Awards

• Short-listed for New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards in Religion, Finalist 2020 (United States)
• Winner of International Latino Book Awards, Best History Book 2020
• Winner of International Latino Book Awards, Best Religious Book 2020
• Winner of International Latino Book Awards: Best History Book 2020
• Winner of International Latino Book Awards: Best Religious Book 2020
• Winner of Western Literature Association Prize Committee Thomas J. Lyon Award for Annual Best Monograph, Honorable Mention 2019 (United States)

Overview

Quill and Cross in the Borderlands examines nearly four hundred years of history, folklore, literature, and art concerning the seventeenth-century Spanish nun and writer Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda, identified as the legendary ""Lady in Blue"" who miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the rudiments of the Catholic faith. Sor Maria, an author of mystical Marian works, became renowned not only for her alleged spiritual travel from her cloister in Spain to the New World, but also for her writing, studied and implemented by Franciscans on both sides of the ocean. Working from original historical accounts, archival research, and a wealth of literature on the legend and the historical figure alike, Anna M. Nogar meticulously examines how and why the legend and the person became intertwined in Catholic consciousness and social praxis. In addition to the influence of the narrative of the Lady in Blue in colonial Mexico, Nogar addresses Sor Maria's importance as an author of spiritual texts that influenced many spheres of New Spanish and Spanish society. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands focuses on the reading and interpretation of her works, especially in New Spain, where they were widely printed and disseminated. Over time, in the developing folklore of the Indo-Hispano populations of the present-day U.S. Southwest and the borderlands, the historical Sor Maria and her writings virtually disappeared from view, and the Lady in Blue became a prominent folk figure, appearing in folk stories and popular histories. These folk accounts drew the Lady in Blue into the present day, where she appears in artwork, literature, theater, and public ritual. Nogar's examination of these contemporary renderings leads to a reconsideration of the ambiguities that lie at the heart of the narrative. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands documents the material legacy of a legend that has survived and thrived for hundreds of years, and at the same time rediscovers the historical basis of a hidden writer. This book will interest scholars and researchers of colonial Latin American literature, early modern women writers, folklore and ethnopoetics, and Mexican American cultural studies.

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9780268102135

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Reviews

We have come to recognize with admiration how important women religious were to the creation of feminine (and even proto-feminist) discourses in the Americas, especially in the early major cultural centers. Anna Nogar has added to that knowledge by turning to the contributions of such women in the non-urban areas we now call the borderlands. Nogar's exemplary scholarly study of the legendary nun known as the Blue Lady shows that the so-called peripheral areas also held women religious who could be identified as 'protomissionaries.' Sor Mar a de greda's borderlands miracle story profoundly affected both first-peoples and the conquering settlers and reached far beyond its original nonmetroplitan origins. --David William Foster, Regents' Professor of Spanish and Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University With Quill and Cross in the Borderlands, Anna Nogar brilliantly highlights the literary importance of Sor Mar a de Jes s de greda, the legendary 'Lady in Blue' of the U.S. Southwest, as a key woman writer of Spanish colonial borderlands. Like the miraculous bilocation attributed to her in 1630, appearing to indigenous peoples in New Mexico while in her Spanish cloister, Sor Mar a de Jes s greda's spiritual writings influenced Spanish missionary practices for decades. Thanks to Nogar's clear style and ground-breaking research, this book provides a fascinating account of how one nun's writings influenced the course of the Spanish colonial project even as she became a legend in the Americas despite never crossing the Atlantic.--John Mor n Gonz lez, University of Texas at Austin

Moreover, individual chapters and even sections would make for good readings in undergraduate or graduate courses on early modern, independence-era, or contemporary history, literature, culture, and gender studies. The volume is sure to become required reading in the field of Agredan studies. -Chasqui Anna M. Nogar's contribution is necessary and just, in great part because nuns from both sides of the Atlantic are frequently decontextualized for the sake of exclusively theological, gender, or ideological interests. Anna M. Nogar's contribution is necessary and just, in great part because nuns from both sides of the Atlantic are frequently decontextualized for the sake of exclusively theological, gender, or ideological interests. -Latin American Literature Today Nogar's well-researched and beautifully written Quill and Cross in the Borderlands ties the early writings of Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda, the Lady in Blue, to the later folklore that arose from her miraculous visits to indigenous communities beginning in the 1630s. -Journal of the West Individual chapters and even sections would make for good readings in undergraduate or graduate courses on early modern, independence-era, or contemporary history, literature, culture, and gender studies. The volume is sure to become required reading in the field of Agredan studies. -Chiricu Journal Nogar excels in her fine-grain, textually grounded analysis. She draws on a broad and varied source base, ranging from seventeenth-century miracle narratives to architectural renderings, library index lists, and operas. Nogar also shines in her engagement with visual sources. -Hispanic American Historical Review Nogar's text is a welcome addition to scholarship on the history of the Church in northern colonial Spain. . . . Nogar produced an excellent study that lays out the entrance of Christianity into the northern borderlands. Most important, as a text on Agreda's life, writings, and apparitions, it clearly documents her significance to the history and colonization of New Spain's northern frontier. -The Americas Quill and Cross in the Borderlands is a work of synthesis. Nogar weaves Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda's roles as woman religious, author, mystic, and protomissionary into a vibrant historical trajectory that moves beyond fragmentary treatment of the nun as a predominantly folk figure. - Journal of Folklore Research , April 8, 2019 Nogar's work will generate interest among students of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and colonial Latin America, although the topics and the approach apply to any region landscape, and time because of their association to current and relevant themes such as those of identity negotiation, gender, and coloniality, among others. -New Mexico Historical Review An exhaustive study of the 17th century Spanish nun who miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the Catholic faith-while never crossing the ocean. . . . While the Lady in Blue's apparition has been written off as fantastical, Nogar focuses on the nun's spiritual writings, which have been overshadowed by her folklore narrative. -Mirage Magazine Quill and Cross in the Borderlands will be an invaluable source for scholars of the American Southwest and Mexico alike. Nogar's remarkable archival research coupled with copious transcriptions and translations of historical documents reveals ho Sor Maria De Agreda permeated New Spanish society. -Aztlan Quill and Cross in the Borderlands achieves the difficult balance between academic rigor and readability and is a valuable resource for Sor Maria specialists and students alike. It may also engage aficionados of early modern women's writing or southwestern history. -Colonial Latin American Review

Author Information

Anna M. Nogar is professor of Hispanic Southwest studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and associate dean of humanities at the University of New Mexico.

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