Refusing the Favor : Spanish-Mexican Women of Santa Fe, 1820-1880

Refusing the Favor unveils a method for understanding how Mexico's northern land, New Mexico, came under the authority of the United States and what role women played in the political game of takeover. By not losing sight of the Spanish-Mexican women of Santa Fe, the most populated town west of the Mississippi until the California Gold Rush, it places gender squarely in the middle of the dialogue about conquest.