The La Malinche-“Hub”: A Woman between History and Myth in László Passuth’s Tláloc Weeps for Mexico and Carlos Morton’s La Malinche

This study aims to identify the historical and mythical role of a significant and controversial female protagonist and her responsibility as a medium between two cultures in László Passuth’s Tláloc Weeps for Mexico and Carlos Morton’s La Malinche. This research is based on Albert-László Barabási’s theory, which posits that events, objects, and individuals coexist in a network of connected nodes, or “hubs,” that form further systematic links. Furthermore, this paper seeks to identify the connection between László Passuth’s 1939 novel entitled Tláloc Weeps for Mexico and Carlos Morton’s 1983 play La Malinche through blending history and myth, and presenting the encounter between the ancient Aztec civilization, their sacrifices and mythological thinking, represented by Malintzin or La Malinche, a princess in her own right, and the historically accurate story of conquering and pride illustrated by the deeds of the fifteenth-century legendary visionary, Hernán Cortés. Malintzin’s contribution as a mediator and translator between the two nations makes her a self-contained, empathic, tolerant, and philanthropic node, who, according to Passuth, becomes a near-mythical individual, arriving in the present and revindicating what the socio-political circumstances deprived her of.