Martín Cortés (son of Malinche) in the context of Page (servant)

⭐ Core Definition: Martín Cortés (son of Malinche)

Martín Cortés (Spanish pronunciation: [maɾˈtiŋ koɾˈtes]; c. 1522 – c. 1595) was the first-born son of Hernán Cortés and La Malinche (doña Marina), the conquistador's indigenous interpreter and concubine. He is considered to be one of the first mestizos of New Spain and is known as "El Mestizo" (Spanish pronunciation: [el mesˈtiθo]). His exact date of birth is not precisely known. Until the birth of Martín's younger brother, Don Martín Cortés Zúñiga, to his father and his aristocratic second wife, Martín, son of La Malinche, was Cortés's only male heir, despite his illegitimate birth.

He was recognized by his father, and was legitimized in 1529 by a bull of Pope Clement VII (along with his siblings Catalina and Luis). Cortés's first marriage to Catalina Suárez was childless. Martín Cortés grew up in Spain but returned to the New World as a young man. He received a first level education and became Knight of the Order of Santiago, the highest status that could be achieved in Spain. During a time he became the page of Philip II of Spain.

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Martín Cortés (son of Malinche) in the context of La Malinche

Marina ([maˈɾina]) or Malintzin ([maˈlintsin]; c. 1500 – c. 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche ([la maˈlintʃe]), was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an interpreter, advisor, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. She was one of 20 enslaved women given to the Spaniards in 1519 by the natives of Tabasco. Cortés chose her as a consort, and she later gave birth to their first son, Martín – one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry) in New Spain.

La Malinche's reputation has shifted over the centuries, as various peoples evaluate her role against their own societies' changing social and political perspectives. Especially after the Mexican War of Independence, which led to Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821, dramas, novels, and paintings portrayed her as an evil or scheming temptress. In Mexico today, La Malinche remains a powerful icon – understood in various and often conflicting aspects as the embodiment of treachery, the quintessential victim, or the symbolic mother of the new Mexican people. The term malinchista refers to a disloyal compatriot, especially in Mexico.

View the full Wikipedia page for La Malinche

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