Women of Ancient Mexico in the book Nosotras también contamos, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Malinalli, Tenepatl, doña Marina, Malintzin or Malinche are some of the names by which a woman is known, whose story has been judged and reinterpreted for centuries, almost always from a male perspective. Mónica Castellanos accepted the challenge of giving her back her voice and placing her before the reader so that she can tell her own story.
Her struggle to survive in a world that ultimately turned her into a symbol of betrayal is part of Nosotras también contamos. Mujeres célebres del México Antiguo (Grijalbo, 2026), a collective book that recovers the lives of women who had a presence in history but were relegated or forgotten.
The book also covers women of the Maya region, such as Yohl Ik’nal, Sak K’uk’ and Zazil Há, as well as the Joven de Amayac, Tecuichpo, who became Isabel Moctezuma, and Atotoztli.
Castellanos wrote about Malintzin and Tomiyauh, two figures who pursued very different paths. While abundant documentation exists for Malintzin, her figure remains associated in the collective imagination with having sold out the homeland.
Tomiyauh was a ruler of the region that today corresponds to Tampico and Tamaulipas, but little is known about her life.
When the book’s authors, Blanca López de Mariscal, Denise Carpinteyro, Gabriela Riveros, María de Alva, Sofía Segovía and Castellanos, met to divide the characters, Castellanos hoped Malintzin would not be among them. The challenge was finding a way to tell her story without repeating the interpretation that has shaped her image for generations.
“I said, don’t let me get Malintzin, and right away I pulled my slip of paper and it was her. I didn’t want her because of how complex it is to address a figure about whom so much has already been written, who is also part of national historical memory, in the collective consciousness as the villain of history, the woman who sold the homeland.
It seemed to add difficulty to the text, to the narrative,” she says.
Her decision was to look backward and focus on the path that led Malintzin to become the historical figure we know. For Tomiyauh, by contrast, she had to work with much more limited information.
According to her, the available records barely allow knowledge of some aspects of her government, including that she had subjects and three places that paid her homage and tribute.
“There is very brief documentation about her. There is only one codex, the Codex Xólotl, which is her husband’s codex, whom she later married, but it says she had already been a ruler.
So, from history, what is known was little, and I had to rely much more on imagination than on the documentary text,” she explains.
In the process, the authors of Nosotras también contamos worked closely together, remaining in constant communication and sharing bibliography, sources and findings to support the reconstruction of each character.
“I am moved to be able to contribute in some way to changing the idea that women never did anything and never appeared in history, since we saw all of history through the male gaze, written by their pen, and to discover that through literature it is possible to reach young people and adults and change this unflattering view of women.
For me, that is a wonderful thing,” she states.
The writer also believes much work remains to be done. Although there are no concrete plans for a second volume dedicated to women of Ancient Mexico, she previews other projects on female figures who stood out in fields such as nursing and architecture.
“This work leaves me mainly with two things: first, that there is still much work to be done in rescuing women in history, and second, that Mónica Castellanos can still contribute greatly to completing the construction of women’s historical memory,” she concludes.
