María Estrada

María de Estrada (perhaps identical with María (or Marina) de la Caballería) was a woman to arrive in Mexico with the expedition of Hernán Cortés as well as one of the very few women of European descent to take part in and survive the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

She is mentioned as the only woman in Cortés's party in the sources of Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Tlaxcallan chronicler Diego Muñoz Camargo. She also is mentioned by Francisco Cervantes de Salazar. Each of these sources describe her as a very bold and warlike woman who "was as good a warrior as any man". She is mentioned as surviving the Noche Triste as well as the Battle of Otumba. The sources disagree about the identity of her husband; some claim him to have been Pedro Sanchéz Farfán[1] and others Cortés's treasurer Alonso de Estrada. In the chronicle of Diego Durán she is described as being instrumental in the defeat of the Nahua Indians of Hueyapan, charging head first and screaming "Santiago!" Some truth may be in this for Cortés gave her an encomienda in Ocuituco near Hueyapan after the conquest. In 1533, when widowed, she filed a petition to the king of Spain to ask for lighter taxation of her lands. Eventually, however, the land originally given her was taken from her heirs entirely and laid directly under the King.

Part of her description is probably exaggerated and twisted, and she has sometimes by historians been confused with Doña Marina,[2] but it seems reasonable to assume that the varying stories of Lady María Estrada have a core of truth.

Notes

  1. ^ See for example the historical summary ("Reseña Histórica") for the municipio of Tetela del Volcán, in INAFED (2005).
  2. ^ See Danaher Chaison (1976).

References

Danaher Chaison, Joanne (April 1976). "Mysterious Malinche: A Case of Mistaken Identity" (JSTOR online reproduction). The Americas (Washington, DC: Academy of American Franciscan History, Catholic University of America Press) 32 (4): pp.514–523. doi:10.2307/979828. ISSN 0003-1615. JSTOR 979828. OCLC 1481001. 
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal (1963) [1632]. The Conquest of New Spain. Penguin Classics. J. M. Cohen (trans.) (6th printing (1973) ed.). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044123-9. OCLC 162351797. 
INAFED (Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal) (2005). "Tetela del Volcán, Morelos". Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México (online version at E-Local ed.). INAFED, Secretaría de Gobernación. http://www.e-local.gob.mx/work/templates/enciclo/morelos/Municipios/17022a.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-01.  (Spanish)
Maura, Juan Francisco (2005). "María de Estrada, Beatriz Bermúdez de Velasco y otras mujeres de armas tomar de la Conquista de México". In   (PDF online facsimile). Españolas de ultramar en la historia y en la literatura: aventureras, madres, soldados, virreinas, gobernadoras, adelantadas, prostitutas, empresarias, monjas, escritoras, criadas y esclavas en la expansión ibérica ultramarina (siglos XV a XVII). Hernando Maura (illus.). Valencia, Spain: Colecciуn Parnaseo — Universitat de València. pp. 185–190. ISBN 84-370-6245-4. OCLC 77558646. http://parnaseo.uv.es/Editorial/Maura/CuartaParte.pdf.  (Spanish)

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