Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche

Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche examines the historical and cultural legacy of La Malinche. Both reviled as a traitor and hailed as the mother of Mexico, Malinche is an enigmatic figure whose legacy has been the subject of controversy, legend, and adulation from the 1500s through the present day.​

An enslaved Indigenous girl who became Hernán Cortés’ interpreter and cultural translator, Malinche stood at center stage in one of the most significant events of modern history. She was a linguistically gifted protagonist who played a key role in the transactions, negotiations and conflicts between the Spanish and the Indigenous populations of Mexico that impacted the course of global politics for centuries to come. Significantly, as mother to Cortés’ first-born son she became the symbolic progenitor of a modern Mexican nation, built on both Indigenous and Spanish heritage.

While Malinche has been the subject of numerous historical publications and works of art, Traitor, Survivor, Icon is the first museum exhibition to present a comprehensive visual exploration of Malinche’s enduring impact on communities living on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Five hundred years after her death, her image and legacy remain relevant to conversations around female empowerment, Indigeneity, and national identity throughout the Americas. 

Traitor, Survivor, Icon will establish and examine her symbolic import and the ways in which artists, scholars, and activists through time have appropriated her image to interpret and express their own experiences and agendas from the 1500s through today.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website