New Mexico Books

In his book From Coronado To Escalante:The Explorers of The Spanish Southwest Dr. J.M. Morris told the story about Don Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's journey of 1540 to the present-day Southwest, and skillfully depicted the origins of this expedition. He used the accounts of the previous Spanish conquistadores like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro who before Coronado organized their "entradas" and subjugated the mighty Aztec and Inca empires. The author has also drawn the images of the people who participated in these adventures by portraying their ethnic and social status, and what motivated them to endure hardships such as fatigue, thirst, cold, and heat in the terras incognitas. As Dr. Morris followed every footstep of the Coronado conquistadores across the vast territories of Northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas, he educated the reader about the types of landscape they encountered. The author not only pointed out the geographical terms of the landscape such as the Continental Divide, the Great Canyon or the rivers of Sonora, Pecos and Rio Grande, but he also linguistically enhanced the characteristics of that environment by providing the terms used by the Spanish explorers themselves like despoblados,"desolate, cactus-strewn wastelands", and the Llano Estacado, "Staked Plains",a part of the plateau streching across Northern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle, to name just a few. The author introduced the reader to a variety of Indian cultures that the Coronado expedition encountered in its way. "The Zunis, the Opatas, the Hopis, the dwellers of the pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley, the Querechos of the buffalo plains, the Teyas of the barrancas and the Wichitas of Kansas" provide evidence of a diverse world of the America's indigenous population. Besides this ethnic diversity, Dr.Morris exhibited various attitudes of how Europeans were perceived by the Indians. The title From Coronado To Escalante is a timeline during which the power of the Spanish conquistadores declined (since gold was not found to be abundant) and the ascent of the Catholic Church missionaries began. Where the magic and attraction of the riches were gone, the abundance of the Indian pagan souls prevailed. Friar Silvestre Velez de Escalante and his small group in 1776 opened a new era in mapping the landscape of the Southwest that resulted in creation of more missions in that area, the monuments to the legacy of the Catholic Church of Spain. Dr. J. M. Morris book provides a focused, comprehensive narrative that makes the reader open the map of Mexico and the present-day Southwest in order to plot Coronado's trail as he or she reads about the Spanish explorers' adventures in search of gold, glory, and fame.

I totally feel engaged by Alarcon's poems. I thank him for including poems about social issues and for including some many poems in nahuatl, a language I love although I do not speak it. All the poems are bilingual and were translated into English by the author.

This is a beautiful book portraying the lives of people, places, and situations. The poems written by Francisco Alarcon are exquisite, evocative and full of passion. I loved the poems in nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. My favorite poem is called: "Mexican is not a noun" which is a poem dedicated to "students and faculty professors who were arrested for showing solidarity with two thousand cannery workers who were mostly women ". "Mexican is not a noun or an adjective, Mexican is a life long low-paying job, a check mark on a welfare police form, more than a word a nail in the soul but it hurts, it points, it dreams, it offends, it cries, it moves, it strikes, it burns, just like a verb".


This is a phenomenal book for class discussion, for working in small groups and as a piece of literature that should be present in very house.

This is a great modern update of migrant workers from the days of Dorthea Lange. There is such a closeness that is acheived between the photographer and the family. The friendship that developed over eight+ years really comes out in this book and the photographs. Truly great documentary work. You should read this book!

The author has been writing about the New Mexico Rangers for well over thirty years, and this book is a culmination of his long immersion into this subject. What writers like Bill O'Neal and Robert Utley have done for the Arizona and Texas Rangers respectively, Hornung has now done for the New Mexico Rangers. With research into official records and personal papers, interviews with ranger descendents, and a passion for having these men remembered accurately, Hornung has shown how the Rangers helped to make New Mexico a secure state for settlement.

