Southwest Books

This collection of folk literature is valuable for anyone teaching bilingual Spanish/English literature. It is also very useful for teachers of Spanish language, anthropology , children's literature, and folklore. I am using it in a college level writing class. Stories are printed in both Spanish and English. They are short and well-written, retaining the flavor of the original in the translation.

J. Frank Dobie was a folklorist of Texas and "Coronado's Children" may be his best and most famous book. He was born in 1888 and bridged the old west and modern times. CC was written in 1930 when many of the old timers, who knew how to spin a yarn, were still around. Dobie sought them out and recorded their stories of lost gold and buried treasure. He was also a serious scholar who rummaged through Spanish and American archives to give authenticity to his stories -- and he was not adverse to saddling up a horse and doing a little on-the-ground research.

"Coronado's Children" has inspired thousands of otherwise normal people to pick up a shovel and head off to some god-forsaken wasteland to dig in the ground looking for the "Lost San Saba Mine," the booty of pirate Jean Lafitte, or the $2 million the James boys supposedly buried in the Wichita mountains of Oklahoma. These are the kind of stories that dreams are made of -- and who knows? Some of them might be true.

Dobie has collected nineteen tales in CC and he tells them beautifully in prose that is conversational and colorful. He has enormous respect for the land and the Indians, the Mexicans, and the Anglos who live in the harsh, dry country of the southwest. An oft-used adjective to describe his stories is "magical" and so they are. "Coronado's Children" is an American classic.

Smallchief

Masterfully written, narrated, and prodigiously researched for twenty years, Jerry Thompson's Cortina finally provides a balanced and contextualized life of Juan Nepomuceno "Cheno" Cortina. Cortina was a South Texas Mexican ranchero whose fight to "defend the Mexican name" and whose struggle for equality and justice in Texas manifested itself as social banditry that violently culminated in the "Cortina Wars" in the mid-nineteenth century.

Cortina's early social-banditry embodied the frustration and resentment of the countless ethnic Mexicans who for generations had owned and worked the land that would become U.S. territory as a result of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, and as a consequence much of it lost to Anglo newcomers via legal, extra-legal and illegal means. Cortina became more than an avenger of perceived and actual wrongs against ethnic Mexicans in Texas, however; he also participated in the major conflicts that convulsed Mexico beginning with the U.S. war on Mexico, through the War of the Reform and the French Intervention. His actions in these conflicts allowed him to ascend to important and powerful Mexican military and political positions from which he emerged as a respected and courageous defender of the Republic prior to the advent of the Pax Porfiriana. His actions often resonated as far away as Washington, Mexico City and even Paris, France. Nonetheless, even in defending the nation, he remained very much a norteño whose allegiance was mostly to his region and ultimately his personal interests.

Thompson rescues Cortina from the one-dimensional "most insolent...bandit" or "red-robber of the Rio Grande" caricature found in earlier histories by authors such as J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb and others by providing us with a rich tapestry of a "man of immense nuances, contradictions, paradoxical views, and incredible survival instincts." He presents a fully fleshed-out, warts-and-all man, properly contextualized in the chaotic times of a violent and vivid land. Thompson has assuredly enriched the body of knowledge of both Mexican and Texas history.

Well the book is an in depth look at the famous spur makers and some not so famous and the history of Spurs in the New World. Some minor inconsistencies in information about when a maker or company marked their products. I enjoyed the extensive list of little known makers and their style points in the back of the book. If your looking to see the makers marks in a book; well... be satisfied with the history and folklore and construction. The omission of showing historical documentation of the maker marks of the makers reviewed is a glaring one. Cowboy Spurs... is informative and chock full of biographical tidbits on the best of the best custom and production spur makers. I bought Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers but then I ordered Cowboy Bits and Spurs by Joice Overton which is more helpful with Identification and styles; a Schiffer book.

