The Love You Promised Me
is the 6th recipient of the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize, awarded annually at the Guadalajara International Book Fair for a work of fiction by a woman writer in the Spanish language. Marcela, the heroine of the novel, is a modern, professional woman in her forties sifting through her disappointment after a brief but intense, extra-marital affair. As the novel opens, Marcela is in the town of San Lazaro, the home town of her forebears, not only to pick up the pieces of her life, but also to discover the secret past of her parents. Set in Mexico in 1994, Mexico's presidential election, the Mayan insurrection in Chiapas, and the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio serve not only as backdrop, but also parallel the emotional vicissitudes in Marcela's own life.