Personal statement of Helena Hong and Elena Triginer regarding the adoption of Helena Hong from Hegang in Heilongjiang Province, China, at the age of ten to Barcelona, Spain. Helena describes her childhood in China and the stories she was told about why she was left with the orphanage. There is a photo of Helena, Elena, and Elena's son, Alex Casas, on the second page of the statement.

The question of decline in the historiography of seventeenth-century Spain originally included socio-economic analyses that determined the decline of Spain was an economic recession. Eventually, the historiographical debate shifted to include cultural elements of seventeenth-century Spanish society. Gender within the context of decline provides further insight into how the deterioration of the Spanish economy and the deterioration of Spanish political power in Europe affected Spanish self-perception. The prolific Spanish women writers, in addition, featured their points of view on manhood in their works and created a model of masculinity known as virtuous masculinity. They expected Spanish men to perform their masculine duties as protectors and providers both in public and in private. Seventeenth-century decline influenced how women viewed masculinity. Their new model of masculinity was based on ideas that male authors had developed, but went further by emphasizing men treating their wives well.