The Collected Stories of Maria Cristina Mena (Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage)

Although the author, a friend of D.H. Lawrence, published her stories in many major U.S. magazines, this is the first time her English-language fiction has been published in one book. Mena's stories explore the lifestyle and attitudes prevalent in Mexico's revolutionary days, a period of disturbing change when agrarianism and the romantic past collided with capitalism and industry.

In "The Gold Vanity Set," Petra's marriage to a guitar player turns violent. To change her husband's abusive ways, Petra takes the gold vanity set that a "turista" left behind in the inn and puts it to work. She rubs the powder on her hands, the rouge on her cheeks--and the world seems to change. Petra sparkles, her husband gains a new appreciation for her, and Petra offers the gold set to the local statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. When the tourist discovers what happened to her trinket, she is overwhelmed by the idea that the gift to the Virgin has indeed saved Petra from another beating.

"The Emotions of Maria Concepcion" exposes the excess to which old-fashioned romantic ideals can float. Maria Concepcion falls in love with a visiting bullfighter and, by feigning terminal melancholy, contrives to go to his bullfight against her father's wishes. She drapes a white mantilla dramatically over her head and makes liquid "little eyes" at the bullfighter until--horrors!--he actually reacts! He attempts to dedicate the killing of the bull to her, with scandalous results. As in many of Mena's stories, two cultures clash shockingly, even though they seem to have much in common.