Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew

Born Paula Cronbach in 1939 to a family of German Jews with hidden Sephardic origins, María Espinosa's family had lived in Spain until the 18th century, hiding their Jewish identity until the family finally made their way to Brussels. Espinosa grew up in Long Island, the child of a sculptor father and a poet mother. She attended Harvard and Columbia Universities and received a MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She met and married her first husband, Chilean writer Mario Espinosa Wellmann while living in Paris. In 1978 she married Walter Selig, who had fled Nazi Germany as a child to grow up on an Israeli kibbutz.

Espinosa has taught at New College of California and City College of San Franciso. She is the author of two prior novels, Longing and Dark Plums (both Arte Público Press, 1995). Longing has been translated into Greek. Espinosa is also the author of two books of poetry, Night Music and Love Feelings. She translated George Sand's novel, Lélia, which was published by the Indiana University Press.