Ruiz de Burton, Railroads, Reconstruction

María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s fiction has been analyzed primarily by critics trained in Hispanic or Western literary studies. But, with one work written in the midst of Reconstruction and the other set during its timeframe, her novels also invite a reconsideration of the literature of Reconstruction. This is especially true of The Squatter and the Don, whose portrayal of railroads reminds us that Reconstruction was an economic program as well as one to advance the rights of freedmen. Revising our understanding of de Burton’s literary politics, this essay argues that Reconstruction remains an unfinished revolution in part because of its failure to implement progressive economic reform.