Chocolate With Chile: Private Incidents Involving Fanny Calderon de la Barca

Fanny Calderón de la Barca (1804-1882) lived in Mexico City for two years in the 1840s as the wife of the first envoy Spain sent to Mexico after Independence. She described her stay in a book, Life in Mexico, published in 1843, leaving vivid impressions of the capital and countryside, the aristocracy and government officials, the servants and beggars—and her own appealing personality. Chocolate With Chile mixes the historical facts of Fanny’s life with fiction. It takes place in a Mexico City full of flowers and filth, in an era when the Church filled its coffers with the wealth of girls forced into convents, and where uprisings repeatedly overthrew governments. Against this backdrop, the book conjures private incidents in the life of this high-spirited, dynamic woman. Carolyn Kingson brings the witty and exuberant Fanny back to life. She imagines the secrets of Fanny’s marriage, of her relationship with the handsome aide to the American envoy, and her friendship with a titled and sheltered young woman, who is led far astray by Fanny’s misguided mentoring. Kingson inhabits Fanny, remaining true to a nature revealed in her book and journals, while elaborating her story in an unforgettable way.