Martín Cortés

Martín Cortés, usually called Martín Cortés el Mestizo, was the son of Hernán Cortés and Malintzin, or La Malinche, the Indigenous interpreter and adviser central to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Born around 1522, he was acknowledged by his father and legitimised by a papal bull in 1529. He was taken to Spain while still a child, educated within elite courtly circles and eventually entered the Order of Santiago, giving him a social position unusual for a first-generation mestizo in the early Spanish imperial world.

Martín served the Spanish monarchy in European military campaigns and later returned to New Spain, where he became involved in the political tensions surrounding the Cortés family’s privileges and encomiendas. In 1566 he and his half-brothers were arrested during the so-called conspiracy of Martín Cortés; he was tortured and sent to Spain, though the most serious accusations were not sustained. He subsequently served under Don John of Austria during the suppression of the Alpujarras revolt and died in 1569. His life moved repeatedly between Indigenous-American ancestry and Spanish aristocratic institutions.

In Gary Jennings’ Aztec Revenge, Martín Cortés, known as El Mestizo and born to Hernán Cortés and La Malinche, understands that Juan’s unknown lineage may carry political significance. In Manolo Palomares’ Mestizo, A supposed descendant of Hernán Cortés and La Malinche asks the author to examine a family manuscript presented as the memoir of their son, Martín Cortés Malintzín.