Malinchism

Not to be confused with Machismo.

Malinchism (Spanish: malinchismo) is a form of attraction that a person from one culture develops for another culture, a particular case of cultural cringe.^[1] It has been described as an ethnic inferiority complex or national self-hatred.^[2] The term is used in Latin America, and especially in Mexico, to refer to the development of an admiration for the culture, ideas, behaviors, and lifestyle of the United States over those that are homegrown.^[3]

Origin

La Malinche is often used as a symbol for those who aided the Spaniards in the destruction of indigenous American cultures and ways of life. "Malinchism" may be taken as a pejorative, as an expression of disdain for those who are attracted by foreign values, thinking them superior, of better quality and worthy of imitation. It is derived from the name of Hernán Cortés's Nahua advisor La Malinche, referring to a deep-rooted Mexican inferiority complex.^[4]

Uses

In Mexico and in other countries the term "malinchism" or "malinchist" applies to all those who feel an attraction to foreign cultures and disregard for their own culture. It also applies to politics, as in El Salvador, where leftist political parties call their opponents "malinchist right-wing". The myth of Malinche came to be applied as a technical term for giving preference to Western cultures.^[1] The concept has a potential broader application to refer to a colonized country developing an admiration or affection for a colonizing country.^[3]

Malinchism is also associated with the depiction of women as symbols of betrayal and deceitful behavior.^[5] In Mexican popular culture, this theme often portrays Malinche as both the deceiver and the deceived. In theatrical productions, she is sometimes depicted as a victim of conquest, while in other portrayals, she is portrayed as the architect of her own fate. She is represented in art as a figure showing women's inborn deception and guilt — one who used her sexuality and betrayed her children.^[6] Even in dance, the dichotomy persists. In La Malinche, a ballet composed in 1949, by José Limón, Malinche is at first an unwilling victim, then assumes the proud deportment of an aristocrat, and in the end, weighted down by the finery she wears, she gives birth to a mixed-race child who rejects her.^[7] In literature, Malinche has been compared to Eve, the temptress who through deception, leads men astray.^[8]

Studies

Ueltschy and Ryans argued that upper-class consumers in Mexico display malinchism in their preference for American imports, rather than local Mexican brands. As result, American products are popular in middle class markets and their advertisers generally concentrate their efforts on urban Mexico City and avoid working class and rural areas. Monterrey and Guadalajara, for example, purchase 70 percent of American imports.^[9] Jiménez et al. developed a scale for measuring malinchismo that accounted for the favoring of foreign entertainment, foreign people, foreign food, and foreign products among adolescents.^[3]

See also

• Colonial mentality
• Xenocentrism
• Mongrel complex
• Yanacona, a Mapuche term for disloyal people of their kind
• Bunmei-kaika
• Mankurt
• Uncle Tom
• Useful Jew
• West Brit

Notes

1. Lemos & Dantas 2010, p. 86.
2. The films of Arturo Ripstein : the sinister gaze of the world. Manuel Gutiérrez da Silva, Luis Duno Gottberg. Cham. 2019. p. 182. ISBN 978-3-030-22956-6. OCLC 1125948423.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
3. Galán Jiménez, Jaime Sebastián F.; Ferguson, Gail Marcia; Sánchez Armáss Cappello, Omar; Torres Colunga, Luz Paulina; Cerda Escobedo, Carmen Elizabeth (2019). "A Malinchismo Scale for Use among Adolescents". Acta de investigación psicológica. 9 (2): 67–78. doi:10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2019.2.265. ISSN 2007-4832.
4. Butler 2004, p. 83.
5. Schneider, Julia Maria (2010). (PDF). Graduate Faculty - Thesis. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-17. Retrieved 16 February 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
6. Lindauer, Margaret A. (1999). Devouring Frida: The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Univ. Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-8195-6347-1. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
7. Seed, Patricia, ed. (2008). José Limón and La Malinche: The Dancer and the Dance (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 24–29. ISBN 978-0-292-71735-0. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
8. Cypess, Sandra Messinger (1991). La Malinche in Mexican literature from history to myth (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-75131-1. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
9. Linda Ueltschy, and John K. Ryans, Jr., "Employing standardized promotion strategies in Mexico: the impact of language and cultural differences," International Executive (July 1997) 39#4 pp 479+

References

• Butler, Matthew (17 June 2004). Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927-29. OUP/British Academy. ISBN 978-0-19-726298-6. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
• Lemos, M. T. T. B.; Dantas, Alexis Toribio (2010). América: Visões e Versões - Identidades em confronto (7 ed.).