Premiered on September 15, 2022 in Madrid, Spain, the musical Malinche is the most recent project by Nacho Cano, who was one of the founders of the successful 80s group Mecano.
The theme of the project, according to the musical’s official website, is:
Celebrate an extraordinary and little-known woman who (…) mediated between two cultures on the brink of inevitable conflict. In the midst of this (…) tension, love is born between the protagonists, a love that anticipates the union that will arise between the two sister peoples that we are today, Mexico and Spain”.
Malinche, a work that sought support in Mexico
In addition, according to what Nacho Cano declared at the press conference for the premiere of Malinche in Spain, it seems that the work had the approval of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and of people of political relevance in Mexico.
Nevertheless, the musical has caused users on social networks such as Tik Tok and Twitter to criticize the way in which the work represents this period of history, considering that a romantic character is given to the events that occurred.
América Valdes, a user of Tik Tok criticized that Malinche is portrayed as a free woman when she was a 15-year-old slave; and that the Spaniards boast of taking power “without almost shedding a drop of blood, completely ignoring the almost 300,000 lives that were lost thanks to Hernán Cortés.”
Other users commented: “Mexicans seeing that they romanticized the story to the fullest and represented an enslaved indigenous girl as a white person and free of her decisions”, “Story poorly told and making money from a mockery of #Mexico”.
Malinche’s producers are considering releasing it in Mexico. You, would you see it?