This chapter analyses Mastretta’s first major novel, Arráncame la vida, published in 1985. Although some may wish to see it as merely a popular novel, it has received significant critical acclaim, obtaining the literary prize Premio Mazatlán in the same year as its publication. It has been translated into more than eleven languages and has been analysed in a number of doctoral theses (though relatively few have focused exclusively on Mastretta’s work). Chronological in structure and narrated from the perspective of the protagonist, Catalina, Arráncame la vida offers much more than the traditional story of an unequal marriage. Diane Braun points out that the novel has a binary structure consisting of:

In Arráncame la vida, Mastretta delves into Mexico’s tumultuous past by exploring both the Revolutionary and in particular Post revolutionary years of the 1930s and 40s. In this regard, Arráncame la vida is consistent with Seymour Menton’s description of the New Historical Novel as being set in a period prior to that of the author (p. 16). Both Mastretta’s interest in Mexico’s historical past from a feminist standpoint and the author’s preoccupation in recovering the voices of the silenced Other, aligns her with various Mexican female authors such as Nellie Campobello, Elena Garro and Laura Esquivel.

Arráncame la vida is a confessional novel narrated by Catalina Guzmán. Mastretta reproduces the historical events of Puebla and the conflicts associated with Maximino Ávila Camacho and the early years of his administration as governor of Puebla, the sexenio of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–40) and the presidential rule of Maximino’s brother, Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940–46).