La Malinche

            “Nosotros le decimos la malinche a alguien que es un traidor. Como por ejemplo, si alguien va y le dice a otra persona algo que tu dijiste, eso viene siend traicion asi que le desimos ala persona que te traiciono, la malinche…Hasta lo que yo se mija, tenemos esa costumbre de decirle la malinche a los traidores porque en anos de los aztecas, la malinche fue la que nos traiciono y por eso fue que los espanoles nos conquistaron pero no me recuerdo como fue que me aprendi este refran. Alomejor de mi mama, porque me recuerdo que ella tambien usaba esta frase seguido pero quien sabe.”

“We call anyone who is a traitor, la malinche. For example, if someone goes and tells another person something you said about them, that would be treason, therefore we could call the person who turned against you, la malinche… To what I know darling, we have the custom of calling any traitor la malinche because in the years of the Aztecs, la malinche was the woman who turned us in and that’s why the Spaniards conquered us but I do not remember how it was that I learned this proverb. Maybe it was my mmom because I remember she used this phrase ofter but who knows.”

The informant is a native Valparaiso, Zacatecas; in the country of Mexico. She was born in the year of 1952 and lived in Mexico until the age of 26 which was when she migrated to the United States of America. As a native Mexican, proverbs, myths and other sorts of folk tales she knows, all have been influenced by her Mexican culture. Furthermore, she learned most of her proverbs from the household setting, from family members, friends and others who she was in direct contact since according to her, she had no recognition of what a TV was; media did not influence her knowledge of folk tales, people who she had contact to were the ones to influence her knowledge of folk tales. She grew up hearing these proverbs and other folk tales constantly on a day to day basis from people all around her. Because of the constant exposure, the proverbs and other folk tales have now become a part of her daily life vocabulary.

In my opinion, this proverb is particularly interesting because it brings back a sense of where Mexicans originated from. By this I mean that Mexicans in specific use this proverb to recall of a time when their ancestors existed. The fact that this proverb has been kept in place only goes to show the strong ties that Mexicans have to their roots, in this case the Aztecs. It is impressive to see that future generations are still using this proverb however, it is interesting that the informant for this proverb cannot recall where exactly she first heard it. This can also give insight to the fact that this is a very common proverb in the Mexican vocabulary. Regardless, I find this proverb impressive due to its ties to Mexican ancestors.