María Ruiz de Burton

María Ruiz de Burton

María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (born July 3, 1832 in Baja California , † August 12, 1895 in Chicago ) is considered the first female Mexican-American to write in English. She published two novels: Who Would Have Thought It? (1872) as well as The Squatter and the Don (1885) and a play based on Miguel de Cervantes ' novel Don Quixote .

Ruiz de Burton's work is attributed to the early Chicano literature . In it she represents the point of view of the Mexican population, whose members suddenly became US citizens and thus a predominantly Spanish-speaking Catholic after the defeat of Mexico in the Mexican-American War and the subsequent cession of Mexico to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo A minority in a country dominated by English-speaking Protestants, which in no way granted them legal equality. Her personal background gave her special insights. Ruiz de Burton married an influential Protestant general whose career led her to spend part of her life on both the east and west coasts of the United States. She was a contemporary witness of the settlement of western North America as well as of the American Civil War and its aftermath. Her work therefore deals with ethnicity , influence and power, gender roles and social class.

childhood

María Amparo Ruiz was born on July 3, 1832 in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur . The exact place of birth is unknown, it is usually assumed either Loreto or La Paz . Her grandfather, José Manuel Ruiz, was a senior Mexican military who was governor of Baja California from 1822 to 1825 . For his services he received over 3,500 hectares of land in the Ensenada region .

Ruiz de Burton's youth were shaped by the Mexican-American War. At the age of 15, she witnessed the fall of her city, La Paz, to the Americans. A little later, she first met her future husband Henry S. Burton , who commanded part of the troops that conquered La Paz. Towards the end of the war, it became apparent that Baja California would continue to be part of Mexico, while Alta California would become part of the United States. Burton supported residents of Baja California who wanted to move to Alta California and would become Americans that way. Shortly after the Guadelupe Hidalgo Treaty was signed in 1848, Ruiz de Burton, her mother and brother moved to Monterey for this reason .

marriage

Ruiz de Burton was a Roman Catholic and her future husband was a Protestant. Neither of the two wanted to give up their religious affiliation because of the marriage, which would have met with resistance due to their respective social position. Henry S. Burton was one of the American war heroes, while Ruiz de Burton was a prominent and well-known Catholic family. Both José González Rubio , Catholic bishop of this region, and the governor of California protested against the planned marriage. The couple eventually convinced a Protestant minister in Monterey to marry them off. The marriage took place on July 7, 1849, just a few days after Ruiz de Burton's 17th birthday.

Marriages between Mexican Americans and prominent US military officials were rare. Ruiz de Burton was seen as a traitor by many Mexican Americans for marrying a man who was actively involved in the conquest of their Mexican native land. But there is also another way of looking at this marriage: Her marriage opened up opportunities for Ruiz de Burton to move up in American society that would not have been open to her as an American of Mexican origin. Ruiz de Burton's later actions show that she did not hesitate to make use of her social connections; it is just as clear, however, that she has often faced conflicting situations.

On July 4, 1850, Nellie, Ruiz de Burton's first child, was born. Two years later, the family moved to San Diego, where Burton assumed command of the military station at Mission San Diego de Alcalá . The couple enjoyed a large circle of friends in San Diego, and Ruiz de Burton initiated a small theater group in which soldiers from the military station appeared as actors. In 1853, the Rancho Jamul couple purchased a large estate outside of San Diego. They lived there from March 3, 1854 with their daughter and Ruiz de Burton's mother and brother. The couple's second child, a son baptized Henry, was born on November 24 of the same year.

In August 1859, Burton was transferred to the east coast of the United States. Ruiz de Burton and her children accompanied father and husband. For the next 10 years the family lived in Rhode Island , New York , Washington, DC , Delaware, and Virginia . Burton, who helped rebuild after the devastation of the American Civil War and reorganize the former Confederation states that had abolished slavery , contracted malaria in 1865. He died of complications from the disease on April 4, 1869 in Newport, Rhode Island.

Widow life

After her husband was buried at West Point , Ruiz de Burton returned to Rancho Jamul, San Diego, in 1870. During the remaining years of her life, she was involved in a series of legal disputes to secure possession of Rancho Jamul. At the same time she worked intensively as a writer.

The litigation resulted from the fact that the land registry entry after the acquisition of Rancho Jamul did not take place until the 1970s. In the meantime, settlers had settled in the countryside. Ruiz de Burton won all legal disputes over possession of their land until 1875, but had also had to borrow money from the land in order to have the financial means to enforce their legal title. Therefore, she only had 1000 hectares of the original property. At the same time she was a resourceful entrepreneur . As early as 1869 she founded a cement factory with her son Henry and a few donors, the Jamul Portland Cement Manufacturing Company. This used, among other things, the natural limestone deposits that were in the area of ​​Rancho Jamul. The company existed until 1891. While Ruiz de Burton lived on Rancho Jamul in the 1870s, she raised cattle, grew wheat and oats and wonder trees to make castor oil from the latter , and leased the flower-filled hill country of Rancho Jamul to beekeepers .

At this late stage in her life, Ruiz de Burton wrote two short stories and a play. Her first novel, Who Would Have Thought It? , appeared in 1872. Her play Don Quixote de la Mancha: A Comedy in Five Acts: Taken From Cervantes' Novel of That Name was published and premiered in San Francisco in 1876. Her second novel, The Squatter and the Don , was published in 1885. Ruiz de Burton died in 1895 while on a trip to Chicago. She was buried in the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in San Diego.

literature

• Kathleen Crawford (1984): María Amparo Ruiz Burton: The General's Lady. Journal of San Diego History 30 (3)
• Amelia María de la Luz Montes (2004): "Mine Is The Mission to Redress": The New Order of Knight-Errantry in Don Quixote de la Mancha: A Comedy in Five Acts. In: Amelia María de la Luz Montes and Anne E. Goldman: María Amparo Ruiz de Burton: Critical & Pedagogical Perspectives. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 206-224, ISBN 978-0-8032-3234-1 .

Web links

• Biography of Maria Ruiz de Burton in the EM-Journal

Single receipts

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita: Conflicts of Interest: The Letters of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton. Arte Público Press , Houston 2001, introduction
2. ^ ^{A b c} Amelia María de la Luz Montes and Anne E. Goldman: "Mine Is The Mission to Redress." 2004, p. 245
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Kathleen Crawford: María Amparo Ruiz Burton: The General's Lady. 1984
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita: Conflicts of Interest: The Letters of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton. Arte Público Press. Houston 2001, introduction