- Alberto Najar
- BBC Mundo, Mexico City
image source, INAH
Specialists believe that this ornate blouse, or huipil, belonged to La Malinche.
At first glance it looks like a dress like the one worn by many women from indigenous communities in Mexico or Central America. But the garment, an ornate blouse called a huipil, hides several secrets.
It was made about 200 years ago based on spun bird feather textiles, the so-called feather technique of the pre-Hispanic era that has almost disappeared.
In fact, only five pieces made in this way are preserved worldwide, and the dress is one of them.
But the most curious thing is that it is very similar to the one that is believed to have been taken by Malinalli Tenépatl, named Doña Marina by the Spaniards who arrived in what is now Mexico five centuries ago.
The Mexicans call her La Malinche, a derogatory way of castilianizing her name and which became a word linked to treason.
“Malinchista” in Mexico is a person who prefers foreigners and their customs over their country.
The origin of this definition comes from 1519 when Malinalli was handed over as a slave to Hernán Cortés, to whom she was assigned as a translator and liaison with some of the original peoples.
unexpected fate
The life of Malinalli or Malintzin, as he is also known, is one of the most controversial in the history of Mexico.
For centuries, Mexicans learned that women helped the Spanish defeat the Aztec people, who were the dominant civilization at the time, and that they led Spain to seize the territory of Mesoamerica.
But some have recently claimed the role of La Malinche.
The historian Luis Barjau defines her as a kind of ambassador with the possibility of decision, and to impose her criteria when transmitting the messages of the Spaniards.
Her knowledge of the Maya-Chontal, Nahuatl and Spanish languages allowed Malinalli to occupy an unusual position of power for a woman of indigenous origin.
Something very different for the original destiny of the woman who was sold as a slave since she was a child to Mayan merchants and local rulers, and ended up as a partner of the Spanish captain with whom she had a son, Martín Cortés.
The memory of La Malinche reappears at times like now, when the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) released images of the huipil.
image source, Getty
Painting in the Hulton Archive showing Hernán Cortés conversing with Mesoamerican natives.
It is one of the jewels of the National Museum of Anthropology, said Alejandro González Villarruel, deputy director of ethnography at the museum.
“We don’t have another one like it, neither in Mexico’s collections nor anywhere else,” the specialist explained to local media.
“It is a summary of Mexico’s textile knowledge in embroidery techniques, in dyes, in spinning techniques; it is like a mural: it reflects everything that is original to the country.”
The origin of the garment located in the collection of the old National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography is not clear.
INAH researchers say that it is very similar to images from the codex called Lienzo de Tlaxcala where the character is shown.
Huipiles are ornate blouses or dresses of pre-Hispanic origin.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, they were worn by the nobles of some native peoples, but in other communities such as the Mayans, women wore their torsos bare.
However, the religious who arrived with Cortés’ group said that this custom violated Catholic morality, and they forced the women to cover themselves with huipiles.
This was the case of Malinalli, who received Christian baptism after being handed over as a slave and from that moment on dressed in huipiles, some very luxurious like the one that INAH now preserves.
