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La Malinche is having a moment. The 16th century Indigenous Nahua woman who acted as an interpreter for Spanish conquistador Hern谩n Cort茅s 鈥� long reviled in Mexico as a traitor who hastened the fall of the Aztec Empire 鈥� has been reclaimed, by some, as a proto-feminist.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched a new initiative last year to reevaluate La Malinche鈥檚 legacy.

鈥淲e have a working group of anthropologists, historians and philosophers studying this very important, much-maligned figure, and it is very important to vindicate her,鈥� Sheinbaum .

Here in sa国际传媒官网网页入口, La Malinche appears in two art shows that opened this month.

Delilah Montoya鈥檚 marvelous retrospective at the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Museum, 鈥淒elilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance,鈥� includes a number of works that reference La Malinche, either directly or indirectly. As curator Josie Lopez writes in her exhibition catalog: 鈥淢ontoya centers women who have been seen as monstrous, traitors, evil antagonists and the embodiment of the treacherous female,鈥� with La Malinche at the top of the 鈥渕alcriada鈥� bad-girl list. While some Chicana poets, notably Carmen Tafolla, were already reclaiming La Malinche from a feminist perspective in the 1970s, Montoya鈥檚 1993 photograph, 鈥淟a Malinche鈥� 鈥� the cover image of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Museum鈥檚 catalog 鈥� was one of the first such reclamations by a visual artist.

Just over a mile away, at Secret Gallery, 30 or so emerging artists, most of them Chicana, are rethinking La Malinche from their own perspectives. First-time curator Delisha Lopez (no relation to Josie) believes the reputation of La Malinche, whom she calls 鈥渙ne of the most influential Mexican women in history,鈥� deserves defending. But hers is not a one-note show. The best thing about Lopez鈥檚 curation is she includes artists who take quite different perspectives on the enigmatic historical cypher, even one who portrays her as a modern-day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. 鈥淟a Malinche鈥� is gloriously polyvocal.

Secret Gallery鈥檚 title wall includes a black-and-white mural of La Malinche by Christin Apodaca, reminiscent of artist Chitra Ganesh鈥檚 comic book-style goddesses. Hung higher on the same wall is Marianna T. Olague鈥檚 tender, naturalistic oil painting of a mother (the artist鈥檚 sister) holding her infant daughter against her chest protectively. On the mother鈥檚 wrist is a tattoo of a luna moth, which often symbolizes 鈥渓unar鈥� powers of intuition and adaptability 鈥� qualities the historical La Malinche seems to have had in spades.

Apodaca鈥檚 La Malinche is a mythic superhero, whereas Olague鈥檚 is an ordinary, real-life woman, contending with the burdens of motherhood. 鈥淟ike La Malinche, I believe all mothers are survivors who must guard their children and themselves against patriarchy and the current state of the world,鈥� Olague writes in the statement that鈥檚 included on her label.

Citlali Delgado鈥檚 鈥淢etamorphosis鈥� shows a line of five women, set against a hot pink background, marching leftward through time. The figures, both real and mythic, begin with La Malinche and Our Lady of Guadalupe and continue intergenerationally until we arrive at a young woman in contemporary clothes turning back to consider her ancestral past. We also see the rear foot of a sixth woman who has already marched into the future. Male hands jut into the frame, strangling the women, grabbing at their feet or otherwise attempting to hold them back. Delgado鈥檚 allegory of hard-won progress positions La Malinche as the proto-feminist 鈥渇irst cause,鈥� the one who set it all in motion.

Huitzil Sol seems more skeptical, to put it mildly, about attempts to reframe La Malinche in purely positive terms. Her painting, 鈥淢ilitary Recruitment,鈥� portrays an anonymous Latina ICE agent, seated outdoors in front of the U.S.-Mexico border fence. In lieu of an artist statement, she quotes Malcolm X: 鈥淭hey will pay one of us, to kill one of us, just to say it was one of us.鈥� By comparing La Malinche鈥檚 collaboration with the Spanish invaders to the choice by some Latina women to work for ICE, Sol recasts both as sub-oppressors, who, despite being born into a subaltern class themselves, become enforcers of an oppressive system.

But Sol鈥檚 ICE agent also wears a red bandana like those worn by Indigenous women revolutionaries throughout Mexican history, from the Yaqui soldiers of the Mexican Revolution to Zapatista leaders like Comandanta Ramona and Major Ana Maria. The painting is not a literal portrait but a symbolic representation of double consciousness and divided loyalties.

Most of us will never have to choose between becoming an ICE agent or a Zapatista fighter, but we all have different sides to ourselves. The side that wants to be successful and socially accepted may find itself at odds with the side that recognizes injustice and wants to speak out. Like the cartoon devil and angel that sit on the shoulders of Looney Tunes characters, our inner ICE agent and our inner Zapatista argue about whether to conform or rebel, to fly under the radar or to take a risk. The 20th century Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal called the fearful, conformist voice 鈥渢he cop in the head.鈥� A Jamaican friend once told me that theirs was a British colonial voice, a literal one, and it sounded like BBC narrator David Attenborough. Sol鈥檚 figure poses like the Mona Lisa, complete with crisscrossed hands 鈥� outwardly composed but inwardly conflicted. What is she thinking?

