La Malinche / Hernan Cortes Dissertation

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La Malinche, essentially, betrayed her people and went against male dominance and authority, which thus threatened her culture as a whole. She did it for the love of Cortes who was her owner and her lover as well as the father of her son. The threat solidified her as a symbol of female sexuality that is at once disparaged and kept under control in the Mexican culture (Michan 2003: 34).

The dual aspect of La Malinche's legendary history shows that a woman's dependence on men for her importance and security leads to forced passivity, loss of identity, violation and abandonment. Despite the continuing scape-goating of what La Malinche stands for in the culture today, her press to develop herself and her independence, as well as her bridging function, has a still perceivable lineage, albeit in nascent form, in the individual Mexican psyche (Michan 2003: 34).

The story of Malinche and Cortes is a love story -- not a romantic story, which is important to understand when considering the presence of secrecy in their affair. They do not live happily ever after as romances almost always end; instead, Malinche is joined into a conscious union with a man who has essentially violated her -- not unlike a lot of the Mexican women at the time who were taken as mistresses by Spaniards except for the fact that she loved the man who violated her. She loved Cortes and stayed by his side and made him promise to stay with her in Mexico. He also cared for her, taking care of her son and making sure that he got an education as well as a position in government.

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He also made sure that Malinche had a husband when he went back to Spain (Singer & Kimbles 2004: 43). "The bright aspect of La Malinche's story can be recognized only if we realize that for betrayal to happen, there also has to be love" (2004: 43) -- an interesting statement to consider.

The story of La Malinche and Hernan Cortes is important in psychology because the two of the together represent the "erotic spirit," which Jung called "an archetype of the collective unconscious" (Coleman1994: 499). What people experience when they feel erotic love and/or passion is a lack of control and rationality, which leads to secrecy and, ultimately, betrayal. Nussbaum and Seneca believe that those people who allow themselves to fall in love will most likely end up doing "great violence to each other, or at least having murderous fantasies" (Kraut 1995: 624), which is a theory that cannot be overlooked when considering the plight of La Malinche.

3. Statement of the Research Problem

The purpose of this research is to understand how secrets in erotic love are often a problem when the women (in this case La Malinche) continues to project the animus. By taking a look at Jung's theories on archetypes, I will delve into the research to discover if La Malinche, because of her projection, could not deal rationally with her situation in love and thus she was forced to keep many secrets in her heart. I will also investigate through research to discover if La Malinche's archetype was more of the "hetaira" rather than any other archetype. Understanding the Jung's archetypal theory will be important.....

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