Malinchism

Malinchism (Spanish: malinchismo) is a pejorative term for a preference for all things foreign to the point of self-destruction in an attempt to fit in with people with a different agenda than you and wish to exploit you and steal your resources. Malinchism expresses the disdain for those who are attracted by foreign values, thinking them superior, of better quality and worthy of imitation. In Mexico and in other countries the term malinchism/malinchist applies to all those who feel an attraction to foreign cultures and disregard for their own national culture. It also applies to politics, to explain the option for the foreign, as in El Salvador, in which the leftist political parties call their opponents "malinchist right-wing". The myth of Malinche and the force of this feeling of disgust crossed the Mexican border, and malinchism came to be applied as a technical term, political, for everything that meant choosing foreign culture.^[1]

The term derives from the name of Hernán Cortés's Nahua mistress La Malinche. La Malinche is widely considered to have assisted the Spaniards in destroying Native Americans way of life, values, norms and culture and exploit the Native American peoples.^[2]

Upscale consumers in Mexico display malinchism, showing a strong preference for American imports, rather than local Mexican brands. As result, American products are sold mostly on the middle class market, and their advertising agencies generally avoid working class and rural areas. They concentrate their efforts on Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, which purchase 70 percent of the American imports.^[3]

Malinchism is also associated with a societal depiction of women as the source of betrayal and nefarious behavior.^[4] In the images of Mexican popular culture, this theme plays out with Malinche often portrayed as both the deceiver and the deceived. In theatrical productions, she is sometimes portrayed as a victim of conquest, and sometimes the manufacturer of her own destiny, but almost always, Malinche is guilty. If she was indeed violated, it was because she didn't struggle enough. If she was a willing participant, she not only brought her own troubles, but she caused all of her people and her children to suffer.^[5] She is represented in art as a figure showing women's inborn deception and guilt — one who used her sexuality and in so doing betrayed her own unwitting children.^[6] Even in dance, the dichotomy persists. In La Malinche, a ballet composed in 1949, by José Limón, Malinche is at first an unwilling victim, then assumes the proud deportment of an aristocrat, and in the end, weighted down by the finery she wears, she gives birth to the mixed-race child who rejects her.^[7] In literature, Malinche has been compared to Eve, the temptress who through deception, leads men astray.^[8] Malinchismo represents one end of the spectrum of stereotypes of women in the Mexican gender system, while Marianismo, with the specific cultural preference for the Virgin of Guadalupe, resides at the opposite end of the stereotypical spectrum.^[9]

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