The term "cowboy way" has an infectious effect on those who love cowboys and everything about them. If this is truly the case, then Paul H. Carlson is infected. He is deathly ill from "cowboy fever." His book The Cowboy Way: An Exploration of History and Culture is loaded with sixteen essays all dealing with cowboy culture. Each is well written and thoroughly researched. Paul H. Carlson is a professor of history at Texas Tech University. He has written a number of articles and several books that deal with Western American culture. Two of his books are Empire Builder in the Texas Panhandle: William Henry Bush and The Plains Indians. Since Carlson is the editor and also a contributor to The Cowboy Way, there are many other authors to make mention of. Lawrence Clayton is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Hardin-Simmons University. He has written several books, including Historic Ranches of Texas and Watkins Reynolds Matthews: Biography of a Texas Rancher. J'Nell L. Pate is a professor of history at Tarrant County College and has written many articles and four books dealing with western history, including the award-winning Livestock Legacy: The Fort Worth Stockyards, 1887-1987. Other authors that contributed include graduate students, a freelance writer, an archivist, a reference librarian, a book review editor for the Permian Historical Annual, a French teacher, and the Executive Vice President of San Antonio College, Robert E. Zeigler. (pp. 217-219) In his preface, Carlson begins by saying, "Although there is no dominant thesis, there are many themes." (p. ix) Carlson is correct in saying there are many themes throughout the book. Each essay deals with a specific aspect of cowboys and their way of life. I must disagree with his denying the existence of an overall thesis. From what I could garner from the book as a whole, it is an effort to help the public get the truth about cowboys. I might suggest that the thesis is cowboys are an important part of America's past, but much myth has been made out of them. The book is not intended to destroy that myth but to educate us about it. There is still much about the cowboys that the public does not know. One of the essays, "Today's Cowboy: Coping with a Myth" written by Lawrence Clayton, expounds on this point. There are some out there who want to destroy the cowboy myth entirely. Clayton refers to them as "demythologizers." They "describe the cowboy as only a hired hand working for low wages . . . He was just a laborer who happened to ride a horse to do his work." (pp. 201-202) Clayton goes on to describe what efforts the demythologizers are making. He concludes by saying that with all those efforts they are not making much headway. He says that the truth about cowboys has no effect on the public. People love the cowboy and enjoy the "aura of romance that elevates him to a pure-hatred knight-errant." (p. 205) Carlson's essay, "Myth and the Modern Cowboy," expounds more on the same point. The truth and the myth both exist. It is our choice to accept or not accept both. Many of the topics or themes covered in the book help to reinforce the thesis. Each is designed to educate and not to destroy the myth. They include the origins of the word "cowboy"; discussions on vaqueros, African American cowboys, and American Indian cowboys; cowboy labor strikes; clothing cowboys wore; cowboy relationships with sheepherders and Europeans; cowboy humor; the origins of the rodeo; and western movies. Each essay is well researched and documented. Their sources include interviews, newspapers, journal articles, photographs, surveys, movies, the Sears and Roebuck Catalog, and books written by other historians. Each essay is easy to read and very informative. One essay that I really enjoyed was "Black Cowboy: Daniel Webster `80 John' Wallace" written by Douglas Hales. Hales gives a brief history of Daniel Webster Wallace who was born a slave and died a rich cattleman. At a young age, just after emancipation, Wallace started work on a ranch as a "hoss stink" caring for the ranch's horses. He soon moved up the scale to become one of very few african-American trail bosses in the late 1800s. Through hard work and a little help from friends, he was able to buy some land and cattle to start his own ranch. Good management skills and a little luck made him one of the wealthiest ranchers in all of Texas. This story is important because many don't know that there were African American cowboys and that they became important to western history. Throughout the book there are photographs depicting cowboys at work and rest. They are used to depict the subject of the particular essay and some are just for show. One essay uses the photographs as a reference to help the reader better "see" the author's argument. Susan Karina Dickey went through 254 photographs to write her essay, "Work Clothes of American Cowboys: The Pictorial Record." The Cowboy Way is written very well. Credits go to Carlson for his editing to produce a magnificent work on cowboy culture. The index and "A Cowboy Bibliography," done by Freedonia Paschall (which could be considered as essay seventeen), make the book complete and very useful. The bibliography includes the best and most accredited primary and secondary sources available today. Anyone wanting to research cowboys should consult Paschall's bibliography first. It's hard to find anything wrong with the book. If I were to do anything to change it, I would change the order of some of the essays so that the book flowed better. A couple seemed out of place and became difficult to read because they didn't seem to fit. Other than that, the book is very well done. It has brought better understanding to myself and I know that it will infect many others.

Cowboys Cowgirls Cowchips: True Tales From The Long X, Long S, And Spade Ranches is a revealing and entertaining compendium of information on everything that makes a true modern cowboy from the perspective of by Doris McClellan. As McClellan has found home to the land of the cowboy for over thirty years, she retains an ultimate and intimate grasp of the true eye behind the brim. Cowboys Cowgirls Cowchips delves deep into the mentality, personality, and individuality of the cowboy roaming the modern ranch, and for its unique and accurate telling of the societal misconception of the cowboy today, is very highly recommended reading, especially for anyone interested in contemporary Texas ranch life.

How many people reading this know that badgers and coyotes sometimes enter into cooperative relationships in order to hunt more successfully? Elegant, artful, and playful illustations accompany a blunt text about hunger and duress during a drought in the U.S. Southwest. A single mother badger with two dependent pups teams up with an old coyote to hunt for food. Working together they are able to secure enough food for themselves as well as the two young pups. But when one pup is taken for food by an eagle, the mother badger takes the remaining pup and moves on. Eventually, the drought ends. Many of the pictures feature cross sections into the desert floor. Root masses, rocks, and rodent warrens are visible in the manner of an 'Ant Farm' toy. Each picture features shards of broken pottery embedded underground. There are also the ancient and crumbling structures left behind by the Anasazi people over a thousand years ago. The animals have inherited it all.
The author provides an engaging and educational 'afterward' to the story describing his fascination with the Southwest, the Anasazi and the behavior of coyotes and badgers. When he says that he has actually observed a coyote and a badger interacting cooperatively, I was glad that he was inspired to write this beautiful book.

A mi me encargaban leer libros en la primaria... Y entre nuestros compañeros nos prestabamos los libros que teníamos... Lamentablemente en español casi no hay libros aptos para niños y este libro es uno de los pocos que yo pude leer y que me prestaron que es excelente para los niños... Se los recomiendo ampliamente... Esta muy bonito y muy entretenido...

Never would one expect the stories of one man's erection be so thought provoking. I would recommend the book to all my students to read for the intellectual and philosophical aspects its has. The author has done a great job of turning the ordinary, evryday sphicter into an enormous source of pride for all men.

Ms. Kopp finds something to love about all her subjects, from the "loveable beast" of a black bear to the "hairy, scary and misunderstood" taratula. With her wit and way with words she brings New Mexico's wild inhabitants to life. When and if we do encounter any of them, we'll be ready with increased understanding and appreciation. I'm looking forward to reading this book to my grandsons.