Martín Cortés I (1523 - 1568) was the son of Hernán Cortés and La Malinche, born in Tenochtitlan shortly after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Martin I, had a half brother who was also called Martín Cortés II (1533 - 1589), the second Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, the son of Cortés and his second Spanish wife, Juana de Zúñiga. The mestizo Martín I lived in the shadow of his half-brother, becoming a servant to him. Not being of pure Spanish blood, the elder was often treated as a second-class citizen.

In 1563, the two brothers returned to Mexico from Spain, where they were caught conspiring against the Spanish crown in 1568 (a plot whereby the Spanish Martín would have set himself up as King of Mexico). They were brought to trial and sentenced to perpetual exile from Spain's American possessions.

References

• John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 2001