The Judgement of Martin Cortes: The Crime of Being Mexican

In contemporary Mexico a play is presented, Martín Cortés: El primer Mexicano, its two main characters being the two sons of the conquistador Hernán Cortés. One is the son of Malinche and therefore the first mestizo; the other is the legitimate son of Cortés's wife. Both half-brothers are named Martín Cortés. In the play, the mestizo kills his Spanish half-brother. Unfortunately, the actor who plays him also kills the actor who plays the Spanish half-brother. The actor is put on trial for murder, and the play is re-enacted in order to show the jury how the mestizo actor in the course of his role was inflamed by 400 years of racial prejudice and oppression. This highly original and thought-provoking film is marred somewhat by the light-skinned Gonzalo Vega playing an unconvincing mestizo. The film has also been called Los hijos de La Malinche.