The Ideological Appropriation of La Malinche in Mexican and Chicano Literature Page: 15

                                
Bernal Diaz's chronicle, we find that Malinche's role in the conquest is often referred to as
faraute. This is an archaic word meaning "busybody" but as Margo Glantz concludes, the word
advances the notion of La Malinche as liaison between the two cultures. Her role in the
conquest, then, is multifaceted because "in part her role is that of spy, but more importantly [it
is] that of interpreter of both cultures, in addition to being the molder of the drama"(173). She
had to communicate beyond the linguistic translations, she had to communicate cultural
differences and had to have had an understanding of both cultures in order to accurately
decipher the message.
As previously mentioned, La Malinche gave birth to Cortes' son. Historians believe that
La Malinche was approximately thirty years of age when she gave birth to Martin. He was born
in approximately 1522 and he seems to have been the favorite child, as he was legitimized by
Pope Clement VII in 1529, and was left a thousand gold ducats a year for life according to his
father's will (Cortes 465). Cortes had a second illegitimate male child, Don Luis with a different
mistress (Miralles 224). Due to this, many historians have concluded that in Cortes and La
Malinche's relationship there was not a romantic connection. Given this, the romantic
relationship between Cortes and La Malinche seems to be of little importance to her role as
translator and aid in the conquest.
After she bore the child of Cortes, La Malinche was married off to one of Cortes men,
Juan Jaramillo. As Miralles mentions, the marriage seems to have not been romantic in nature
and Bernal Diaz del Castillo writes that they were married while Juan Jaramillo was intoxicated.
While it is not known with certainty if it was Cortes who arranged the marriage, it is known that
he had married another mistress with one of his men (236). Since she did not write her own

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