Another collaborative effort by the team that created The Poet
King of Tezcoco: A Great Leader of Ancient Mexico (2007)
chronicles the life of a controversial figure in pre-colonial
Mesoamerica. The indigenous woman who would serve as Hernán
Cortés’ interpreter and companion was born in the early 1500s as
Malinali and later christened Marina. She is now called La
Malinche. Besides serving as translator to the Spaniard, she
also gave him advice on native customs, religious beliefs and
the ways of the Aztec. While Marina’s decision to help the
Spanish in their often brutal quest for supremacy has led to
many negative associations, others see her as the mother of all
Mexicans, as she and Cortés had the first recorded mestizo.
Although many of the details surrounding the specifics of
Marina’s life were unrecorded, Serrano strengthens the narrative
with quotations by her contemporaries and provides a balanced
look at the life of a complicated, oft-maligned woman. Headers
provide structure as events sometimes shift