Ángeles Mastretta’s Arráncame la vida (1985, Mexican Bolero) has long been regarded as a classic of women’s historical fiction in Mexico. Nuala Finnegan considers it the inaugural text of the boom femenino in the country, and the novel’s status as a best seller and the immense attention it has received from critics make it one of the most iconic works of fiction by a twentieth-century Mexican woman writer. The novel reclaims a pivotal moment in Mexican history (the rise and consolidation of the PRI regime after the Mexican Revolution, in the 1930s) and places a female protagonist, Catalina, at its centre. During this time, Mexican national identity was being reconfigured, an identity that—following Adriana González Mateos’ critique of Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude—fundamentally excluded women from any active role in history. As such, Mastretta’s work has been celebrated for retelling Mexican history from a woman’s perspective. However, decolonial feminism offers the opportunity to acknowledge Catalina’s racial and cultural identity, and to take a second look at who is being centred as an actor. Drawing on the work of María Lugones and Yuderkys Espinosa, this chapter focuses on the interactions between Catalina and Carmela, an indigenous woman who, albeit occupying a marginal space within the narrative, is vital for Catalina’s development as a character. As Mexican women’s writing is currently being rediscovered and revalued within the country, incorporating decolonial perspectives into our analyses can shed light upon further issues related to the configuration of the literary canon.