Pandora's Box

There is a book called Malinche's Conquest, by Anna Lanyon. It is concerned with Cortes' conquest of the Aztecs and, more specifically, with a native woman called Malinche. She acted as a translator for Cortes. In these stories of first encounters between cultures there are often these curious inbetween figures. In Captain Cook's story it is Tupia, in Hernan Cortes' story it is Malinche.

The book is good, but I want to talk about the ending. It is the fashion for (male) politicians to use Malinche's name in Mexico as a metaphor for betrayal. Anna Lanyon finds this interesting. More interesting than it seems at first glance (men blaming woman is nothing new... "dammit Eve, why didn't you tell me a f**king snake gave you the apple?").

Lanyon finds that Malinche's demonisation coincides with the rise of Mexican nationalism. In 1821, as Mexico became an independent country, Lanyon notices a curious double act taking place. The nationalists, who were often of Spanish descent, identified themselves with the Aztecs (who they were not related to, and who their ancestors destroyed), and called Malinche a traitor for helping the conquistadors. In fact, they seem very upset with Malinche. Why?

As the book ends Anna Lanyon notes that Mexico, unlike many other ex-colonial places, is a nation made up of a race that is neither Spanish nor Aztec but a blend of the two. It is a nation that symbolically starts with the child that Malinche bore Cortes. Lanyon quotes a book by Richard Rodriguez, an American of Mexican descent:

He described his first visit to Mexico City. How he stood on the busy street corner and everywhere he looked he saw his own countenance. That was when he recognised for the first time the absurdity of Europe's boast that in 1521 Spain has conquered Mexico. "Where, then," he asked, "is the famous conquistador?" Vanished, he concluded, as he stared into the mestizo faces around him, vanished, absorbed and diffused by the endurance of Ameriindian women. Richard Rodriguez understands... that Mexico's problem with Malinche is, fundamentally, a question of how to honour a rape.

It is hard not to think about New Zealand when reading things like this. The ex-colonies of Spain are about 200 years further down the track then the ex-colonies of Britain, and of course not all these ex-colonies are the same. Anna Lanyon is an Australian. The New Zealand and the Australian experience of race relations has been quite different. New Zealand seems a little closer to the Mexican version of events. Perhaps not if you are living in Khandallah; more so if you are teaching in Wainuiomata. New Zealand has recently gone through a growth spurt of identity forming. There have been some uncomfortable moments, and some good ones.

In Kororareka in the 1820s Maori women swam out to the whaling boats to trade their bodies for weapons and tools. Neither the whaler nor the woman have a name, but perhaps New Zealand history starts there: as the hand of the whaler reaches down to pull her up onboard.