Alicia Gaspar de Alba is professor of Chicano studies and English, University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders.

Gaspar de Alba masterfully mixes historical reality with fictional creativity as she reinvents the seventeenth-century Mexican intellectual, poet, and nun, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. - MultiCultural Review ""... intelligent, thoroughly researched novel....This work of fine scholarship and vision should increase awareness of a compelling historical figure."" - Publishers Weekly ""Gaspar de Alba's multi-faceted portrayal of Sor Juana is extremely compelling.... Gaspar de Alba spent nine years researching and trying to understand the seventeenth-century poet... and has done a wonderful job of communicating her understanding to the reader."" - The Lesbian Review of Books