While diseases did play a very important part in the conquest of Tenochtitlan (because that is basically what the events refer to, the conquest of a city not of an empire), Maliche did play a relevant role during the Conquest. According to Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Diego Duran, and other accounts, (like the account of Rodriguez de Ocaña, or Cortez for that matter) Malinche was given to Cortéz as part of 20 slave women at the Chontal Maya city of Potonchán (present day Tabasco). Her mayor role was as a translator, since she knew Chontal Maya and Nahuatl. Previous to this, Cortéz had learned of 2 spaniards who lived in the Maya Cah (cazicazgo) of Chetumal. One of them was Gerónimo de Aguilar and the other one was Gonzalo Guerrero. While Cortéz sent for both, only Geronimo de Aguilar joined him in his expedition towards Tenochtitlan (Guerrero would later on, fight against the Spaniards). During his stay at Chetumal, de Aguilar learned Chontal Maya. Therefore, during the early years of the conquest Cortéz used both Malinche and de Aguilar as translators. The way it worked was basically Cortéz talking to de Aguilar in Spanish, de Aguilar talking to Malinche in Chontal, Malinche talking to Aztecs in Nahuatl and back through the same chain. This is why James Lockhart coins the term of a “double misunderstanding”, in which neither party (Aztec or Spanish) really knew what the other was actually saying, because while Malinche spoke Nahuatl, it was not the high poetic Nahuatl used by the ruling body of Tenochtitlan. Later on, Malinche also learned Spanish, making de Aguilar not useful anymore.

One episode in which Malinche plays a prominent role is during the Spanish attack at Cholula (the so-called Masacre de Cholula). The Cholulan elite at the time was an allied of Tenochtitlan, and Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin trying to prevent the Spaniards from getting closer to Tenochtitlan, persuaded the Cholulans to mount an attack on the Spaniards. Malinche, while supposedly working for the Cholulans, learned about the plot and told Cortez who took action and massacred many Cholulans. Something interesting about her is that in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala (an early colonial codex), she is sometimes portrayed by herself, referencing the possibility that she might had conducted events by herself, and not just at the request of Cortez.

I should mention that the conquest of Tenochtitlan was by no means the conquest of the Empire nor the victory of the Spaniards. In his “Maya Conquistador” (1999) and later in “Seven myths about the Spanish conquest” (2003), Mathew Restall does a great job in articulating the idea that in reality indigenous people conquered Tenochtitlan. Ross Hassig in his “Mexico and the Spanish Conquest” (2006) mentions that the final siege to the city was carried out by 200,000 native allies. Even more, during the final attack at Tlatelolco, even the Texcocans (who had played a prominent role in creating the Tenochtitlan nobility through the figure of Ilancueitl, and later on helped in the defeat of Maxtla and the Azcapotzalcas and the formation of the Triple Alliance) were fighting against the Mexica-Tenochca and helped in their defeat as a means of potentially acquiring more power than their previous allies. So, the natives actually defeated Tenochtitlan.

Now, what I mean by saying that it was only the conquest of a city is that, after the fall of Tenochtitlan, the real conquest of the empire began through the various expeditions that pushed outwards into the different provinces, like Pedro de Alvarado’s expeditions to Tututepec and later to Guatemala. Again, Restall (2003) argues convincingly for the importance of indigenous populations during this stage. What is interesting now, is that during these campaigns the Spaniards now used Mexica-Tenochcas to defeat other indigenous populations. This is why there are several places in Guatemala (predominantly ethnically Maya) with Nahua names, rather than Maya ones. It is interesting because, according to Gerardo Gutierrez (personal communication), it is as if the Mexica Tenochcas were taking revenge for what had happened at the siege of Tenochtitlan. In a sense these campaigns were a continuation of Mexica expansionism, as illustrated in the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan.

I think it is time we start seeing the Conquest of New Spain as an incomplete process, that did not ended with the conquest of Tenochtitlan but expanded all the way into the Yaqui rebellions during the 19th century, or the Maya Castas war up until the 20th century. Or maybe even into the 21st century and the Zapatistas rebellion.