By romanticizing Cort*s as the discoverer of Mexico and the destroyer of Aztec immorality (human sacrifice), Calder*n participates in this initial ``discovery'' herself, ignoring Cort*s'' brutalities of conquest, and mythicizing the Mexican landscape as a Paradise comparable to the Biblical Eden through its sublimity. In doing so, she highlights Mexico's ``unexploited'' resources, which would become part of the motivation for the United States' invasion of Mexico. Despite her identification with Cort*s, Calder*n's later description of Chapultepec implies a greater affinity for Cort*s'' indigenous mistress, Malinche or ``Do*a Marina'', who held substantial political authority for a woman of her background.
Calder*n
Do*a Marina