La Malinche

La Malinche, also called Malintzin or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman given to Hernán Cortés in 1519 after a battle in Tabasco. She spoke both Nahuatl and Maya, so together with the Spanish priest Jerónimo de Aguilar, who spoke Maya, she made communication with the Aztec world possible; she later learned Spanish herself.

She became Cortés’s key interpreter and adviser during the conquest of the Aztec Empire, and mother of his son Martín. Her legacy is debated in Mexico: the term “malinchismo” is used for preferring the foreign over the Mexican.