Chapter Eight: MALINCHE

Chapter Eight: Malinche

Aguilar found Malinali cowering in the lee of large sand dune. Perspiration was pouring off her, her chest was heaving with rapid breaths, and her eyes were glazed with panic and terror. “Doña Marina!” he cried, “What is wrong?!” He got a wet cloth and patted her brow. Her eyes slowly focused on him. Finally, she stammered “I… must talk… to Captain Cortez…”

Aguilar was startled. Nonetheless, he said he would relay her request. A few moments later he returned and beckoned, bringing her to the Captain’s tent. Cortez was sitting in his chair and looked up at her. Malinali stood still, legs quivering, desperately trying to subdue her breathing and her emotions. Cortez quickly saw the girl was abjectly terrified. He motioned for Aguilar to bring her a drink of water.

“Doña Marina,” said Aguilar, “What is it that you wish to speak of to the Captain?”

Malinali closed her eyes to listen to her father’s voice. “Ixkakuk!” she heard her father say, “a true queen is always in command of her feelings and fears!” As she opened her eyes, Cortez saw her transformed into a different person. Instead of a shaking slave girl scared out of her wits, suddenly standing before him was a regally erect woman of extraordinary beauty, poise, and calm. A woman who looked directly into his eyes as she said to Aguilar:

“I must ask Captain Cortez if he is a man or a god.”

The briefest look of fear passed through Cortez’s eyes as he crossed himself. “There is only One True God,” came his answer through Aguilar, “whose Son came to earth to save mankind many centuries ago. Please know that I am a sinner like every other mortal human being, and would never commit the sacrilege of pretending I was not.”

Cortez and Malinali’s eyes locked. She realized that he was indeed a man – but a man unlike any she had ever even imagined.

“Doña Marina…?” She heard Aguilar’s voice coming from a great distance, so deeply had she fallen into Cortez’s eyes. “Doña Marina, the Captain wishes to know why you would think him a god.”

As she explained the Aztec legend of Quetzacoatl and how Cortez fit into it, Cortez’s eyes never left her. When she finished, Cortez stood up and replied through Aguilar, “Your coming here with the fearful question you had took extreme courage. I wish to applaud your bravery. You have given me much to think about. For now, be assured that I am a man, a Spaniard from Spain, and not this… Quetzacoatl.” He took her hand, raised it to his lips, and lightly kissed it. “Thank you… Doña Marina,” Cortez said quietly as he looked into her eyes once more.

For the first time in her life, Malinali blushed.

* * * * *

As they turned to leave the Captain’s tent, Cortez said, “Señor Aguilar, I have a request for you – I wish for you to teach Doña Marina to speak Spanish.”

“It will be my pleasure, Captain,” he replied.

Over the next several days, Aguilar found Malinali to be a quick learner. Hour after hour, they would walk on the beach or go through the camp identifying objects and discuss meanings of words. “Your brain is like a sponge, Doña Marina,” he told her.

After a week had passed, Tendile returned, borne as usual on a litter held aloft by several slaves, and accompanied by a large entourage. With him was an Aztec noble named Quintalbor — and he looked almost exactly like Cortez with darker skin and no beard. Dozens of slaves came forth with food for the Spaniards – turkeys, eggs, and maize cakes. It was, however, sprinkled with what looked and smelled like blood.

Aguilar asked Malinali if this was true. “Yes,” she replied, “the Mesheeka put the blood of people sacrificed to their gods on food to honor their guests.”

Cortez and his men were nauseated. They spat on the food and angrily threw it back at the Mesheeka slaves. “How dare you insult us so?” he thundered to Tendile through Aguilar and Malinali. He grabbed the hilt of his sword. “I should kill you right where you stand!”

The Mesheeka were terrified. Tendile fell to the ground and begged Cortez to forgive him. Quickly he ordered the slaves to bring other food, sweet potatoes, guavas, avocados, and cactus fruit. Then he had large cloths and mats spread on the ground, and had laid upon them gifts from Montezuma of such treasure they left the Spaniards speechless.

An enormous wooden disk over six feet in diameter covered in beaten gold representing the sun, and an even larger disk covered in silver representing the moon, both elaborately engraved with astrological hieroglyphics; necklaces of jade and gold and turquoise; gold ducks, jaguars, deer, and monkeys; huge feather headdresses; cotton cloaks embroidered with quetzal plumes and gold… on and on came the Treasure of Montezuma.

Cortez’s anger had vanished and he accepted the gifts graciously. He bade Tendile and Quintalbor to sit beside him, while Aguilar and Doña Marina stood close by to translate.

“Malinche (ma-lin’-chay),” Tendile began, addressing Cortez. Malinali’s head snapped back. Tendile was calling Captain Cortez not by name but as her master – for Malinche meant Master of Malina (1). It signified that the only way the Aztecs had of talking to Cortez was through her. She did not have time to reflect on this, for Tendile was speaking rapidly, with fright in his voice.

“Malinche, I have returned from our city, Tenochtitlan, where I had the honor of telling the Great Montezuma about you. He asks me to inform you that he welcomes you to his land, and sends his most cordial greeting to your King Don Carlos. The Great Montezuma welcomes you with these gifts, and if there is anything more you need, such as more teocuitlatl to cure the heart sickness of your men, you need only to ask and it will be provided. The Great Montezuma, however, regrets to say it will be impossible for you to meet with him. He cannot come here to the sea. He has sacred ceremonies to preside over. It is too dangerous for you to come to Tenochtitlan as there are too many deserts, mountains, and enemies in the way.”

