Popular Culture Review Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 2013 | Page 50

46 Populär Culture Review that she had no choice in the matter, no agency, and that the notion o f patria did not exist. They argued that Malinche is at the root o f much of the disdain M exican men display toward Mexican women; something expressed in the country’s high rates o f infidelity and domestic violence (Krauss 1). Cypess said that once she conceived o f the idea o f Malinche as a displaced woman, exiled and disconnected from her own community; she has “not stopped thinking o f her since” (“M other Malinche” 14). Cypess declared that Malinche is a central figure in the Conquest, an emblem o f M exican national identity, and a symbol o f all Latin American women. She is more than a national mother; she is the Eve, the mother o f us all. M alinche transcended all gender constraints o f both European and Aztec societies. M alinche Stands between two cultures. She is strong, adaptable, and a facilitator. M alinche’s story is worth re-examining and reinterpreting because o f her central position in Mexican history and mythology. Chicana poets, artists and writers play a unique role in the appropriation and revision o f M alinche’s image. They have changed conventional interpretations o f Malinche, as well as, perceptions of Chicanas in Contemporary American society. Conclusion The translator is the carrier o f the human spirit. Pushkin Three different scholars provide insight to Malinche as revered, reviled and a role model. Peter Novick said that: “Every group has its own historian” (469). The chroniclers o f the Spanish Conquest needed a counter-weight to the egoism, violence and unpredictability o f Hemän Cortes. M alinche compensated for his weaknesses, taught him to adapt to a new and different culture, was his concubine and bore him a son. The Spanish wanted a simple and direct way to explain to the people of M exico their origins in history. They found the answer in the story o f Malinche, as a guide, interpreter, and Christian mother. Victor Turner clarified the importance o f liminal periods in the reinterpretation o f the Malinche founding myth. Ireneo Paz, saw her as the embodiment o f the stereotype o f the love strack woman. Octavio Paz viewed her as the violated mother, la chingada (86). Octavio argues that only by retreating into solitudes, “the two-fold notion o f withdrawal-andretum ” can M exicans widerstand the duality o f their nature (212).