Non-fiction, History of Mesoamerica

If I were the owner of a book store/librarian and had to categorize Malintzin’s Choices I would categorize it first as non-fiction. Though Townsend does a good bit of theorizing, speculating, and asserting, it is all in the context of non-fiction. She tries to create her own portrait of Malintzin with historical, cultural, and anthropological evidence. She is careful to make a distinction between the facts and the unknown. Because it is impossible to know all the aspects of who exactly Malintzin was, Townsend does her best to discuss Malitntzin’s life, background, and cultural context. While it is a book about many things, one of them is who might Malintzin have been.

I would also categorize it under Mesoamerican History. Malintzin’s Choices is not a biography in its purest sense but rather, Malintzin is the main character in this story about life in Mesoamerica and the Conquest of the Latin America. We can only look at Malintzin through the lense of what we know about the culture and history of the people and events of that place and time.

This is a book about many things. It’s about indigenous life in Mesoamerica before and after the conquest. It is about the Spanish conquest of Latin America. It is the capture of Moctezuma and Tenochtitlan. But I think Townsend’s intent is to write a book about Malintzin in the context of and through the lense of indigenous life in Mesoamerica before and after the conquest, the capture of Moctezuma and Tenochtitlan, and the Spanish conquest of Latin America.