Synopsis "Cortez and La Malinche: A Romantic Invention"
It was a woman who conquered Old Mexico, who destroyed the Aztec empire, who literally gave birth to Modern Mexico.Here is an imaginative retelling of Mexican history, epic in scale and intimate in its unfolding, recasting the most infamous female figure in Mexican history, La Malinche, as the single-most powerful enabler of the efforts of Cortez and his band of Conquistadors.Sold into slavery by her own mother, she adapts, she survives, she prospers...she crosses paths with a male conqueror who will lift her to her destiny even as she lifts him to his! She transforms herself into a monster and menace to the arrogant ruling elites of her homeland.She is the sole translator of cultural meaning, words, and manners of speaking of both Montezuma and Cortez. Both men, deadly serious in the execution of their assumed roles, have no true knowledge of the accuracy of her translation or the motive coloring such translation. Yet, they must rely on her, if not trust her. It is her translation upon which the fate of two empires moves forward. Who is La Malinche? What must we understand about her?She is a woman who stands alone, drawing the jealousy and rage of both Aztec and Spaniard...she pits herself against the incorruptible power behind the Aztec throne, Cuauhtemoc, and the jealousy of Alvarado, Cortez's psychopath lieutenant.To realize her father's dream of a new Mexico, she is called upon to give up the man she most loves, her father. She must summon all her strength to choose to destroy her own culture, her own people, to give birth to a new Mexico.With unbelievable characters engaging in unbelievable synchronicity, La Malinche finally takes center stage, the very picture of indomitable female strength in a man's world.This is a work of fiction. Significant invention of characters and hypothetical interaction overlays true historic record.
