Doña Lona: A Novel Based on the Life of Doña Tules : Facsimile of Original 1941 EditionIt was a time of turbulence, turmoil and trouble that culminated in the Mexican War and the American Army occupation of what had been part of Mexico since their independence from Spain in 1821. Doña Lona is a woman of wealth and importance in New Mexico and, as the owner of a gambling hall, she becomes involved in the politics of the time. She is a loyal supporter of the Americans and helps them in the days after the conquest when there were still pockets of rebellion. She is in the right place to act as a spy for the new government. "Doña Lona" is a story based on actual history and the life of the famous gambling queen, María Gertrudis Barceló, better known as Doña Tules. The characters are all part of the real life drama of the settling of the American Southwest. Doña Tules is also the subject of another book, "The Wind Leaves No Shadow" by Ruth Laughlin, also published by Sunstone Press in its Southwest Heritage Series. Blanche Chloe Grant was born in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1874 and died in Taos, New Mexico in 1948. A graduate of Vassar College, she also had studied art at the Art League in New York City and attended other art schools. She continued her successful art career in painting throughout her life but began a second career as a writer after moving to Taos in 1920. She began to research the history of Taos and the Southwest and the people who were part of that history. Grant wanted to make that history readily accessible to her contemporaries, so she wrote her books all based on the facts she had uncovered in her research into the past. |
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Common terms and phrases
adobe agin ain't Americans Antoine Leroux asked Beel Bent's Fort blanket bout bowed candles caravan caught Chihuahua Colonel Colonel Mitchell dance desert Doctor Gregg Don Orlando Doña Lona door Ewing Young eyes face feller Frémont galloped gambling girl gone Governor Armijo guess hand head heard heerd horse hoss hyar Indians Injuns José kintry KKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKK knew laughed lifted Lona's looked luck Madam Alarid Madam Barcelona Madam Pino Magoffin Manuel Armijo Marino Mexicans Mexico monte morning mountains nevah never night North ovah Pablita palace patio Pedro plaza portal reckon rode Rudolfo saddle sala Santa Anna Santa Fé Señor Lucero Señorita shoulders smiled soldiers stood talk Taos tell Texians thar thought told tole trail turned wagons wait walked watched whispered woman women word Yeah
Popular passages
Page 289 - Fe, a stately dame of a certain age, the possessor of a portion of that shrewd sense and fascinating manner necessary to allure the wayward, inexperienced youth to the hall a native of Taos and went to Santa Fe in search of "fame and fortune,
Page 309 - F6, alluding to its capture by the Americans without any resistance. I told him there was but one opinion respecting it expressed all over the country — that General Armijo and the New Mexicans were a pack of arrant cowards; to which he answered, "Adios, they don't know I had but seventy-five men to fight three thousand. What could I do f " On the 13tb of December, 1853, while the legislative assembly was in session at Santa !•'•'• . Dr.
Page viii - Careful analysis of what was written of Madam Barcelo by Josiah Gregg, George Brewerton and others has made me veer away from what historians are determined that we should believe of her. Not a man ever said that he really knew her. Seemingly these early commentators felt that she must necessarily conform to the type with which they were familiar, the disreputable frontier gambling woman. My own research through many years convinces me that they have maligned her.
Page 309 - Durango, he having some seven waggon-loads with him, and also what they said, in Mexico, of the doings in Santa Fe, alluding to its capture by the Americans without any resistance. I told him that there was but one opinion respecting it expressed all over the country - that General Armijo and the New Mexicans were a pack of arrant cowards; to which he answered, 'Adids! [A Diosf]. They don't know that I had but seventy-five men to fight 3,000. What could I do?
Page 288 - Spanish, and our conversation was carried on in both languages! he was well dressed in new boots, pants, hat, and white blanket-coat.
Page 289 - ... well dressed in new boots, pants, hat and white blanket-coat." Now she sat in a straight, high-backed chair and wrote of the ball: "Among the officers of the army I found some very agreeable, and all were attentive to me.