Felicitas de Saint-Maxent, Countess of Gálvez and viceroy of New Spain, was a fascinating character who lived between the Old and New Regimes and has been, until now, incredibly and unjustly forgotten. Daughter of Creoles from New Orleans, and therefore of French origin and education, she was a beautiful, intelligent woman and a promoter of culture and the fine arts throughout her life. She married the illustrious governor Bernardo de Gálvez, key to the independence of the United States, and who became viceroy of New Spain. When she was widowed, she moved to Madrid, where she was famous as the hostess of gatherings in which illustrious writers and politicians participated, for which she came to be labeled as Frenchified and finally exiled. Felicitas de Gálvez lived a life full of passion, originality and enlightenment between two worlds, and symbolizes the turning point of all those women who before her went to America looking for an opportunity. Felicitas de Saint-Maxent, the beauti