Dorothy Ward

Author

In 1983, I read a newspaper article about an elderly woman who claimed to have been a colonel in Pancho Villa’s army during the Mexican Revolution. Fascinated by the idea of a woman warrior in the Mexican Revolution, I began reading about the conflict and the various roles women inhabited during the revolution. Years later, I started writing my novel LIGHT, WHICH IMPRESSES. I completed three chapters with a female soldadera/soldier as the main character, but I set my manuscript aside when I assumed a new administrative position at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Once I retired from UTEP, almost ten years later, I resumed writing the book; however, I realized during the hiatus that I could not write honestly from the perspective of a Mexican woman fighting in her country’s revolution. Though the soldadera/soldier remained a major character in the novel, the protagonist role shifted to a female photographer—Sarah—living in the border city of El Paso, Texas, during the Mexican Revolution. A strong, unconventional female protagonist, Sarah must grapple with the political and social unrest of her time.

The novel is historical fiction that depicts the Mexican Revolution’s impact on lives along the Border, especially in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, during the period of 1910-1916. Yet the topics addressed in the novel are still at the forefront of today’s news: tensions at the U.S.-Mexico border, smuggling and sedition; immigration, internment, and deportation; racism, racial profiling, and racially-charged riots.

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