The legacy of La Malinche, the enslaved Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast who acted as interpreter and advisor to Hernán Cortés (and bore him his first child), remains contested to this day; over the centuries since Cortés invasion in 1519 she has variously been thought of as the symbolic mother of modern Mexico, and as a Machiavellian figure who betrayed her people to the Spanish. This display at the Denver Art Museum (6 February–8 May), the first major museum exhibition to explore her life and legacy, includes 68 artworks, ranging from 16th-century representations of La Malinche to new commissions by contemporary artists. Find out more from the DAM’s website.
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La Malinche (con Tlaloc) (Malinche with Tlaloc) (1993), Alfredo Arreguín. Photo: courtesy Rob Vinnedge Photo; © Alfredo Arreguin
Spaniards on the march to Tenochtitlan (16th century), unknown artist, Codex Azcatitlan. Courtesy Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
La Malinche (1991), Santa Barraza. © Santa Barraza
Scene V, Teziquatitlan from Lienzo de Tlaxcala (19th century), Léon Eugène Méhédin. Courtesy The Latin American Library, Tulane University, New Orleans
La Malinche (Young Girl of Yalala, Oaxaca) (1940), Alfredo Ramos Martínez. Phoenix Art Museum. ©The Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project, reproduced by permission