With the recovery of her novels and research into her biography, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton is assured the recognition of her talents that she, her family, and her many influential friends understood to be her due. Her slippage into obscurity can only be understood in light of the plight of most women in history: their subjugation to a male-centered universe. Like most female intellectuals of her time, Mexican and American, she understood quite clearly the limitations set on her as woman, and she contrived, however imperfectly, to set the record straight about women. Ruiz de Burton's life and works are exceptions to the rule that women do not make history. Ruiz de Burton did make history, as marginalized members of society so often do, with great courage.

Given what her life has to offer scholars and students, Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita should...