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Frances Erskine Inglis, daughter of a prominent lawyer and Freemason, was born in Edinburgh in 1804. As the Marquesa de Calderón de la Barca, she died in Madrid's Royal Palace in 1882. During her life she was a teacher, legation hostess, and successful author, remembered now for her travel classic Life in Mexico and semi-fictional The Attaché in Madrid. But her books tell nothing about the greater part of her far-ranging career, which led through a half-dozen countries in response to bankruptcy, extortion, marriage, diplomacy, and revolution. For this colorful biography the authors have drawn from many sources, including contemporary memoirs, diaries, and numerous letters by and about Madame Calderón. Sometimes her trenchant commentary on people and places flared into newspaper controversy. From all that can be discovered about her, she emerges as a person of high abilities, energy, and nerve. In addition to the spirited woman at the center of the story, there are also her extraordinary family and a cast of memorable minor characters.
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"La Güera Rodríguez (1778-1850) is a fascinating Mexican woman who has become an icon of the nation's popular culture. She has been--erroneously--portrayed as a courtesan who seduced Simón Bolívar, Alexander von Humboldt, and Agustín de Iturbide; a major independence heroine; and a feminist who defied the conventions of her day. This book reconstructs her true life story and then shows when and why false facts and apocryphal stories appeared to create her legendary figure. It thus illuminates both the neglected social history of her day and the degree to which historical memory reflects ever-changing worldviews and concerns"--
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This affectionate study of the Mexican temper is ''one of the most charming travel books ever written.'' - The Atlantic Monthly Before returning to the Old World after World War II, Sybille Bedford resolved to see something more of the New. ''I had a great longing to move,'' she said, ''to hear another language, eat new food, to be in a country with a long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible.'' And so she set out for Mexico - and, incidentally, to write what Bruce Chatwin called the best travel book of the twentieth century, ''a book of marvels, to be read again and again and again.''
"This book takes you through the collection gallery by gallery, illuminating the art and installations in each room"--From preface.