The Foreword to this book is a treasure that will stand by itself, a 1969 letter written to Hornung by the last surviving New Mexico Territorial mounted policeman, Fred Lambert. Lambert was a living repository of stories of the various rangers the author writes about in the book, and the old Ranger has pithy comments about them, about the "tough business" of law enforcement in his day, and the need for a lawman to have a "quick trigger finger." Movingly, Lambert conveys his pride in having been a New Mexico Ranger. He ends by giving Hornung some good old-fashioned advice about looking men in the eye. He asks Hornung to tell the unvarnished truth, with no dime novel heroics, and to tell how those early policemen had a job to do, and "just done it."

Fullerton's Rangers is about the origins and especially the initial year, 1905, of the New Mexico Mounted Police. The early chapters of the book provide geographical and historical context for the Mounties' story. He tells of New Mexico Territory's reputation as a lawless land, its vast mountains and its unforgiving deserts. He writes the role of women in the era, about relations between the Anglo and Hispanic communities, and of its political factions and violent history. The passage to statehood was not easy. Nor was the enactment of the Mounted Police Bill that constituted the force that changed New Mexico's lawless image.

Fullerton, Governor Miguel Otero, and each of the original members of the force are sketched at length as to their history, character, and accomplishments. Fullerton, who became the leader of the Rangers, was a complex figure of considerable strengths and weaknesses. He suffered a political meltdown, costing him his job. He was replaced in 1906 by Fred Fornoff, a former Rough Rider, at a time when ex-Rough Riders were being promoted by President Theodore Roosevelt for such jobs.

Hornung writes with great care and passion about the hardships and accomplishments of each individual ranger. The longest chapter is a narrative of manhunts and arrests, successes and failures, and dangers faced by each individual ranger who served under Fullerton. There are sections on uniforms, weapons, badges, even use of the then new-fangled Gillette safety razors. The author writes about what seems an incredible miserliness and penny-pinching by the state fathers, and about conflicts between the rangers and resentful local law-enforcement authorities. Yet somehow Fullerton made it work. He got the most out of his hard living, hard drinking force, hard fighting force, suppressing the plague of cattle rustling and other crimes. It seems hard to argue with the Hornung's conclusion that Fullerton's Rangers have been misunderstood and underrated, and that they fearlessly blazed a trail of law enforcement for the men in the motorized flivvers who followed, and their successors today.

Learned about this book in a Language Arts Methods class, and had to buy it immediately! I love these kind of stories that mix folklore and tradition and language all together to give a flavor of NM (along with the chile!). Bilingual book, English on one side and Spanish on the other. Good opportunity to make the most of a culture that may or may not be well known in your classroom.

Convenient size. You can take it with you when you travel to New Mexico and see the lands that inspired a truly remarkable woman. The black and white photographs and the simple design of the book would please Ms. Okeeffe, I feel. I have been to Ghost Ranch and it really is amazing to see some of the changes and similarities that the pictures present. The photographer John Loengard has produced a compelling insight into the private life of a very intriguing woman.

I found this magazine and immediately bought it-just what I was looking for and at a very good price.
Asked that the seller be sure to package it well. The communication was great. I received the magazine in short time and in excellent condition.
Would buy from the seller again anytime.

I really liked this. Lots of color reproductions of O'Keeffe's paintings, including several "fold-out" double pages. Covers her early mid and late periods. This is also a book about the museum devoted to her in New Mexico, The size of the book is nice too. A bit smaller than "coffee-table" huge dimension. A book you can browse through. Can be an introduction to Georgia O'Keeffe's art and life for somebody just learning about her, or can be extra fun for a real O'Keeffe fan.

If you have any interest in Georgia O'Keeffe or the area in New Mexico where she lived, you will definitely appreciate this book. Todd Webb is an exceptional photographer. I treasure my book.

Found the advice and tips in this book to be helpful and easy to understand, especially in this challenging market. This book is full of good information for selling in either a buyer's or a seller's market. There are tips for pricing, presentation all the way down to the move itself. Very informative.