New Mexico Books

"Neither kitsch nor high art, most of the little handmade animals whose images appear in this book of postcards were made to be sold--they weren't whittled or molded by a loving grandpa for distribution to delighted children within his family. Nevertheless, each piece reflects the talent and the sensibility of an individual creator. The likelihood that the creator and the eventual recipient might never meet doesn't affect the benignity and beauty of the object or its value as folk art. The pieces assembled here come from Austria, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Japan, Chile, Sweden, India, Poland, and Philadelphia--to name a few of the sources. They reveal a truth that transcends our societies and cultures: everybody likes a little critter.

"Published with the Museum of International Folk Art/Museum of New Mexico. Thirty full-color reproductions bound in a handy 4 3/4 x 6 7/8" small book. ISBN: 0-7649-2870-8."--© Pomegranate

Well David J. Meltzer is a Phd, and I am just an average joe who loves archaeology, especially north American archaeology. The two "five-hundred pound" gorillas in north American prehistory are Clovis and Folsom "cultures". Most folks focus more on Clovis as it is deemed earlier. However, comparing Clovis and Folsom dart points, which about all the physical remains of their culture, Folsom to me at least is more delicate, more difficult to knap/produce, and the Folsom people have always fascinated me. Dr. Meltzer produced a long needed volume on Folsom, trying to bridge the gap and appeal to the average Joe on the street who is interested in this stuff, and the professionals who understand the archaeological lexicon. Meltzer interjects some light hearted humor into his writing, and makes at least part of the book easy enough to understand, that I did enjoy it and come away with a better understanding of not only the Folsom culture,but the archaeologists who excavated it in the mid 1920s, up to the most recent excavations in the 1990s. There are a lot of graphs and charts and listings of various detailed information that will only appeal to professionals, but all in all, I felt the book was worth my time and money. Dr. Meltzer does on occasion tend to drift into the complex wording that only trained professional archaeolgists and geologists will understand, and occasionally state things in ways that could have been much more simple. To quote Mr. Forrest Fenn, an artifact collector and amateur/vocational archaeolgist of NM:

"1. I am born of you and am nourished by your lectures, your reports, and your beautiful museum displays. Thank you for giving me life.

2. Leave the jargon at home. Your future depends on increased public interest, and that's where your future funding will originate. If 14-year-old students don't understand your report, you're doing it wrong. And incidentally, color in books is OK.

3. Stop whining about what amateurs are doing. You have bigger problems at home, like unreported field work, for starters.

4. Collectors are not going away, and you're heavily outnumbered. Get used to it and learn from them.

5. Don't get carried away with your importance. Private property rights come first, now and always.

6. If it's a Canis Latrans bone, give us a break; say it's part of a coyote.

7. Your peers already know you're smart, so write for the rest of us sometime. We'll buy your book and read it; they probably won't "

The above quote of Mr. Fenn, are words all professional archaeolgists should read, and hopefully heed. We surface collectors and armchair archys, really love this stuff, so keep writing and don't forget point number 6! Thanks for a great book!

Foods Of The Maya is a highly recommended sampler of Yucatan cuisine that will intrigue any who enjoy regional cookbooks. Foods Of The Maya focuses on local versions of Mayan cooking, from Garlic Pork with Rice and Black Beans to an orange juice/allspice seasoned Motul Chicken. No photos, but the recipes don't need them.

Having read all of Max Evan's books and loving every one of them, For the Love of a Horse was a "must have". Max is not just a wonderful writer, he has been there and done it, a true cowboy in every way. I know a lot of the country his books are about, and as he, am in awe of this harsh but spectacular Northeastern New Mexico land. "For the Love of a Horse" is about special horses Max has owned or ridden from boy-hood on up, and horses that have played a special role in all of our lives. It's about wrecks and spills, about heroic efforts of his horses, taking him to safety, and horses not so concerned about his safety! His affection and love for his horses is apparent on every page, and those of us who can count ourselves lucky to have had maybe one very special horse in our lifetime, certainly recognize the feeling. You will chuckle at times, and hold back tears at others. This is a book to keep among your "treasured books" in the bookshelf. Max, you did it again! Mimi

"An albatross around his neck" John Nichols called his 1974 novel "The Milagro Beanfield War" in an afterword to the book's 1994 anniversary edition, because he felt that particularly after "Milagro" had, over multiple obstacles, been made into a 1988 movie directed by Robert Redford, it had eclipsed much of his other work; be it the two other novels in his "New Mexico Trilogy" ("The Magic Journey," 1978, and "The Nirvana Blues," 1981), his other novels, from 1965's "Sterile Cuckoo" to "A Ghost in the Music" (1979), "Conjugal Bliss" (1994) and beyond, and his extensive nonfiction work, much of which, like his novels, deals with life and the love of the land in his beloved northern New Mexico.

"A Fragile Beauty" is part companion volume to the "Milagro" novel(s) and movie, part introduction to Nichols's world, in which the movie's release had created new interest. As such, it follows prior works such as "If Mountains Die" (1979, with photographs by the author's friend William Davis), the memoir "The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn" (1982), Nichols's joint piece with Edward Abbey ("In Praise of Mountain Lions," 1984), as well as "On the Mesa" (1986). As in the 1982 memoir and in several other pieces ("The Sky's the Limit," 1990, and "Keep It Simple," 1992), Nichols himself not only supplied the text but also the photography; chronicling his New Mexico neighbors' extraordinary spirit and powers of subsistence, and the unique natural charms of the state which, not without reason, bears the name "The Land of Enchantment."

In an introductory essay, extracts of which were originally published as an article in the May 1987 edition of "American Film Magazine," the author talks about the years of his political formation, and his arrival and early experience in New Mexico, particularly his work as a reporter and editor with a now long-defunct newspaper called "The New Mexico Review," and his support of the fight for a fair and responsible water distribution system, which eventually fed into "Milagro;" as well as about the novel's tenuous transformation into multiple draft screenplays and, eventually, a movie. But mostly, "A Fragile Beauty" is a celebration of life on the mesa; of the humble and humbling majesty of its mountains, endless skies, seasons, storms, sun and snow, sagebrush, flowers, cottonwoods, pinons, forests, golden asters and aspens, rivulets, gullies, gorges, lakes, ponds, trout, lizards, dragonflies, coyotes, wolves, birds, horses, cattle, and sheep ... and of Nichols's friends and neighbors: Justin Locke, Julian Ledoux, the Martinezes, Charley Reynolds, Mike Kimmel, Doug Terry, Isabel Vigil and her daughter Evelyn, Pacomio Mondragon, and the folks of the Tres Rios Association. (No, I never met any of these people in person. But the way Nichols talks about them, he makes you feel like you know them just this much - and of course you have met them and many others, too, if you have read "Milagro.")

"Whenever we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it connected to everything else in the universe," Nichols quotes John Muir, and he adds, "I have always kept that in mind while writing about the land, people, heartaches of northern New Mexico. To extoll the fragile beauty of the Taos Valley in words, photographs, or in a film, is to sing the praises of, and to demand consideration for, the entire earth." And Robert Redford writes in his foreword: "These mountains and their attendant valleys belong to the spirits of the dead and the cultures that have followed in their footsteps. They belong to the tourist only in passing and in pictures. ... John Nichols understands this, himself much like the land he treasures and stays pledged to keep. ... His may be a windmill fight. But it is a noble one, and I salute it."

What could I, a mere tourist to the region, possibly have to add? Surely not much that these two, and particularly John Nichols, haven't expressed with much greater skill in one way or another. But I think I can claim just about enough familiarity with northern New Mexico to say that I share their concern for its preservation; and upon each new visit, my innate response to the region's extraordinary natural beauty is still very much that of my very first stay there as a teenager: to me, as to then-sixteen-year-old John Nichols, who first spent a summer there in 1957, this is still "dream territory;" "a piece of terrain wild and beautiful enough to be commensurate with [my] capacity for wonder," as Nichols puts it, citing F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don't need to take anything other than photographs back home with me. But every time I return, I hope that my favorite piece of the Land of Enchantment will still be there the way I remember it, and every time I see changes - not all of them for the better. So, yes, Mr. Nichols, your defense of the area does speak to me, too; and for the future inhabitants of Milagro Country, for the future Joe Mondragons, Seferino Pachecos and Mercedes Reals, as much as for the rest of us, I hope the region will be able to preserve its beauty and its community values over the onslaught of commerce.

"We are touched by magic wands. For just a fraction of our day life is perfect, and we are absolutely happy and in harmony with the earth. The feeling passes much too quickly. But the memory - and the anticipation of other miracles - sustains us in the battle indefinitely." John Nichols, "A Fragile Beauty."

Also recommended:
The New Mexico Trilogy: The Milagro Beanfield War / The Magic Journey / The Nirvana Blues
If Mountains Die: A New Mexico Memoir
The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn
On the Mesa
The Sky's the Limit: A Defense of the Earth
Desert Solitaire
High And Wild: Essays And Photographs on Wilderness Adventures
Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau
The Milagro Beanfield War

Goldemberg's novel is a fascinating portrait of th experiences of Jews who immigrated to South America during the early to mid 20th century. The author describes how difficult it was to find acceptance among Peruvians while being incapable of maintaining ties to the Jewish community and to Jewish religious practices.

The story is fragmented in its presentation (hence the title.) It is not told in a chronological fashion. Instead, it jumps around from point to point. I found the structure difficult at first, but I eventually became accustomed thereto.

