La Melincha Poem by gershon hepner

Proud Cortes loved her. La Melincha,
crossed over to his camp,
but Mexicans would love to lynch her,
a traitress and a tramp.
While Cortes proud would wine and feast her,
his dealings were quite shady,
for while she was his malinchista
he had another lady.

His marriage bonds proud Cortes flouted,
for La Melincha dangled
her beauty and her body flouted,
and so his wife he strangled
because he was man of force,
accustomed to achieve,
and felt that a conquistador’s
entitled to deceive.

His blood flowed hot, his mind was nimble,
as from an Indian cloud
he picked her, to become a symbol
and showed her to the crowd
demanding deference that the conquered
must offer the victorious.
For ten years in a loving concord
she lived with him, notorious.
Octavio, whose name means Peace,
finds her the incarnation
of signs conflicted that don’t cease
when sex disrupts a nation.

Defeated now, the Indian crowd
has cold contempt for Cortes,
resenting less that he was proud
than treason of their daughters.
What every Mexican expects
when nations nations feud
is fair play for the fairer sex,
more loyal and less lewd.

Clifford Krauss writes about La Melincha, who lived in 57 Higuera Street in Mexico City,500 years ago, in the NYT on March 26,1997. But Rina Lazo, a muralist who lives in the house, says: “To make this house a museum would be like the people of Hiroshima creating a museum for the man who dropped the atom bomb.”

3/37/97,10/12/97