Week 9- Dan Weber

            Camilla Townsend’s Malintzin’s Choices fits into many genres. First and foremost, it is a non-fiction novel. All the events that Townsend discusses happened. In the cases where there is no evidence to support claims, she is honest and simply says that “we do not know”. She does, however, tells us what could have happened, or what is more likely than not. She gives her interpretation of certain events or reactions which surround Malintzin. Hence, Malintzin’s Choices is also a history of Mesoamerica. Townsend uses primary and secondary sources to explain what happens in Mesoamerica. She discusses life before, during, and after the conquest. She also, like Restall, tries to debunk certain myths or popular beliefs which surround not only Malintzin but conquest-era Mesoamerica.

            The book is also about culture contact. Townsend discusses how the two very different cultures clash. After the fall of the Triple Alliance, the cultures still conflict in a different way, as discussed in the last two chapters. These encounters are more political and religious in nature. Malintzin’s descendants struggle to preserve, or gain, what they feel is rightfully theirs. Meanwhile, as in the example of the twelve friars, religious ideologies cannot simply be forgotten. Some indigenous completely resist European culture and others use it to their advantage, such as Malintzin. 

            In my opinion, Malintzin’s Choices cannot be considered a biography. With the exception of the last two chapters, the majority of the book does not talk about Malintzin. Rather, it discusses what happened in the areas where she was and then places her in the context of the “bigger picture”. This is, in part, because there is not enough information to write such a biography.