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This woman played
a very important role in the history of the Mexican conquest. She learned most languages used by both the Indians as well
as the Spaniards. She has also been tied to a monogamous relationship with Cortes out of which came a son, who is thought
of as the first Mexican. I found this piece while looking at pictures of Hernan Cortes. There are few pictures of La Malinche;
most include Cortes, a few captains and Indians. This piece, however, is only of La Malinche.
This piece shows La Malinche
with two faces. She is painted as a very beautiful woman with long, dark hair and large, dark eyes. The artist used very bright
colors and soft, flowing lines to paint La Malinche. The part of the piece that drew me to it was the fact that she was drawn
with two faces. This really captivated me because I could think of two reasons as to why this was done. The first reason I
thought of was that the artist wanted to portray her as a woman of many talents and abilities. She was a woman who could learn
languages very easily and used them to help the Spaniards conquer Mexico. This directly relates to the second reason I thought
of: that the woman was two faced. She betrayed her heritage and fought for, what could be considered, the enemy. Many still
think of her as a traitor, and many think of her as the Mother of Mexicans. It is difficult to determine which description
the artist thought of as correct.
I chose this piece because
of what I said above. I couldn’t decide what the artist was thinking when they decided to paint this piece. That, to
me, was just as intriguing as the story of La Malinche herself.
I would like to know
why this piece was painted and what the artist thought of La Malinche and her influence on Mexican history. I could not find
the artists name, but if I had I would have enjoyed looking at some of their other paintings.
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