is a manuscript written between 1835 and 1917 by , First Lady of Mexico during the two presidencies of .

Historical context was written by , who was present in various important events as First Lady of Mexico, such as the Second French intervention in Mexico, the formation and fall of the Second Mexican Empire, and the development of the Republic of Mexico under the presidency of .

Content It is composed of a prologue and eleven chapters that begin with the birth, infancy, and youth of , including her marriage. This gives an important perspective of the life of her husband, , describing the process of making several of his military and political decisions.

An example of the historical events described by can be seen in the following, where she describes the relation between and the United States in the events previous to the fall of the Second Mexican Empire:

(The North American Republic couldn't see with good eyes the greatness and progress of our beloved land, nor that there was a government of order and stability, that was respected by the great governments of Europe, and that guaranteed them, the same life and interests of its compatriots. [...] Without the help of the United S., Juárez and all his accomplices, would not have been able to dethrone the Empire; however that was old news, and the method adopted by the thief that was the Republic many years back, was always, moving towards Mexican civil war, to then deceivingly take the prize.)

Publication has been published in two occasions: 1980 – The publisher published by , and is divided in two parts: The first part contains a prologue and notes by , and 's manuscript (which still had grammatical errors and a convoluted style) The second part contains the Epistolary between and from 1858 to 1867, an extract of the military collaboration between and between 1838 and 1860, the "Manifest to the Nation" that gave when he was interim president in 1859, the epistolary between and the general , diverse notable documents to the relation between and General , as well as the archduke Maximilian I. 1922 – The publisher published by , which contains the manuscript of with the spelling corrected and with style correction by .

Bibliography . 1992. . Mexico: . . 1980. . Mexico:

References