Who Would Have Thought It?

Who Would Have Thought It?

First edition title page
Author	María Ruiz de Burton
Language	English
Publisher	J. B. Lippincott & Co.
Publication date	1872
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	298 pp

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Who Would Have Thought It? (1872) is a semi-autobiographical novel written by María Ruiz de Burton.^[1] After a long period in which Ruiz de Burton's work was almost completely unknown, the novel was rediscovered by critics interested in the history of Mexican-American literature, and republished to acclaim in 1995. Yet Ruiz de Burton's life was not particularly typical of the Mexican-American experience, as she married a prominent US officer, Captain Henry S. Burton, in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War and became acquainted with many powerful people in Washington D.C. The novel reflects her ambiguous position between the small in number Californio elite and the Anglo-American populace, which formed the majority of the United States population.

It details the struggles of a Mexican-American girl born in Indian captivity, Lola, in an American society obsessed with class, religion, race and gender. The first ten chapters follow the central family in the years leading up to the start of the American Civil War and the attack on Fort Sumter (1857–1861), and flashbacks are meant to take the readers back further than that time line, such as the kidnapping of Lola's mother (1846). The last fifty chapters chronicle the events that took place during the Civil War (1861–1864).^[2] Each chapter focuses on a particular character and is told from an omniscient point of view.