After spending time with Sol鈥檚 piece at the opening, I stepped into the courtyard and said to my friends, 鈥淗aven鈥檛 we all collaborated with Cort茅s, in a way?鈥�

鈥淪ome more than others,鈥� someone said, noting their own colonial heritage.

鈥淲ell, three of my ancestors came here on the Mayflower,鈥� I said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 worse, right?鈥� Yes, we all agreed, my genealogy was the most problematic.

My 鈥渃ollaboration鈥� comment wasn鈥檛 really about genealogy, though. I was thinking about the choices, big and small, that we make in our daily lives. I don鈥檛 always research every company whose products I buy to make sure they鈥檙e operating ethically and sustainably, and that they鈥檙e not using prison labor or destroying the rainforests. Sometimes I buy from companies I know are bad, simply because I don鈥檛 know the alternatives. Nobody鈥檚 perfect, but do we try to do better? Or do we use 鈥渘obody鈥檚 perfect鈥� as an excuse to play dumb or pretend that our choices don鈥檛 matter?

The genealogy discussion relates to another theme in the show. La Malinche is sometimes called 鈥渓a madre del mestizaje鈥� 鈥� the mother of mixed-race peoples 鈥� since the son she had with Cort茅s was one of the first people with both Spanish and Indigenous heritage. Not all Mexican and Chicana/o people are direct descendants of La Malinche, but mythically she is often seen as their progenitor, like the biblical Eve.

鈥淚 am a descendant of both colonizers, my Spanish ancestors, and the people they colonized, my Native American ancestors,鈥� Jocelyn Salaz writes in her statement. In her self-portrait, the artist points to plants along the Rio Grande that she actually harvests and processes to make natural dyes. She has also embroidered her painting with hand-dyed churro-yarn flowers. Salaz states that some of the earliest colonial-era depictions of La Malinche show her gesturing toward river plants, so her own art reflects the continuity and survival of Indigenous knowledge across time.

A famous mural by 20th century artist Jos茅 Clemente Orozco, which he painted at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City, explicitly imagines Cort茅s and La Malinche as the Mexican Adam and Eve, covering their nude bodies in shame. Orozco鈥檚 visual analogy suggests that these foundational figures were responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire, just as Adam and Eve, in Catholic theology, were responsible for humanity鈥檚 fall from paradise. The Nobel Prize-winning Mexican writer Octavio Paz, in his influential 1950 essay, 鈥淭he Sons of La Malinche,鈥� said Orozco鈥檚 mural represented the impulse among 20th century Mexicans to 鈥渃ondemn our origins and deny our hybridism.鈥�

Frank Zamora paints a version of Orozco鈥檚 image on the exterior of his cabinet sculpture, 鈥淪ue帽os, Ena帽osos鈥� (鈥淒eceptive, Dreams鈥�), which he has designed as a contemporary, secular rendition of a traditional Latin American nicho, or wall shrine.

Delisha Lopez had originally intended 鈥淟a Malinche鈥� to highlight women and femme-identifying artists. But when the Colorado-based male artist Zamora showed up at the gallery with 鈥淪ue帽os, Ena帽osos,鈥� she said it was too good not to include.

The three-panel interior of Zamora鈥檚 nicho makes visual references to colonial-era Nahuatl codices, Michelangelo鈥檚 鈥淧iet脿鈥� and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The bewildering mashup of art historical references speaks to the way La Malinche鈥檚 legacy has been filtered through 鈥渕isunderstanding, misinterpretation and misogyny,鈥� as the artist writes in his statement.

Additionally, 鈥淟a Malinche鈥� presents philosophically and formally inventive works by Tera Muskrat, Alyssa Marie Metoyer and Beedallo 鈥� one of my favorite local artists. And while I don鈥檛 always advise reading text panels and artist statements at art shows 鈥� sometimes they can limit our interpretations 鈥� the ones in this show are great. If you take the time to go through and read each statement, you鈥檒l see how so many of the artists re-create La Malinche in their own image, fusing her story with their own.

Secret Gallery is a scrappy, emerging art space, and the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Museum is one of the most revered institutions in the state. But their current exhibitions dovetail perfectly with one another. That鈥檚 by sheer coincidence, I might add, since neither curator knew what the other was up to.

Delilah Montoya鈥檚 retrospective probably deserves its own review. It鈥檚 a great show and incredibly rich. But I wanted to at least acknowledge the shared themes and encourage readers to see both shows together 鈥� on the same day, if possible 鈥� as a sort of art show double feature.

As you view the art, you might ask yourself which version of La Malinche you identify with most, and why.

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Journal. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .