New Mexico Books

I am usually skeptical about collections of poems on a single theme, but Gill's varied perspective and voice have given us something fresh on evey page. Her incisive wit and profound psychological insight are presented with such sublety, power, and seemingly effortless precision, the reader is continually drawn forward into the next poem. Gill's ability to transform hypothetical ideals into tangible personal experience is nothing short of inspirational. This is what poetry should be - philosophical, psychological, and real. This is a work that can truly stand the test of time.

The best of the American Indian myths are works of art, blending form and content into an organic whole that interweaves the great themes of human experience. John Bierhorst's brilliant selection of sixty-four tales - each significant and interesting in itself - present a comprehensive view of a world that will be both familiar and vastly different for "Western" readers.

Over forty cultures, including Navajo, Aztec, Iroquois, and Eskimo, are represented. In addition, John Bierhorst's introduction offers a framework for interpretation according to Freud, Jung, Frazer, and Levi-Strauss, plus an analysis of mythic narrative as a key to reading traditional literature.

The Red Swan is valuable both for its scope and for the superb quality of the stories themselves.
--- from book's back cover.

Jackson's book uses the community of Cochabamba as a case study to examine life in rural Bolivia from colonial times to the present. Relying on archival materials from Cochabamba to develop his analysis, Jackson challenges the tendency to portray Andean natives as hapless victims of modernity. His examination of agrarian, economic, political, and demographic history clearly demonstrates that peasant natives of Bolivia have played, and continue to play, an active role in that nation's development.

Much like Nils Jacobsen's excellent book, Mirages of Transition: The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780-1930, Jackson's book depicts a highly resilient peasant population that continues to flourish despite centuries of exploitation and displacement. This book is an example of how to do research using rural archives. It is a must-read for students of Bolivia and the Andes generally in addition to those interested in demographic or economic history.

Architect Thomas L. Lucero and scholar Thomas J. Steele, S.J. present Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico, a slender yet detailed study of the structure and architecture of churches. Setting forth a classification system that can prove most helpful when comparing distinct types of Hispanic religious architecture in New Mexico, Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico is filled with black-and-white diagrams and photographs as well as extensive text description, historical summaries, and more. A thoroughly researched and invaluable guide for architecture students, designers, and scholars seeking to better understand the form, purpose and function of Hispanic New Mexican places of worship.

Roque Dalton met Miguel Marmol in Prague in 1966. Marmol had survived a firing squad in 1930 after being arrested along with 18 other Communists suspected of organizing the rebellion of poor peasants in western El Salvador. Over ten thousand peasants were killed by the El Salvadoran military in putting down the uprising. One of the persons killed by the military was Farabundo Marti. A later group of rebel guerillas in El Salvador named itself after him. One of the government death squads during the civil conflict in El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s named itself after the general who was president in 1932 directing the brutal reaction to the rebellion which became known as "Matanza," the massacre.

The three authors on university faculties investigate the development, use, and effects of political symbols in the historical events of El Salvador. The military which had seized power in El Salvador only two months before the uprising held on to its power for another fifty years. After the journalist and poet Dalton wrote a book on Marmol from a series on interviews, Marmol, along with the executed Marti, became a symbolic focal point for the domestic and the international opposition to the tyrannical military rule in El Salvador. Dalton's 500-page work on Marmol first published in Costa Rico in 1972 was "one of the earliest examples of testimonial literature, a genre of international proportions that emerged primarily out of Latin America during the civil conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s." Parts of Dalton's book based on the Marmol interviews, other writings of Dalton's, and documents from other authors and sources are recorded in the appendix of about 100 pages.

The work is not basically one of historical fact-finding. For the facts of the Matanza are well-known, and are not disputed by either side of the long-running civil conflict in El Salvador. The authors interest is how each side came to view the 1932 insurrection as it did. Each side developed opposing interpretations; which interpretations were rationales and justifications for its actions during the long conflict. The anti-government forces of the Communists and others found inspiration and encouragement in Marmol's story as written by Dalton. This especially calls for attention since it is not the "official" record. The government forces would as soon have had the rebellion and massacre covered up and forgotten about. But the memory was kept alive by survivors and strengthened years later when Marmol's memoir written by Dalton was published. Though the two met by chance in Prague, as these coauthors show, the resulting memoir along with the memory of the deadly events which had been kept mostly in silence played a key role in eventually ending El Salvador's military dictatorship.

The writings of Diego de Vargas, commander of the re-conquest of New Mexico after 15 years of terror following the revolt of 1680 are now available in English. This book is a must for anyone interested in New Mexico history. This is history straight from the source through the eyes of the man who created the history.

We are retired and frequently find her three books useful. We have a Vanagon with a bed, and enjoy pulling into a rest stop, and using the facilities. At anytime can take a nap or stretch our legs. Her three books cover all the states west of the Rockies. We previously marked maps with (T) to indicate a rest(Toilet)area, but missed out on so many of them. Her books describe facilities, best access route, crowded or not, and rates each location. Definitely one of our better purchases.

It's a pity this elegant book is now out of print, since it traces the artistic evolution of Mark Klett, one of our foremost American landscape photographers. Combining his knowledge of geology with his interest in photography, Klett saw himself originally as a direct artistic descendant of great 19th Century American photographers such as Carleton Watkins and Timothy O'Sullivan. Indeed, one of his earliest projects was to photograph again the same locales these photographers photographed during their work as official photographers to several U. S. government scientific surveys. Klett's work shows a deep affection and appreciation of the American landscape, especially the Southwest. Yet it is also a series of cautionary visual tales noting how we have inadvertently ruined that landscape through pollution and other signs of human activity. Hopefully this splendid book will be published again soon.

McAllister Hull had a distinguished career as a nuclear physicist and university administrator but in the fall of 1944 he arrived at Los Alamos to work as an explosives technician. His story of how that happened gives a view of the Manhattan project different from the well told histories of the eminent scientists and military leaders. Hull knew who Oppenheimer and Groves were but his role was a niche producing critical chemical explosive components at the more isolated S-site. For that matter he knew Klaus Fuchs with out any idea of the Soviet connection.

That Hull was a scientist to the depths of his psyche is apparent when he describes his thoughts while careening down a hill driving a truck with failed breaks: "I knew that if even a slight misalignment occurred, the truck would translate its forward momentum into a rotation about an axis across the road."

The book is tantalizing in its brevity as when he alludes to Edward Teller during the Oppenheimer hearings: "He helped a petty man, Lewis Strauss, to harass a man better than either of them." The memoir is a quick summary by someone who had a view of the birth of atomic weaponry from the nuts and bolts up through a thorough comprehension of the underlying theory. It adds to the understanding of how the great wealth of technical talent was put together in the remote New Mexican country side and managed to achieve the unimaginable.

Illustrations by the author's son round out the mid-century feel of the narrative and the bibliography has Hull's comments on nine of the more important accounts of the development of atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Full of great ideas for a host of diverse rides! The author has a voice that reaches out and describes each ride. All rides include a precise description of elevations, views, interests, etc.