Central America Books

This is a wonderful book.
But it is not about the Mexican holiday.

Gordon Chaplin does what most people only dream of - sailing into the unknown for the sake of an adventure. Starting out of the FL. keys with his girlfriend and a loose itinerary of tracing a dead relative's footsteps - to re-discover many of the lost Mayan ruins and maybe re-discover himself as well. Along the way the reader is treated to tales of boat life and 3rd world culture, filled with magnificent descriptions of the people and their surroundings, making you feel like your standing next to him at the bar.

If your looking for that one book to end the summer with, this is it - great vacation, beach reading. This book would make for a great Jimmy Buffett song.

At last. A work we have long been waiting for from Ocean Press has finally arrived. And it is a text which will be read for centuries to come by the English-reading world.

Fidel Castro was the greatest and most human leader of the 20th Century. In this book, in presentation after presentation, Fidel embodies with burning passion the values of communion, courage, joy, humor, compassion, sorrow, remembrance, true justice and -- perhaps most important of all -- HONESTY. One comes away from the "Reader" thinking that perhaps Fidel Castro, for all the Cold War nonsense regarding East vs. West, North vs. South etc, was the greatest Christian leader of all time. Christian in fact, in deed, in thought -- rather than the vampires and their minions who have so degraded that term.

In the Big Dark of the Bush Reich, it is very easy to feel a daily despair. This book cures that. With humor, outrage, incredible brilliance, and total honesty. One example:

"The fascists stop at nothing. They try to find the weak spot. They invent the most ridiculous lies. They try to create terror and unrest among the people by telling the most outrageous lies. Their appeal is always to the gutter instincts: hatred, fear, racism, economic insecurity, selfishness, ignorance. They feed off of keeping people stupid. They resort to every method they can think of. And what do fascists do when their own institutions no longer guarantee their domination? How do they react when the mechanisms they've depended on historically to maintain their domination fail them? They simply go ahead and destroy those institutions, without a moment's look back. The fascists stop at nothing."

Commandante Castro may not make it to the 50th Anniversary of the Revolution. But he will live forever.

Viva Fidel!

This book is an inspired, readable, and labor of love account of the growth of popular education in El Salvador. The writer shares the continuing challenges faced and rewards shared by students, teachers, and those who teach the teachers.

As in El Salvador, the US, especially Texas, California, Florida, New Mexico, Arizona will increasingly face similar challenges. With the growth of the Spanish speaking populations in the U.S. over the next twenty years, educators and health care professionals will be challenged to adapt and at times abandon certain professional roles and attitudes, in favor of more indigenous methods and messengers for advancing literacy and promoting life enhancing health practices and interventions. Public policy in Texas is already shifting toward the use of community based practitioners in healthcare with a view toward building social capital in Hispanic cultures that can become self-sustaining. Professional treatment and education models are not abandoned, but new program growth may be toward the use of professionals to teach the teachers, health educators, and care givers to care for their own communities, and build community based, rather than, state driven programs.

Social service professionals in the U.S. may see their future in this book.

The Final Call is a "wide-open" and fun adventure through the quicksand of American politics. The best part is clearly the noted Christian angle, which we all need so desperately today. The book points out so many obvious errors in our nation's thinking, but also adds potentials for our long-term survival. At times, you will simply be shaking your head when you see the collection of calamities the author details. We can save this nation, but it is going to take effort....OUR effort.
I think you will enjoy the read,
Jason

Flor Garduno is a mystical artist. She travels about the Americas pausing to observe and conserve rituals of the sacred and profane nature as embodied in the native peoples of Mexico,
Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. At times her photographs may seem stark or frozen in time or posed to minimize interaction with the surrounding landscape/homescape, but this technique only adds to the mystical element Garduno celebrates.

There is something timeless in these moments of ancient ritual, as though Garduno wants us to revere the passage of time as reliquaries for 'lost' civilizations. Yet her subjects and objects are extant: there is no gathering of elements from museums to authenticate these images. These are people and places that time passes by with respect and with reverence.

Some of the beauty of this portfolio is Garduno's concentration on the landscape as an equally important component of her travels. She captures the land of these remote regions in a manner that regards its holiness, its sanctity, its durable presence despite the shift of the winds and the ravages of weather.

This is a book for contemplation. The photographs are accompanied by an illuminating essay by none other than the brilliant Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes. This is a book that is highly recommended for personal libraries as well as for deeply thoughtful gifts. Grady Harp, March 05

The new format -- with more and shorter reviews, redesign of the layout and more maps -- makes this guide easier to use while traveling. Even if you're just going to Belize, having Tikal and northern Guatemala in the same guidebook is a real plus.

My husband and I took this with us on our honeymoon to Cozemel. What an EXCELLENT resource it proved to be! The reviews and suggestions were right on the money. We appriciated the personal input and specifics for sites, activities, resturants, etc - it was as though a good friend was giving you traveling advice.

The book is well layed out and easy to navigate.

We carried this with us during our site-seeing adventures both on and off the island and it proved to be invalueable. There is no question that our trip would not have been as outstanding had we not had it.

This is the most "up-to date" guide that we used. We also liked it because of the HIGHLIGHTS section in each category and for the excellent maps. We carried this guide with us the whole week.

I appreciate guide books that are put together with care, appreciate writing that is fun and interesting and highly informative. "Fodor's Costa Rica 2003" is an inexpensive book and a terrific one!

It was the best book on the country besides the considerably more pricey, "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," a welcome addition to any library collection that will capture the interest of travelers, amateur geologists, students, and conservationists .