Unpublished scene from the life of a traitor who wasn't one
The project "Unrevealed Scenes from Malintzin’s life" explores the constructions of individual, cultural and political memory through an emblematic figure of the conquest of Mexico, which over time acquired, as a political symbol of various orientations, almost mythical features: Malintzin, better known as La Malinche. In a predominantly negative role, she is a central component of the collective Mexican memory, although the historical facts about her are quite sparse and, moreover, are received in a one-sided manner, since so far almost exclusively the Spanish written sources about the conquest have been taken into account, but not the indigenous pictorial sources of the so-called codices.
The project "Unrevealed Scenes from Malintzin’s life" wants to take into account this almost invisible view of the events of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which has hardly been taken into account so far.
Codex Malintzin
The pivotal point for this project is a fictitious codex that Malintzin herself supposedly wrote in order to communicate her view of the events to her daughter María. In this document, the Codex Malintzin, indigenous pictorial sources from the historical Codex Florentinus and the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, among others, were taken into account, in which the young woman is portrayed as a mistress, as a tlatoani (Nahuatl: the one who has got the word), as a fighter, and as a leader, in contrast to the Spanish sources of the time, which reduce her to a "tongue" and slave.
Paintings
The girl Malintzin decides to go ti Xicalango, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 150 x 150 cm.
Frontview
Drawing from the Malintzin Codex. Painted on the upper layer of the painting on the left and visible in side view
"The conqueror's camp. Archive Casachalma File No. 77_20140827-134500:5886”, 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, Diptych, 200 x 370 cm
Seductora", Archive Casachalma, 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 50 x 60 cm
"Guadalupe and Tonantzin, the pet hens. Archive Casachalma
File No. 77_20140827-134500:655491”, 2021
oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 90x70cm
Malintzin participates in Malintzin in a battle, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 150 x 150 cm.
Frontview
Drawing from the Malintzin Codex. Painted on the upper layer of the painting on the left and visible in side view.
“The first tongue II (Jerónimo de Aguilar, first interpreter of Herán Cortés)", Archive Casachalma File No. 77_20140827-134500:220645 , 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 54 x 64 x 8 cm
The first tongue III (Jerónimo de Aguilar), Archive Casachalma, File No. 77_20140827-134500:220635. 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 94x74 cm
The first tongue I (Jerónimo de Aguilar). Archive Casachalma File No. 77_20140827-134500:220642”, 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 90 x 70 cm
Dos Malintzin, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 62 x 52 cm.
Frontview
Dos Malintzin, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 62 x 52 cm.
Sideview
La Doña, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 150 x 150 cm
Frontview
Drawing from a Codex. Painted on the upper layer of the painting on the left and visible in sideview
Malintzin administering the tributes, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 147 x 147 cm.
Frontview
Malintzin administering the tributes, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 147 x 147 cm.
Sideview
Catalina Suárez, Cortés' first wife, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on wood and transparent fibres, 30 x 30 cm.
Martín Cortés', Malinche's son, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on wood and transparent fibres, 30 x 30 cm.
“The unwanted trip. Archive Casachalma File No. 77_20140827-134500:649682”, 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 200 x 180 cm
"The other wife, Archive Casachalma File No. 77_20140827-134500:350931” , 2021, oil on canvas and transparent fiber, 90 x 70 cm
The memory of Malintzin, who survived the epedimies, but not the historians, 2023, Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas a. transparent fibres, 150 x 150 cm. Frontview
The memory of Malintzin, who survived the epedimies, but not the historians, 2023, Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas a. transparent fibres, 150 x 150 cm. Sideview
Malintzin through time, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 62 x 52 cm.
Frontview
Malintzin through time, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on canvas and transparent fibres, 62 x 52 cm. Sideview
The time, 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on wood and transparent fibres, 30 x 30 cm.
"Yo Malintzin", 2022, from the series: Unrevealed scenes from the life of Malintzin, oil on mirror and transparent fibres, 30 x 30 cm.
The whole Story in Paintings
Little Malintzin decides to leave her home, because she wants to become a writer in Xicalango
This codex-drawing shows her talking and writing.
1519: One day after the battle of Centla: Malintzin is now in the camp of the Conquistadores.
Malintzin is a beautyful woman and she knows what she wants.
She adopts two twin hens, whom she baptizes Guadalupe and Tonantzin. Probably this inspires Cortés to replace the names and temples of the ancient deities with the names and churches of Christian saints.
Malintzin becomes more and more important to the Spaniards, not only as a translater but also by taking an active part in the battles, a mexican Jeanne d'Arc.
This codex page shows Malintzin with sword and shield. The drawing proves that the young woman was a warrior.
A little later, she befriends Jeronimo de Aguilar. He translates for Hernán Cortes, because he speaks the language of the Mayas, with whom he spent 8 years after a shipwreck.
Malintzin is fascinated by the tattoos he got from the Mayans. She learns Spanish from him.
Malintzin takes the place of Aguilar, especially since she is the only one who understands the Aztecs.
She becomes the indispensable companion of Cortés and speaks with high-ranking indigenous people. They subsume the conquistador under her name and also call him Malintzin.
To see Cortés, you have to look at the previous painting from the side.
In the eyes of the indigenous people she is the leader
The proof is provided by this codex: Malintzin receives more gifts than Cortés.
Malintzin is becoming more and more important. She was the first finance minister of New Spain. Here she counts tribute payments.
This can be seen even more clearly if you look at the painting from the side
After the conquest of Tenochtitlan, she settles in Coyoacán and witnesses in November 1522 Hernan Cortés' wife being found dead in bed after a marital dispute. Here is a portrait of Catalina Suárez.
A little later, Malintzin's son is born, who is named Martín by Cortés in honor of his father. As far as we know, there is no portrait of him as a child.
Malintzin in the eve of the journey to the Hibueras in 1524. She doesn't want to leave, because this "Unwanted Journey" means leaving her little son alone for many months. In fact, it will be two years. When she finally returns, he no longer recognizes her.
After Malintzin marries Juan Jaramillo, Cortés marries his second wife, Juana Zúñiga. She did not know what had happened to Catalina.
Until now, it was assumed that Malintzin died of smallpox in 1526. In fact, however, she lived for many years, wrote the Codex Malintzin, and possibly traveled to Europe. She survived epidemics, but not the historians.
They didn't listen to her. They did not look at her.
And so it happened that in the course of time she got so many faces: the beautyful girl...
... the goddess, the whore, the raped, the traitor.
None of them is her face. Not even this one... and yet...Yet she lives on in our collective memory ...
... and in each one of us.
In the paintings belonging to the series, which pick out individual details from the Codex Malintzin and address them in greater detail, the invisibility of the indigenous and female perspective is initially in the foreground, as the event depicted lies half-hidden behind a curtain painted as a trompe-l'oeil on a transparent fiber stretched over the actual canvas. Subsequently, the drawings from the codices themselves increasingly find their way into the paintings, which in the frontal view are initially experienced primarily as visual disturbances, but which in the oblique view combine to form a graphic narrative that is sometimes historical and sometimes semi-fictional, and which functions as a kind of visual source reference of the underlying painting.
The blurring of the line between historical factuality and artistic invention is a central element of the entire project, which celebrates doubt: doubt about one's own convictions as well as doubt about supposed truths. These are easily disturbed as soon as the perspective shifts from the Euro-patriachal "center" to the indigenous-female “periphery”.