Book Review: True Story of a Princess, Inés Arredondo's Historia Verdadera de Una Princesa

Malinche (1501? – 1529?) historically emerges as:

• Doña Marina (Lady Sea);
• La Malinche;
• Malinalli (goddess of grass);
• Malintzin; and
• Tenepal (lively speaker).

The last-mentioned three forenames fit with Malinche’s socio-economic position as:

• daughter of Chimalpain, lord of Painala, and Cimatl, lady of Xaltipa; and
• native of Coatzacoalcos, coastal center of Campeche Bay, Olmec civilization, and petroleum industry.

Reconstructive accounts by Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492? - 1584) and Pedro Gómez de Orozco (1517 – January 13, 1601) give Malinche’s back-story as:

• child disinherited by her father’s death and her mother’s second marriage to Malinche’s paternal uncle;
• daughter displaced by a stepbrother; and
• heiress distanced by successive enslavements to merchants of Xicalanco in modern-day Veracruz, and Putun-Chan in present-day Tabasco. 

The Battle of Centla on March 14, 1519, has historical significance as the prompt for Hernán:

• accepting feathers, gold, jade, jewels, pelts, pets, turquoise, 20 slaves;
• allying with Tlaxcalans and Totonacans; and
• annexing Tenochtitlán on August 13, 1521.

Historians indicate as immediate consequences Malinche being:

• baptized Doña Marina;
• concubined to Captain Alonso Fernández/Hernández Portocarrero/Puertocarrero (1495 - 1523); and
• employed with Jerónimo de Aguilas (1489 - 1531) as respective Maya/Nahuatl/Spanish interpreter from Mexico through Honduras and Maya/Spanish translator in Mexico.

Accounts and folklore judge Malinche as:

• mother with Hernán of Martín (1523 - 1595), mother-in-law of Bernardina de Porras, grandmother of Hernando; and
• mother with husband Captain Juan Jaramillo de Salvatierra of María, mother-in-law of Luis de Casada/Quesada. 

Sources keep posterity guesstimating death-dates in:

• 1529 from smallpox; or
• 1551 with age.

Angels, chance, fate, and gods nevertheless leave happy endings -- saddened and wisened during enslavements -- with:

• Christianized mother Marta and stepbrother Lázaro;
• three devoted lovers;
• two children; and
• two grandsons.

Posterity may find happy reinforcements in Malinche’s extant residences:

• 57 Higuera Street; and
• 95 Calle República de Cuba.

So the original Spanish and translated English biographies, Historia Verdadera de Una Princesa and True Story of a Princess, provide older and younger readers culturally enriching, educationally entertaining, geo-historically enthralling insights into one of ancient Mexico’s very important persons, thanks to:

• America Star Books, publisher/translators;
• CIDCLI, publishers;
• Inés Camelo Arredondo, author; and
• Enrique Rosquillas, illustrator. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

57 Higuera Street: Malinche's house is located at the corner of Plaza La Conchita in La Concepción, or La Conchita, neighborhood (Barrio de la Concepción), southeast of Coyoacán's historic center, Villa Coyoacán.
Guatemalan Rina Lazo Wasem (born October 23, 1923) who, moving to Mexico, studied with Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo, lives with her husband, Mexican artist Arturo García Bustos (born August 8, 1926) in Malinche's house, known as Casa Colorada.
Coyoacán borough (delegación), Federal District of Mexico City: Percisco, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_de_la_malinche_coyoacan.JPG

Batalla de Centla y la conquista de Tabasco (Battle of Centla and Conquest of Tabasco); mural by Homero Magaña Arellano
Palacio Municipal, Paraíso, Tabasco, southeastern Mexico along Gulf of Mexico: Alfonsobouchot, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batalla_de_Centla.jpg

Monumento al Mestizaje by Julián Martínez y José María Maldonado (1982): Hernan Cortes, La Malinche, and their son, Martín Cortes
José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (June 16, 1920 – February 17, 2004), 51st President of Mexico (December 1, 1976 – November 30, 1982) commissioned Monumento al Mestizaje.
Jardín Xicoténcatl, Barrio de San Diego Churubusco, Coyoacán, Cdad. de México, D.F.: Javier Delgado Rosas, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monumento_al_Mestizaje.jpg

