The indigenous person known as La Malinche (c. 1502 – c. 1528?) is one of the most controversial historical figures from the period of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. She is reviled by some, including the influential Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz, who posits her as the symbol of betrayal at the heart of Mexican national history and consciousness. She is defended and celebrated by others, including Chicana feminists, who repudiate Paz’s masculinist interpretation. Many laud her as a survivor and some even view her as a powerful, saint-like intercessor for her people.
La Malinche has long fascinated the San Antonio-based artist Cesar Martinez. This article discusses the series of works in which Martinez hybridizes La Malinche with the Roma seductress who was the title character of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (1875), which is set in Spain. Martinez, who has a deep interest in bullfighting, references Picasso and Goya, and he inserts jaguar imagery as an emblem of the Americas in the painting illustrated above that was his initial foray on this theme. His subsequent monotypes and digital prints center on the head of his Malinche/Carmen composite, combined with bull imagery, pyramids, and other symbols.
