The "Marriages" of Conquest

While the complex relationship between Hernán Cortés and Malintzin serves as a model of relationships between conquerors and indigenous women, other Spanish conquerors experienced equally, if not more, complicated such relationships. One example would be Pedro de Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala, whose role in conquest and early colonial southern Mesoamerica has been relatively unexplored. Married to two Spanish sisters, his longest-lasting relationship was with the so-called Luisa de Tlaxcala. This paper explores who Luisa de Tlaxcala was and focuses, also, on her roles in Alvarado's conquests (they were multiple) as well as those of other indigenous women with whom he may have had relationships. It will also compare Alvarado's amorous relationships and marriages to those of Cortés as well as other prominent Spaniards involved in conquest in other parts of Mesoamerica. I argue that while Cortes's relationship with Malintzin prefigures other conqueror-indigenous women alliances, it differed in one important way. Whereas the Cortés relationship did not draw him into alliances of kinship with particular noble families or groups, Alvarado's did. Such relationships were often crucial not only to conquest but also to the consolidation of colonial rule. Although much has been written about the impact of European conquest on indigenous women, marriage and other kinds of intimate relationships as a means to consolidation of rule (especially as a tool to understand pathways of cultural interaction and exchange) remains understudied, especially in a trans-Mesoamerican, comparative framework.