Malinche » (Bargain)

A heaping measure of passionate romance, blended with a dash of traditional Mexican cooking and a hint of mysticism, was the unique recipe that made Laura Esquivel's debut novel, Like Water for Chocolate, a feast for readers and moviegoers alike.

Laura Esquivel, la princesa de la literatura latinoamericana, está de regreso.

Su nueva novela Malinche es el extraordinario recuento del trágico y apasionado amor entre el conquistador Hernán Cortés y la india Malinalli, su intérprete durante la conquista del imperio azteca.

Cuando Malinalli conoce a Cortés asume que se trata del propio Dios Quetzalcóatl que regresa a liberar a su pueblo. Los dos se enamoran apasionadamente, pero este amor pronto es destruido por la desmedida sed de conquista, poder y riqueza de Cortés.

A lo largo de la historia de México Malinalli/Malinche ha sido conocida por su traición al pueblo indio. Pero recientes investigaciones históricas han mostrado que Malinalli fue la mediadora entre dos culturas, la hispánica y la americana nativa; y entre dos lenguas, el español y el náhuatl.

Lo que Esquivel ha hecho aquí es desafiar la mitología tradicional mediante un retrato muy temperamental del Adán y la Eva de la cultura mestiza, Cortés y Malinalli, con la caída del imperio azteca como telón de fondo. Contada con el lirismo de la tradición cantarina y pictórica del náhuatl, Laura Esquivel nos brinda un mito fundacional de la cultura híbrida del Nuevo Mundo y una extraordinaria historia de amor.

Publishers Weekly

Through the eyes of the historical native woman of the novel's title, Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate) reveals the defeat and destruction of Montezuma's 16th-century Mexicas empire at the hands of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. Malinche, also called Malinalli, was sold into slavery as a child and later became "The Tongue," Cortes's interpreter and lover-remembered by history as a traitor for her contribution to the brutal Spanish triumph. In her lyrical but flawed fifth novel, Esquivel details richly imagined complications for a woman trapped between the ancient Mexicas civilization and the Spaniards. Esquivel revels in descriptions of the role of ancient gods in native life and Malinalli's theological musings on the similarities between her belief system and Christianity. But what the book offers in anthropological specificity, it lacks in narrative immediacy, even while Esquivel also imagines Cortes's point of view. The author also packs the arc of Malinalli's life into a relatively short novel: she bears Cortes an illegitimate son, marries another Spaniard and has a daughter before her sad demise. The resulting disjointed storytelling gives short shrift to this complex heroine, a woman whose role in Mexican history is controversial to this day. 13-city author tour. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.