Who represents the conflict that Mexicans have not been able to solve? What effect does that conflict have on their culture?

Both Cortez and La Malinche represent the conflict that Mexicans have not been able to solve. They symbolize the poles of Mexican history, both Indian and Spanish; along with the vanquished and the conqueror. The Mexican does not want to claim either part of that heritage, so he denies that he is a mixture of them. If he is a not a mixture, then he is an abstraction - and a man who hails from nowhere. That enhances his feeling of isolation from the world. He defines himself only in terms of who he is not, rather than in terms of who he is. That feeling of isolation and orphan-like state drives all of his interactions at home, and his political choices in the world. The cycle of lacking self-identity continues; the Mexican searches for himself, and is only able to find himself within the fiesta.