Mexican storyteller and writer Inés Camelo Arredondo (March 20, 1928-November 2, 1989)
Inés Arredondo in her apartment in Mexico City; July 25, 1989: Erna Pfeiffer, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ines_Arredondo_1989.jpg

Malinche con Cortés; 1952 mural by Roberto Cueva del Río (born April 28, 1908)
Palacio de Gobierno de Chilpancingo de los Bravos, central Guerrero state, southwestern Mexico: Jujomx, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Malinche_con_Cortes.JPG

Albarrán, Claudia. 2000. Luna menguante. Vida y obra de Inés Arredondo. Mexico City, Mexico: Ediciones Casa Juan Pablos.

Arredondo, Inés. 2002. Historia Verdadera de Una Princesa. Illustraciones de Enrique Rosquillas. Mexico City, Mexico: CIDCLI (Centro de Información y Desarrollo de la Comunicación y la Literatura Infantiles). 

Arredondo, Inés. 2013. True Story of a Princess. Illustrated by Enrique Rosquillas. Frederick, MD: America Star Books, LLLP. 

Cano, Víctor Cano. 1 June 2001 (Updated 1 May 2013). “Jaramillas y Andradas en la Nueva España.” Bisabuelos.com: Apellidos. Retrieved April 8, 2015.

• Available at: http://www.bisabuelos.com/ape/jaramillo2.html

Chaison, Joanne Danaher. April 1976. “Mysterious Malinche: A Case of Mistaken Identity.” Academy of American Franciscan History 32(4):514-523. 

Cortés, Hernán. 2002. Cartas de relación. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Porrúa. 

Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. 2002. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España. Mexico City, Mexico: Editorial Porrúa.

Esquivel, Laura. 2006. Malinche: A Novel. Translated by Ernesto Mestre-Reed. Illustrations by Jordi Castells. New York, NY: Atria  Books. 

Esquivel, Laura. 2008. Malinche. Illustraciones Jordi Castells. New York, NY: Atria Books.

Ghersi, Ericka. Fall 2013. "La Malinche / Doña Marina / Malinali / Malintzin." Hum 2461: Humanities of Latin America > Lecture Notes. Gainesville, FL: Santa Fe College. Retrieved April 8, 2015. 

• Available at: http://dept.sfcollege.edu/HFL/hum2461/lecturenotes/malinche.htm

Gordon, Helen Heightsman. 2011. Malinali of the Fifth Sun: The Slave Girl Who Changed the Fate of Mexico and Spain. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, Inc. 

Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. 1991. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Jane, S. Suzan. 1995. "La Malinche (c. 1500 - c. 1527)." Pp. 41-43 in Herstory: Women Who Changed the World. Edited by Ruth Ashby and Deborah Gore Ohrn. Introduction by Gloria Steinem. New York, NY: Viking. 

“La Malinche: Forgotten Mother.” Fun Trivia.com: F > Famous Women A-Z. Retrieved April 8, 2015.

• Available at: http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/La-Malinche--Forgotten-Mother-233421.html

Morawski, Ed. 2015. Goddess of Grass: The Story of Malinalli / La Malinche. Powered by WordPress. Weaver by WPWeaver.info. Retrieved April 8, 2015.

• Available at: http://malinche.info/blog/

Salazar-Lisboa, Eric Francisco. "Cortés y Malinche: el discurso del mestizaje en la representación artística latinoamericana." ArtyHum, no. 33 (Febrero de 2017): 25-41.

• Available at: https://www.academia.edu/44446779/CORT%C3%89S_Y_MALINCHE_EL_DISCURSO_DEL_MESTIZAJE_EN_LA_REPRESENTACI%C3%93N_ART%C3%8DSTICA_LATINOAMERICANA

Thomas, Hugh. 1995. Conquests: Montezuma, Cortés, and the Fall of Old Mexico. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. 

Townsend, Camilla. 2006. Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.