maya language up until that point Marina was fluent in at least three languages the native language of her town of birth the Aztec language nawafil and Tonto Maya while Marina served in the house of the Tonto Maya ruler Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes was taking part in the conquest of the island of Cuba while Cortes served the Spanish king in Cuba he heard stories of a mythical land to the west and about a mighty empire whose capital stood on an island in the middle of a lake Cortez was determined to locate this city and take over the Empire and in 1518 he left Cuba with over 500 Lambitious Spaniards to undertake thisgrand scheme his expedition landed on Mexico's Gulf Coast and the Spaniards made contact with the local Maya speaking people in the course of the expedition's journey down the coast to their surprise Cortes and his men encountered a 30 year old Spanish priest named Heron Amodei Aguilar who had been shipwrecked on the Mexican coast in 1511 and had lived among the Maya ever since as a consequence of living among the coastal mire for almost seven years Aguilar knew their language and proved invaluable to Cortez because he could translate for the expedition at least in that region Cortez used oggela to help form alliances and make deals with the locals it was soon after meeting up with Aguilar that Dona Medina came into the picture in March of 1518 the Spanish arrived in the Maya kingdom of potent Chan where morena served in the royal court the Maya decided to fight the Spanish and lost as part of their reparations the Maya gave the Spanish food turquoise Jade objects and 20 young women and Moreno was among this group the women were baptized by the two priests on the expedition and this is when Molly nolle became Dona Marina marina was then given to one of Cortez's friends Alonso Hernandez Porto Corrado Marina showed her worth once the Spanish left the territories of the Maya speaking people's emperor Montezuma the second having heard of the arrival of the strangers from the east sent emissaries to try to reason with Cortes and to at least find out his intent the emissaries met up with the Spanish expedition on the fringes of the Aztec empire in a town where Cortez set up anencampment the emissaries only spoke Nahuatl a native language that father Aguilar was unfamiliar with Cortez was discouraged because Aguilar was of no use and there was no way for them to communicate during the initial meeting with the Aztecs and amid the frustration according to the first-hand accounts of Bernal Diaz this is when morena stepped in and answered the questions of the emissaries and pointed to Cortez Cortezwas surprised that marina knew Nahuatl and he devised a way to communicate with the Aztecs Cortez will communicate in Spanish-father Aguilar father Aguilar would thenspeak to Marina in Toronto Maya and Martina would speak to the Aztecs in their native language of nahuatl when the Aztecs would speak the process would be reversed this wayCortez through Marina was able to communicate with many native groups on his march towards the Aztec capital ofTenochtitlan along the way they gatheredintelligence from these groups and were thus better prepared to face Montezuma and the weight of his empire in the fall of 1519 the Spanish arrived at the independent Kingdom of La Scala just east of the Aztec homeland the Talaash Collins had fiercely resisted Aztec incursions into their territories and Talaash Kahlo was one of the few independent kingdoms in central Mexico that held out against the armies of Montezuma they greeted the Spanish with suspicion but through marina Cortes made a deal with the calash Collin King not only to spare his men but to join him on his march to the Aztec capital to the plush columns Cortez represented an opportunity to crush their enemy once and for all and to rid Mesoamerica of the Aztec hegemony when the expedition left the flush: Kingdom they had thousands of more soldiers in their ranks this was a turning point in the conquest of Mexico it is unclear what would have happened in this situation without the help of Marina who after being with the expedition for over a year and a half had mastered Spanish and could translate directly the wishes of Cortes while in clash kala marina acquired one of her other names Malin Dean which may translate loosely to noble captive a reference to marinas noble birth and the fact that she was given to the Spanish as a tribute in war the Spanish on the expedition could not pronounce the Nahuatl Marlene seen and called marina Malinche sometimes using the definite article in Spanish la in front of her name this is why Dona marina is often referred to as La Malinche or in English texts the Malinche from kailash kala the Spanish expedition moved to Cholula here again marinas role was pivotal Cholula was part of the Aztec empire and didn't trust that flush Collins Cortes was traveling with Cortes told the Cholula n--'s however that he was traveling to Tenochtitlan on an official state visit