In Carlos Fuentes's novel The Death of Artemio Cruz, Regina is a young indigenous woman who is living in a small village in Mexico at the time of the Mexican Revolution. Although Artemio and Regina eventually become lovers, their first encounter is marred by the fact that Artemio abducts and sexually assaults her. Whether because Regina is truly in love with Artemio or because she cannot bear the pain of acknowledging what happened to her, Regina chooses to create an idealized, fictitious story of their first encounter. In Regina's account, she and Artemio first meet while she gazes into the river and notices his reflection next to her. Regina's story ends with the two lovingly riding off together on horseback.

Artemio goes along with Regina's account of their first encounter, and the two become lovers for seven months in 1913, with Regina becoming a soldadera in the form of a camp follower. She does not join Artemio's regiment in all of its movements but rather follows behind as best she can:

Like a gull, she seemed able to sense the movement of the revolutionary tide despite the quick ebb and flow of battles, and she would go patiently from pueblo to pueblo, asking for the battalion. . . .

Tragically, the tale of love that Regina and Artemio create in the midst of the revolution ends abruptly when Artemio returns from a mission to discover that Regina has been hanged to death by enemy forces.