The life and works of Fabiola Cabeza de Baca, New Mexican Hispanic woman writer: A contextual biography

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca (1894-1990) was born in New Mexico Territory. She was a decendant of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Baca, a Spanish explorer. She attended local schools and universities and obtained degrees in Pedagogy and Domestic Sciences. She taught in rural schools for many years. As the first Hispana hired by New Mexico Agricultural Extension Services (NMAES), she worked with farm women--Mexican and Indian--for over 30 years. Her writing career began with NMAES pamphlets. She also wrote cookbooks and fiction. We Fed Them Cactus, describes 1900 ranch women and vaqueros of New Mexico's Staked Plains, or llano.;The Chicano movement of the 1960s and 70s led to the "discovery" of We Fed Them Cactus by Chicano critics. Few saw Cactus as historically significant. Some felt C. de Baca self-censored her work to give her EuroAmerican audience negative images of Indians and Mexicans.;This study examines C. de Baca's life in a Catholic and patriarchal Hispano society and its impact on what she wrote. It analyzes race, class, and gender and situates C. de Baca within U.S., regional, women's and Chicano literature.;C. de Baca was among a group of privileged New Mexican Hispanas who published books in the 1940s. Some were involved with the New Mexico Federal Writers Project; others published books on their own. Unlike their male contemporaries, few received recognition for their works.