La Llorona and Malinche are two women that have had many renditions of their stories. Like many stories that are told throughout the years, there are variations of the story. Yet, through the times, there are many parts of the stories that remain consistent throughout the different retellings. In the stories that are told of La Llorona and Malinche the thing that remains consistent is the fact that the stories are about two women that stepped outside the dominant portrayal of women.
In the stories of La Llorona, she drowns her children in the water. The reason behind this varies. One of these reasons is that she drowns them to be with her lover, yet at the end the lover lied and she ends up wandering and looking for her children. For the story of Malinche, she takes on the role of the interpreter between Cortez and the various tribes under control of the Aztecs. Well for the majority of the time these stories have been used to talk down about women, either as a way to show that sexuality is bad for women or that women can be traitors.
Yet these stories have been reused to highlight these women’s stories and legends. In the case of Malinche we see a woman who was sold into slavery and took a position of power during a conquest of an entire population. While some may see her as a traitor for helping the Spanish, others have seen her as a protector. She was the main interpreter, and either side didn’t know what each other were saying. So she could have said things to make the conquest turn out the way it did and not worse for the population. The conquest could have been a lot worst if it wasn’t for her. “La Malinche embodies those personal characteristics–such as intelligence, initiative, adaptability, and leadership–which are most often associated with Mexican-American women unfettered by traditional restraints against activist public achievement.” (Fox). Malinche is seen in a positive light. Instead of seeing her or using her as a scapegoat, writers have began to recognize her as a woman that used her intelligence, courage, and other traits to step outside the boundaries of society. In “Victoria Moreno’s poem, ‘La Llorona, Crying Lady of the Creekbeds, 483 Years Old, and Aging,’ “we see that it is not La Llorona’s fault, but is society’s fault for taking away her unborn and born children away from her. Gloria Anzaldúa Borderlands talks about La Llorona, in which she states that the wailing is the way that she is speaks out (Anzaldúa, 49).
When I think of La Llorona I think of the quote “women should be seen and not heard”. In her own way she refuses that saying instead of being silent she lets her anger and emotions out. Even though she kills her children she lets her emotions out. Both stepped out of their boundaries. While these stories at first showed what happened when women stepped outside their so called “boundary areas”, they have been re-envisioned to showcase women in a better way and the struggles that women still face.
Resources:
Fox, Linda C. Obedience and Rebellion: Re-Vision of Chicana Myths of Motherhood. Women’s Studies Quarterly; winter 1983, Vol. 11 Issue 4, p20-22, 3p. Print.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt
Lute Books, 2007. Print.