The Painful Road of Life

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Growing up is inevitable, a process that can bring a lot of pain, moments that can make you stronger or weaker. When we are at a young age, it’s hard to imagine the challenges we will face, the success that we will have, the people we will allow into our lives. No matter how much is planned out, the small specific details, nothing is ever guaranteed, just like we’re not guaranteed a lifetime. We’ll be faced with challenges, be the victims, but we’ll analyze the situations in depth to be able to recover from the down moments.

 

Because of the different environments that people grow up in, everyone has different ways of coping, of adapting to certain situations. From a young age, Malinalli had no one to depend on, she was an adult in the body of a child. She experienced neglect, death, and abandonment in her first years of life, some things that people experience in decades. The psychological suffering that she must have gone through is unimaginable. Having to tame the world without a maternal or paternal figure or any loving person must have been difficult for Malinalli, it must have changed the way she made decisions, maybe even more vulnerable to other people.

 

The textual argument below is based off of Malinche by Laura Esquivel. Originally born as Marina, but no r’s in the alphabet, the young girls name became Malinalli. Along the course of her life, she experiences many moments where many people wouldn’t have been able to deal with, but she did. This essay at first didn’t come clear and fast to me, I had to do brainstorming and looking over the many notes that I took on this book when reading. Even though some assignments are usually boring, I found it quite interesting to come up with a side that I would support: victim, survivor and traitor.

 

Malinalli went through many different experiences in her life, she experienced many different emotions within those moments. Even before birth, Malinalli had already began suffering, she was a victim, a victim of pain and many more things. As Malinalli kept spreading her wings, she developed into a survivor, she kept being strong and kept growing stronger. ‘That day, far from the Valley of Anahuac, in the region of Painala, a woman struggled to give birth to her first child… she had failed to notice that the fetus was in the wrong position’, (4). Before Malinalli had the opportunity to take a breath, she was in distress, she had become a victim of pain hoping that it be over soon. Another thing that occurred during her birth was that she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, which could’ve potentially suffocated her; at the end she was able to stay alive.

 

One of the very first moments that Malinalli experienced as a victim was when her father had passed away and was left alone in the care of her mother. Malinalli’s mother saw her husband’s death as something lightly since she moved on quite fast to finding a new master, so in deciding to find a new master, she also decided that she no longer wanted Malinalli in her life. I believe that this was one of the most memorable moments that Malinalli had because it affected the way she made decisions from that moment forward, including the people she trusted the most. The moment in which Malinalli was abandoned, she only had her grandmother, and even then it wasn’t long until she started to feel the neglect and abandonment from her mother. Following being abandoned by her mother and losing both her father and grandmother, Malinalli was sold as a slave and spent many sunny days and starry nights in seldom with no one she could go to. Being sold as a slave then affected what would become of her. ‘ “How is it that you will not be by her side?” “I am going to giver her away.” “You cannot rip her from me. She belongs to my heart, she belongs to my feelings. In her is the image of my son. Or have you forgotten him?” “Everything is forgotten in this life,” she answered in a cutting tone. “Everything lapses into memory. Every event ceases to be present, loses its value and meaning, everything is forgotten. Now I have a new lord and I will have new children. Malinalli will be given to a new family who will take care of her, for she is part of the Old Fire that I want to forget. ” ‘, (30) Everything that Malinalli’s mom said must have affected her if she had listened to the conversation, and it’s not right to leave your child behind no matter the situation, so based on those changes that occurred, she had to work on herself and the new responsibilities that she now faced.

 

As a slave, she began working for Hernan Cortes as a translator in exchange for her freedom. At first, Malinalli felt safe with Cortes because a similarity that they shared was that they were both scared of the world around them. ‘And precisely at the moment that he most ardently prayed for help, his eyes met Malinalli’s, and a maternal spark connected them with the same longing. Malinalli felt that this man could protect her; Cortes, that the woman could help him as only a mother could: unconditionally.’, (50) But, the only reason that Malinalli agreed to be the translator for Cortes is because she would receive freedom once the job that Cortes needed to complete was finished. This situation is almost like your life is being threatened and if you do as said, you won’t get hurt. After some time went by, Malinalli knew that what she had done had affected the way the natives treated her due to the empire being overthrown. No one should ever have to be forced to do something you don’t want to do and even more if it’ll end up affecting your loved ones.

 

Malinalli was definitely a victim in many situations, like the moment in which Hernan Cortes raped her when she was bathing in the river. Many might say that she wasn’t raped because of the feelings that she had towards Cortes, she was aware of the situation and she didn’t find a way in which to stop him. To me, Malinalli was raped because she never said yes, all she was originally trying to do at the river was bathe herself, and that resulted in Cortes watching her and taking an action that shouldn’t have occurred. ‘He lifted Malinalli out of the water and carried her to shore, where he forcefully penetrated her.’, (78) Malinalli never said yes and Cortes also forcefully took action as mentioned in the sentence above from page 78. At the moment that the rape took place, she was a victim, but later on when they were at the bathhouse, she tried to remain as calm as possible. Malinalli coped with herself and was able to recover from the situation, it might have left her traumatized, but maybe just to a point where she was more cautious around Cortes.

 

Something that I struggled with when reading Malinche was determining if Malinalli was a victim or survivor. As I further thought about the book and the events that went on in her life became clearer, I noticed that she was both. Malinalli was both because in order to be a survivor, you must be a victim. Being a victim doesn’t always mean that you are the target of someone, being a victim can mean that you are vulnerable to yourself and others.

 

Malinalli came to be a very strong woman and I wonder what the outcome would’ve been if her father would’ve never passed away, it makes me wonder what she would’ve been: survivor, victim or traitor. Throughout the book, Malinalli would be victimized, but she would find a way in which those moments were less than when she’d be able to recover. Malinalli is a great example of what it is to be a victim and be able to be a survivor.