Customer Reviews

Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico (Dialogos)

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My definition of a "keeper" of a non-fiction book is one where I can read the notes like a seperate book; and don't need to read the notes to keep track of what the author has said. This book makes no attempt to find the historical "Malinche." Its focus is on the circumstances and historical knowledge we do have and how that would affect a person in her position.

Chock full of data; it suggested over 20 new books for me to add to my already extensive reading list. in addition, I solved two conundrums that had been nagging me for years and clarified where certain actions had taken place. I found, thanks to the clarity of the text a very important book written during the conquest years that had information I thought was not obtainable.

Camilla Townsends strictly academic approach and care in the use of non-english records deserves a very strong round of applause.

I am a wantabe historian that loves Mexico. Camilla Townsend is an excellent scholar, she writes well, putting all the strings together for an wonderful actual story.

I have not read this book yet, but it arrived here quickly and in good condition. I scoured the internet for the cheapest place to purchase this book. I bought it for one of my required University classes, and will probably sell it back once the semester is over. I did buy it used, and don't regret it.

"What I have tried to write," explains Camilla Townshend in the introduction, "is a book about contexts" (8). Malinche, or Malintzin, the Nahua girl who was given to Hernando Cortes as a slave and became his interpreter and mistress, is an elusive figure in the historical record; though many documents, paintings, and oral histories record her existence, few give insight into her motives or character. Often, Malintzin is depicted as victim or villain, rather than as an astute, resourceful woman making reasoned choices in sixteenth-century Mexico's complex and uncertain political landscape. Townshend focuses on reconstructing the parameters of the world in which Malintzin was raised, the likely trajectory of her life before she met Cortes, and the ways in which other people, indigenous and Spanish, responded to her. In doing so, she crafts a surprisingly detailed and insightful picture of Malintzin's life. Two final chapters on Malintzin's daughter and son depict the consolidation of Spanish rule and the place of mestizos in early Spanish Mexico. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down-- and that's an unusual response to have to a work as meticulously scholarly as this one. Highly recommended.