LAUSR

century re-imaginings of Sor María in the final two chapters illustrates intriguing connections between past and present that today’s disciplinary boundaries risk marginalizing. As significant as the framework may be, however, it is still in need of fine-tuning. The author herself admits: ‘The many critical perspectives involved in the analysis of lore likewise cannot be broached in this one chapter’ (242). Indeed, many of the final chapters’ readings seem rushed or forced. For example, Nogar develops an intriguing interpretation of references to La mística ciudad de dios in a New Mexican alabado but only delves superficially into its relevance in New Mexican cofradías. Likewise, more detailed readings and contextualization could enrich Chapter 5’s discussion of Tejano historians’ approaches to the Lady in Blue. For all this, the reader’s sensation is that the final chapters ofQuill and Cross in the Borderlands are actually the beginning of a separate but related project that considers Sor María’s contemporary echoes. In conclusion, Quill and Cross in the Borderlands is a valuable contribution to the field. Postcolonial scholarship, book history and a nuanced understanding of the challenges that cloistered women writers faced inform a nuanced re-reading of links between Sor María de Ágreda’s writing and the Lady in Blue bilocation narrative. Nogar delves into intersections of folklore and history in order to underscore the nun’s centuries-long cultural impact in Spain, the Americas and beyond, and her broad temporal perspective allows readers to appreciate Sor María’s multifaceted persistence in southwestern and Mexican American culture.