La Malinche (Spanish pronunciation: [la ma'lintSe]; c. 1496 or c. 1501 - c. 1529), known also as Malinalli [mali'nal:i], Malintzin [ma'lintsin] or Dona Marina ['dona ma'rina], was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes. She was one of 20 women slaves given to the Spaniards by the natives of Tabasco in 1519. Later, she gave birth to Cortes' first son, Martin, who is considered one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry). The historical figure of Marina has been intermixed with Aztec legends (such as La Llorona, a ghost woman who weeps for her lost children).

For the conquistadores, having a reliable interpreter was important enough, but there is evidence that Marina's role and influence were larger still. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier who, as an old man, produced the most comprehensive of the eye-witness accounts, the Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana ("True Story of the Conquest of New Spain"), speaks repeatedly and reverentially of the "great lady" Dona Marina (always using the honorific title Dona). "Without the help of Dona Marina," he writes, "we would not have understood the language of New Spain and Mexico." Rodriguez de Ocana, another conquistador, relates Cortes' assertion that after God, Marina was the main reason for his success.  The evidence from indigenous sources is even more interesting, both in the commentaries about her role, and in her prominence in the codex drawings made of conquest events. Although to some Marina may be known as a traitor, she was not viewed as such by all the Tlaxcalan. In some depictions they portrayed her as "larger than life", sometimes larger than Cortes, in rich clothing, and an alliance is shown between her and the Tlaxcalan instead of them and the Spaniards. They respected and trusted her and portrayed her in this light generations after the Spanish conquest.  In the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (History of Tlaxcala), for example, not only is Cortes rarely portrayed without Marina poised by his side, but she is shown at times on her own, seemingly directing events as an independent authority. If she had been trained for court life, as in Diaz's account, her relationship to Cortes may have followed the familiar pattern of marriage among native elite classes. The role of the Nahua wife acquired through an alliance would have been to assist her husband achieve his military and diplomatic objectives.  Today's historians give great credit to Marina's diplomatic skills, with some "almost tempted to think of her as the real conqueror of Mexico." In fact, old conquistadors on various occasions would remember that one of her greatest skills had been her ability to convince other Indians of what she herself could see clearly, which was that it was useless in the long run to stand against Spanish metal and Spanish ships. In contrast with earlier parts of Diaz del Castillo's account, after Marina's diplomacy began assisting Cortes, the Spanish were forced into combat on one more occasion.  Had La Malinche not been part of the Conquest of Mexico for her linguistic gift, communication between the Spanish and the Indigenous would have been much harder. La Malinche knew to speak in different registers and tones between certain Indigenous tribes and people. For the Nahua audiences, she spoke rhetorically, formally, and high-handedly. This shift into formality give the Nahua the impression that she was a noblewoman who knew what she was talking about.

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