Malinali could tell Cortez was completely unimpressed with Tendile’s excuses, but nonetheless he smiled graciously at Tendile and ordered wine for his guests. Cortez could smell fear in others, she thought, but was expert at disguising his knowledge. She translated his response:

“Lord Tendile, I am overwhelmed by the generosity of Lord Montezuma. I deeply thank you in the name of King Don Carlos. Please understand that my King would be very displeased with me, he will punish me, if I do not meet with Lord Montezuma in person.”

Tendile blanched, and replied, “Malinche, we have one more gift for you from the Great Montezuma. Here are four chalchihuite stones, which are the most valuable thing we possess. They are worth far more than all the teocuitlatl we have. Please send them to your King as recompense for the Great Montezuma being unable to see you.”

The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a bell. All of the Spaniards kneeled before a large cross set upon a sand dune in the middle of the camp, and bowed their heads in prayer. Tendile asked Cortez why his men humbled themselves before a tree cut to make a cross.

“It is just this that I wish to explain to your Lord Montezuma,” came Cortez’s answer. “This cross represents the True Cross upon which our Savior, Jesus Christ, died so that our souls may live and be blessed. Our Savior is the Son, the Only Son, of the One True God. We humble ourselves before the Cross to confess our sins and ask God’s mercy and our salvation. We also ask for the salvation of you and Lord Montezuma. Your gods are false gods, they are evil, and for sacrificing the lives of human beings to them your souls are damned. It is my moral duty as a Christian to explain this personally to your Lord Montezuma, so that he may understand the truth and abandon the evil beliefs which curse your land.”

As Malinali translated Cortez’s words, Tendile’s eyes registered continual shock. When she finished, there was silence, as Tendile struggled to compose himself. Struck speechless at the audacity of Cortez, all he could do was bow and ask Malinali to say they were leaving. She did so quickly, then moved towards the Mesheeka as Tendile was being lifted into his litter, and listened carefully as the Mesheeka nobles talked among themselves.

The hundreds of Aztec slaves Tendile had brought with him, and who had been providing food for the Spaniards, were told to leave. As they did so, Tendile continued to talk with his entourage and Malinali, skilled at not being noticed, continued to listen. Finally, the entourage, together with the bearers carrying Tendile’s litter, marched off – and Malinali went to find Aguilar. She had something very interesting to tell Captain Cortez.

* * * * *

Aguilar ushered her into Cortez’s tent. Cortez said nothing, just listened as her words came tumbling out in a mix of Spanish and Mayan. His glance told Aguilar to have her stop, and translate her Mayan into Spanish as usual.

“Doña Marina wishes to inform you, my Captain,” Aguilar said, “that as the Mesheeka were leaving, she overheard them talking about you and Montezuma.”

Cortez’s eyebrows arched. “And what did they say?”

“When Lord Tendile came to the Great Montezuma’s palace in Tenochtitlan,” came Malinali’s tale, “to tell him about his meeting with you, it was late at night, yet a great ceremony was prepared. Tendile and his escorts were brought to the main hall where there are captives kept in cages ready for a sacred sacrifice whenever needed. Montezuma ordered several of the captives selected and prepared, having them painted in the color of the earth. The captives were brought to Montezuma’s private sacrificial chamber, where one by one, they were held down on the techcatl (tetch-cottle), the sacrificial stone by four priests while a fifth held back his throat with a collar.

“Montezuma himself plunged the sacred knife into their chests and cut out their hearts, one by one. The god Huitzilopochtli will only accept live hearts that are still beating. The hearts were placed in a chacmool, a sacred receptacle carved of stone, and blood was taken from the captives’ bodies and squirted onto Tendile and his escorts. This was done to purify them so now it was permitted for them to address the Great Montezuma.

“Tendile told Montezuma of the metal ball flying out of the cannon with thunder and a spray of sparks, and when it hit a tree, the tree turned to dust. Of the men dressed in iron who rode giant deer and refused to eat human hearts. Of their leader who had white skin and a black beard, who sent Quetzacoatl’s red hat as a gift to the Great Montezuma and insisted on coming to Tenochtitlan to see him.

“At this report, Montezuma seemed convinced that Captain Cortez could be Quetzacoatl returned to overthrow Tezcatlipoca and the other gods. Such warfare between the gods would mean the destruction of the Mesheeka and the entire cosmos. The sun will fall from the sky and the earth destroyed. Perhaps, Montezuma thought, that Quetzacoatl, with sufficient persuasion, could be encouraged to leave, and go back to his paradise across the East Ocean.

“Thus Montezuma ordered Tendile to return to the strangers’ camp with as much treasure as could be quickly gathered, with blood-sprinkled food as a test (for it would be rejected by Quetzacoatl), and with many tlacatecolotl (tla-cot’-tay-co-lottle) – “owl-men” (2) – and teipitzani (tay-pit-zah’-nee) – evil-blowers (3) — to curse the strangers and make them sick.

“This Tendile has done – yet now he is very afraid, for none of this worked. For some days now, the owl-men and evil-blowers have been here among the other Mesheeka throwing their curses and spells upon you, and none of you has gotten sick. You rejected the food with the sacred blood. And all the treasure did no good – you are more determined than ever to see the Great Montezuma and make war upon his gods. Tendile now returns to Tenochtitlan where he knows Montezuma will sacrifice him for his failure and his heart cut out to appease the angry gods.”

Notes:

1. An ‘r’ sounded like ‘l’ to Nahuatl speakers. They thus transposed ‘Marina’ back to ‘Malina.’
2. Wizards who cause magical illnesses
3. Sorcerers – those who blow evil upon others.