Leonor Villegas de Magnon | Biography

The recent unearthing of Leonor Villegas de Magnón's autobiographies marks still another retrieval effort which allows us a glimpse at women's historical struggles in appropriating a discursive voice to document their own stories. Official history nearly erased the memory of the nurses' involvement in the Mexican revolution of 1910, especially those from the Texas-Mexico border area. Leonor Villegas de Magnón made it her duty to leave a written record of that participation. She left two versions of her life story. The first 300-page Spanish text, entitled "La Rebelde" (The Rebel), was intended for a Mexican audience. After various unsuccessful attempts to have the Mexican government publish what they labeled "novelized memoirs," Villegas de Magnón wrote an English 483-page version entitled "The Lady Was a Rebel," aimed at a U.S. audience. She died on 17 April 1955, not having found a market for either version of her autobiography. Encouraged by historian...
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