Quill and Cross in the Borderlands: Sor María de Ágreda and the Lady in Blue, 1628 to the Present. By Anna M. Nogar. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2018. Pp. 457. $60.00 cloth.
The borderlands story of SorMaría de Ágreda (1602–55), also known as the Lady in Blue, begins in 1628, when “a woman dressed in blue or gray religious garb appeared to the Jumano tribe of eastern New Mexico” (1). The moment marks the first reported visit to the Americas by the Spanish nun, who did not cross the Atlantic by boat but was transported by six angels. Even more remarkable was her continuing presence inside her convent in Spain, while she traveled to New Mexico. Known as bi-location, this phenomenon occurs when a person is said to be in two places at the same time. Nogar’s book details the life and circulation of Ágreda’s literary work, in addition to presenting the folklore surrounding her multitudinous bi-locations throughout the US southwest. These reportedly continued until the mid twentieth century. Known as the Lady in Blue because of her blue nun’s habit, she visited indigenous tribes and assisted in their conversion to Christianity.