by Brian Valeza

Ropilla and breeches of a Conquistador, late 16th century

In 1932, German archeologists stumbled upon these garments while examining a native burial ground in modern day Peru. The breeches, made of wool, and the Ropilla, made of Peruvian cotton, were most likely worn by a (spanish) explorer who was laid to rest at the burial ground, before grave robbers looted his corpse and threw away his garments.

These garments are the only known examples of extant 16th century European clothing worn in South America. They are also among the few surviving worker´s/soldier´s clothes from this period. The breeches are especially simple - each leg is made of one quarter circle of fabric gathered at the waist.

The oldest continuously inhabited town in America. Founded c. 1100.

La Malinche: A Complicated Woman in Context

La Malinche, or Malintzin, was the primary interpreter in the retinue of Hernán Cortés during his conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century and has become one of the most divisive women in Mexican history. Though she was called Malintzin by the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of the Aztec Empire, she was known as Doña Marina or Malinche to the Spanish conquistadors, and modern scholars typically refer to her by the latter. She was instrumental to the success of the Spanish conquest and is regarded at once a traitor to her people, a symbol of Indigenous responses to colonial power, and an exemplar of survival and resilience.

Early Life

Born in Coatazacoalcos near modern-day Veracruz, Malintzin was the daughter of a noble father and a low-ranking mother and was sold into slavery at a young age. Taken from her home and kin, she was brought to the Mayan coastal town of Xicallanco and traded for either beans or bolts of cloth, the currency that ruled in the trading port at that time. From there, the young, enslaved girl was taken to Potonchan near the mouth of the Tabasco River, where she would live among the powerful and wealthy Chontal Maya. Years later, when the Chontal Maya sustained devastating and unprecedented losses in skirmishes with the newly arrived expedition of Spanish conquistadors, she was one in a group of 20 young women whom the Chontal Maya traded to the Spanish, led by Hernán Cortés, in exchange for peace.

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