Malinche was the Amerindian woman who translated for Hernan Cortes - from her lips came the words that triggered the fall of Moctezuma’s Aztec empire to the Spanish in 1521. In Mexico Malinche’s name is synonymous with ‘traitor’. Yet folklore and legend still celebrate the mystique of this remarkable young woman.

Malinche became a slave to strangers when just a girl, and was then passed on to Cortes as a concubine. She became his interpreter, indispensible to his campaigns, and mother to his son, only to be married off to another conquistador. Anna Lanyon journeys across Mexico and into the past to excavate the mythologies for the truer account of this resilient woman.