Reply to comment

I was very interested in Moya's discussion of Malinche because she is a figure that I have discussed earlier this semester in the context of my Historical Imagination course. Something that was discussed in both courses was the idea of Malinche as a betrayer of "her people."

I certainly agree with Moya's statement that "Haraway's reading of the Malinche myth ignores the complexity of the situation" (Moya 131). However, I think that Haraway's most crutial mistake is viewing Malinche's betrayal (if we can even consider it one) as that of a sexual nature rather than as one based in language. The sexual "transgression" (if you can call it that) of having a child with a Spanish conquistador is something that became common, though I think that a discussion about rape (which I do not have enough information to accurately explain) is necessary to fully understand the sexual relationships between the male conquerers and the female conquered. I think that Malinche's more important "transgression" is that of language and if she can be viewed as a betrayer of "her people" I think that the linguistic nature of her involvement with the Spainards was more of a detriment to the people of ancient Mexico than any personal or sexual involvement with the Spainards could ever have been.

Further, I think that in claiming she is a betrayer, we need to be very careful in placing her in a context that was not present in her time and place. I cannot be certain how Malinche would have defined her "home," but I think that assuming that she did (or should have) felt an alliance with all of the people living on the same peninsula as her is quite a stretch. I think that in doing so, perhaps we are applying a sense of community that is present within the Latina community today (maybe because of a common language?) but was not the case for Malinche. It is also important to remember that, as far as "her people" were concerned, Malinche was a slave. I am not sure that anyone would feel a great deal of loyalty to "a people" (though I really do believe that considering the people of ancient Mexico as one people, the matter is being oversimplified) who enslaved them. I think that we really need to re-evaluate our conception of Malinche as a betrayer by considering how Malinche herself would have defined her "home" and whether or not this would have been based upon the people, the land, or many of the other factors we have discussed in class. I think that in general we (as a society) need to be more careful about our comfort with retrospectively defining who someone is and applying our conception of "home" to their actions and experiences.