Jacobo Lerner is reviewing his pitiful life just before he is about to die. He set up a shop in a small rural village where there were few Jews. He impregnated a local woman, but leaves the village for Lima because he longs for the cosmopolitan life. He never sees his son, Efrain. He remains in the village where he is taught to hate Jews, but where is also feared because he is the son of a Jew. Lerner sets up a brothel and carries on an affair with his brother's wife; he alienates the Jewish community. The people whose lives he has affected feel that his death is a good thing, either because it will relieve his suffering or because it would be just.

Each chapter is set up in a different format: memories by Lerner, remembrances by old friends, exerpts from a Jewish daily, etc.

I wish Ilan Stavans' introduction would have given more insight into the importance of the novel for Jewish and Latin American Literature. His work is usually good.

I love this book, it is beautiful, inspirational and the story is well written. I would highly recommend this book, I am sure that you will fall in love as well.
Este libro es de los mejores que he leido, te inspira y es una hermosa historia. Lo recomiendo.

~Pam T's "look inside this paper"~ opening paragraph...

"EARLY in the eighteenth century French voyageurs, chasseurs, and traders of Louisiana and Canada looked with covetous eyes toward New Mexico. To the adventurer it was a land promising gold and silver and a path to the South Sea; to the merchant it offered rich profits in trade. The three natural avenues of approach to this Promised Land were the Missouri, Arkansas, and Red rivers. But there were two obstacles to expeditions bound for New Mexico. One was the jealous and exclusive policy of Spain which made the reception of such Frenchmen as might reach Santa Fe a matter of uncertainty ; the other was the Indian tribes which stood in the way. The Red River highway was effectually blocked by the Apache, mortal enemies of all the tribes along the lower valley; the Arkansas and Missouri River avenues were impeded by the Comanche for analogous reasons. It was not so much that the Apache and Comanche were averse to the entrance of French traders, as that the jealous enemies of these tribes opposed the passage of the traders to their foes with supplies of weapons. It is a matter of interest that in the nineteenth century the American pioneers found almost identical conditions in the same region."

~ End of Pam T's "look-see"~

In this paper Professor Bolton is simply at his best as he describes how the Spanish disinterest in the fine fur trade contributed to their loss of New Mexico. His writing is crisp and his storytelling is in fine form as he spins an interesting narrative that connects people, places, and politics.

Despite the years stated in the title, Bolton actually begins his narrative in 1718 with La Harpe's building of Cadodacho on the Red River. He then goes on to talk about other traders who extended the range of the French voyageurs ever closer to Spanish lands. As 1749 approaches, the narrative slows and the author begins to delve more deeply into the sources that describe the difficulties faced by the various parties involved: the French (to get access to the pelts and trade); the Spanish (to keep the French out of their lands); the Native Americans (to get access to the trade while keeping other tribes excluded).

What makes this a Five-Star read, in my opinion, is the manner in which personal stories are interwoven into the overview. It is positively striking to see how matters henge, not on the actions of distant kings or imperious administrators, but on the deeds of common men 'stumbling' through life.

I wish it were possible to list the many individuals and tribes that are discussed, but there are simply too many. In the category of voyageurs, the paper talks about the likes of La Harpe, DuTisne, Satren, Febre, Riballo, Sandoval, the Mallet brothers, and a German, amongst others. Major sections also deal with the politics of the Comanche, Apache, Pawnee, and Jumano tribes. Likewise French officials are not left out.

Five Stars :::
This paper originally appeared as a chapter (pg. 389 - 407) in "The Pacific Ocean in History: Papers and Addresses Presented at Panama-Pacific Historical Congress Held at San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto, California; July 19-23, 1915". The book was edited by H. Morse Stephens and Herbert E. Bolton, and published by MacMillan Company of New York. The Amazon description is thus in error.

This is one of the best essays by Bolton's that I have read. The narrative is clear and yet dense with information. If one is interested in the Southwest and New Mexico, with or without fur trade, I can't think of a better, more concise source to begin with. Bolton outlines politics, peoples and places in a very lively manner.

New materials come from Spanish sources: "Autos fhos sre averiguar."

For more recent scholarship you might consider David J. Weber's, "Spanish Fur Trade from New Mexico, 1540-1821". This paper originally appeared in "The Americas" Vol. 24, No. 2. (Oct., 1967), pp. 122-136. Spanish fur trade from New Mexico, 1540-1821

(From Planeta.com Journal) - Subtitled "Architecture and Landscape across the Mexico-United States Border, this book is tour-de-force that gives visual explanations of the great changes at the heart of the US/Mexico Borderlands. The book is expertly illustrated with maps and black-and-white photos, but the majority is space has been crafted by the author. It's a wonderful medley of observations, historical anecdotes and interviews with the architects themselves. Highly recommended.

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.