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Community Corner

Historian Talk with Camilla Townsend

Author of “Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico,” Camilla Townsend will discuss her 2006 book about the indigenous woman who translated for Hernando Cortés in his dealings with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma from 1519 to 1521. In this study of Malintzin’s life, Camilla Townsend rejects all the previous myths and tries to restore dignity to the profoundly human men and women who lived and died in those days. Malintzin, at least, was what the Indians called her. The Spanish called her Doña Marina, and she has become known to posterity as La Malinche. In getting to know the trials and intricacies with which Malintzin’s life was laced, we gain new respect for her steely courage, as well as for the bravery and quick thinking demonstrated by many other Native Americans in the earliest period of contact with Europeans. Drawing on Spanish and Aztec language sources, she breathes new life into an old tale, and offers insights into the major issues of conquest and colonization, including technology and violence, resistance and accommodation, gender and power. Camilla Townsend received her BA from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD from Rutgers University where she is professor of history. She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow.

Location on campus: Slonim Living Room

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