Malinche was the Amerindian woman who translated for Hernan Cortes - from her lips came the words that triggered the downfall of the great Aztec Emperor Moctezuma in the Spanish Conquest in 1521. In Mexico, Malinche"s name is synonymous with traitor, yet folklore and legend still celebrate her mystique. Was Malinche a betrayer? Or do our histories construct the heroes and villains we need? Anna Lanyon journeys across Mexico and into the prodigious past of its original peoples, to excavate the mythologies of this extraordinary woman"s life. Abandoned to strangers as a slave when just a girl; taken by Cortes to become interpreter, concubine, witness to his campaigns, mother to his son, yet married off to another. Malinche: whose gift for language, intelligence and courage won her survival through unimaginably precarious times. Though Malinche"s words changed history, her own story has remained untold - yet its echoes continue to haunt Hispanic culture.