Frances Erskine Inglis

Frances "Fanny" Erskine Inglis, later the Marquesa of Calderón de la Barca and best known as Fanny Calderón de la Barca, (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1804 – Madrid, Spain, 1882), was a 19th-century travel writer best known for her 1843 memoir, Life in Mexico, which is regarded by historians as one of the most influential Latin American travel narratives of the 19th century.

After her husband died in 1861, Calderón de la Barca served as the governess of Infanta Isabel, the daughter of Isabella II of Spain.

Her father, William Inglis (pronounced Ingalls), was a landowner and a distinguished lawyer who was a member of the Writer to the Signet, a branch of the legal profession.

Staten Island was a popular summer destination for people escaping the heat of the cities and there Inglis met Spanish diplomat Ángel Calderón de la Barca y Belgrano, fifteen years older than her.

She met her future husband in 1836 through the mutual acquaintance of historian, William Hickling Prescott, who befriended Ángel due to his interest in obtaining archival materials from Spain.

The Calderón de la Barca's departed New York by ship for Mexico on 27 October 1839 and arrived, after a long and trying passage, in Veracruz on 26 December.

As the wife of the Spanish Minister, Madam Calderón de la Barca traveled extensively throughout the country and met its politicians and prominent citizens.

It describes the politics, people, and landscape of Mexico through the eyes of a Spanish diplomat's wife, thus providing a unique lens into the culture.

In Mexico, the Mexican government newspaper began publishing the book in serial form, but ceased publication after a few issues because of criticism.

One critic characterized the book as "unjust, passionate, virulent diatribes" by Calderón de la Barca despite the "hospitality" she and her husband received in Mexico.

[17] [14] Calderón de la Barca entered a convent briefly after her husband's death, but was asked by Queen Isabella II to serve as the governess of her nine-year-old daughter, Infanta Isabel.

Calderón de la Barca made a visit to the United States after the wedding, thereby missing the outbreak of another revolution which deposed Isabella II.

[18][19] Calderón de la Barca was still in apparent good health until 1882 when she caught a cold at an elegant dinner party and died on 6 February.

[20] Published in New York in 1856 under the male pseudonym of a young German diplomat, Calderón de la Barca's The Attaché in Madrid is, by far, her lesser known travel account.

This is partially due to its publication under a male name, which would have diminished the uniqueness of the female perspective present in Life in Mexico, since many male-authored travel accounts from writers such as Washington Irving had already been written on 19th-century Spain.

[7] Much like in Life in Mexico, Calderón de la Barca describes the "charitable institutions" formerly of interest to her under the guise of the curiosity of her male persona's mother.

But simultaneously, she also utilizes this male identity to speak on topics inaccessible to females of her class, such as the San Isidro Festival, the Burial of the Sardine and bullfights.