María Cristina Mena was not a prolific writer. She published in a concentrated manner during only two periods of her seventy-two-year life: from 1913 to 1916, when ten short stories and one nonfiction article appeared, mainly in Century Magazine, and from 1942 to 1953 when her five children's books came out. Still, her output is an important part of Mexican American literary history. As a local-color writer, she was recognized during her life as one of the first Mexican American writers in English. As such, she was seen as an important interpreter of life in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Mexico for audiences in the United States. Yet, by the time criticism about Mexican American literature began to take form during the 1970s and 1980s, she had been relegated to a secondary position, seen as portraying strong female characters at best and as acquiescing to U.S. colonialism of Mexico at worst...