Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Until a few months ago, most San Antonians had never heard of La Malinche, but that changed recently thanks to the San Antonio Museum of Art’s current exhibit, Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche, which focuses on a girl born on the Yucatan Peninsula in the Aztec Empire, centuries ago.

This girl, first known as Malinalli, was sold into slavery by her own family, and eventually ended up in a group of slaves given to the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. This girl had a valuable talent that Cortes benefitted from: she knew several local languages and, apparently, learned Spanish easily as well, ultimately making herself useful as a translator and cultural interpreter for the Spaniards. She also became Cortes’ mistress and bore him a son. The exhibit interprets La Malinche through the eyes of multiple artists, including contemporary ones, both Mexican and American.

Her fascinating story has also become the subject of the upcoming original dance work to be presented this Friday by the Guadalupe Dance Company (GDC). It’s titled “Soy Malintzin” (I am Malintzin), which is yet another name for this enigmatic woman. The art museum commissioned the piece.

GDC’s long-time member and former leader, Belinda Menchaca, explained that through a set of circumstances, the work – which consists of several segments – ended up being choreographed through a collaboration of company members and Mexican choreographer Juan Carlos Gaytan, who was in San Antonio to work with the company on a different project. The press release says, “the production re-envisions the disparaging legacy of Malintzin/La Malinche, the mother of our meztisaje heritage.” (A big part of the SAMA exhibit also deals with that aspect of this legendary character.)

“We didn’t start wanting it to be a historical chronology,” said current GDC director Jeannette Chavez. “The exhibition at SAMA looks at different perspectives on her persona. So, we started by exploring our visions of different aspects of La Malinche, and the dance work developed simultaneously. We ended up seeing somewhat of a chronology even though we did not set out to do that. So, it’s not historically super accurate. We follow her journey and interpret the way we see her.”

They also had the opportunity to see the SAMA exhibition before its opening, because they had to start developing the choreography early, to have enough time to complete the dance production.

Three different dancers are portraying the heroine through the stages of her life. The young girl is interpreted by the GDC Academy student, Jayla Jasso; 18-year-old Gianna Puente becomes the young adult Malintzin, and company member Marlene Pita steps into the shoes of the mature Malinche.  Though the initial part of the piece was choregraphed by Gaytan, subsequent segments were largely shaped by the dancers themselves.

“We worked the same way, we do for all our productions,” said Menchaca, who, with Chavez, ultimately put the pieces of the show together.

At the end, you see La Malinche and Cortes as a couple on stage, parents of a new race. Luis Garcia portrays Cortes.

The SAMA paintings were used as “inspiration,” said Menchaca, but dance configurations did not try to actually invoke specific narratives found in the artwork.

The eleven dancers will be accompanied by musicians of the Mariachi Azteca de America, the Guadalupe Center’s resident company, though the music will not be mariachi style. As for the dance style, it will draw upon “danza Azteca, rhythms, very indigenous in their origin” but later the movement morphs into Spanish and into a contemporary expressive style.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Nov. 18 at 8 p.m.; Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, 1301 Guadalupe St.; tickets are $20-$30; call 210-271-3151 or go to www.guadalupeculturalarts.org. GCAC members and SAMA members get a discount.