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Anzaldúa’s Mother
Malintzín was an enslaved Indigenous woman who is today better known by the nickname La Malinche, or the derogatory moniker La Chingada. In the 1500s, she helped Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés take over Mexico by serving as his interpreter. She also bore his children, who were some of the first mestizos. In Mexico today, she is a well-known and powerful symbol of treason and racial self-hatred—but she also represents the Mexican identity that has been forged through conquest and suffering. Yet Anzaldúa finds it troubling that Mexicans often use the figure of Malintzín to associate treason with Indigenous women, which she views as a way of teaching mestiza women to hate their Indigenous roots and turn toward Anglo and Spanish culture instead. Along with the Virgin and La Llorona, Malintzín is one of Chicanas’ “tres madres” (three mothers).
Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) Quotes in Borderlands / La Frontera
The Borderlands / La Frontera quotes below are all either spoken by Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) or refer to Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Section 3: Entering into the Serpent
Quotes
La gente Chicana tiene tres madres. All three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned, and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a combination of the other two.
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Get the entire Borderlands / La Frontera LitChart as a printable PDF.
Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) Quotes in Borderlands / La Frontera
The Borderlands / La Frontera quotes below are all either spoken by Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada) or refer to Malintzín (La Malinche, La Chingada). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Section 3: Entering into the Serpent
Quotes
La gente Chicana tiene tres madres. All three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned, and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a combination of the other two.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
