Jovita González de Mireles is one of the significant female writers of the first half of the twentieth century. History and fiction converge in her essays as she describes the life, customs, and beliefs liefs her people along the Mexican border. Born in Roma, Texas, in 1899, Jovita González belonged to a prominent Spanish family descended from the original settlers of what became the American Southwest. She was raised on her grandfather's ranch in the Rio Grande valley. The ranch had come to her family when her great-great-grandfather, as one of the agraciados (grantees), received a land grant from the Spanish crown in the northern frontier of New Spain.

At a time when education was a precious commodity for minority group members, Jovita González obtained a B.A. with a teaching certificate in history and Spanish at Lady of the Lake College in...