New Mexico Books

In a newly updated, revised, and expanded edition, Bell Ranch: Cattle Ranching In The Southwest, 1824-1947 is an informative, engaging, at times fascinating history of cattle ranching in the Southwest from the founding of the Bell Ranch as part of a Spanish government land grant, down to the present day when it is much smaller, but still very active and viable. Here is also a history of the people that saw the Bell Ranch through hard and turbulent times, that lived and worked as cattlemen plying their trade in the cattle country of the southwest. David Remley (Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico) provides a skillfully written and admirably presented 416 page history that is enhanced with vintage photographs. Bell Ranch is very highly recommended reading for students of the American southwest in general, and cattle ranching in particular.

My husband loves this book and has read it several times. Hopefully I can get it away from him long enough to read it myself. There's a wealth of great information in this book and it applies to today as well as the past.

The cuentos/stories are warm and quite different from other folklore stories. The stories aren't just thrown at the reader. Each cuento has its own introduction to create a mood and preserve a memory of the past. I am from Truchas (near Chimayo) and vaguely remember some of these cuentos. Don Usner did a wonderful job of preserving these stories before DVDs conquer the world. The stories are first told in English with occasional Spanish phrases interwoven, and all Spanish is followed by a translation for the English reader. The stories are retold in Spanish in the 2nd part of the book, minus the introductions provided with the English versions. These are great stories and well written to read to children. My favorite cuento has to be El Viejo Tuerco (Old One-eyed) because I do remember looking for treasure in old trees.

Not every day do you encounter a desperate woman banging on your door for help. Set in a small town in the remote Sacramento mountain range, "Bent Dreams" follows Eric Frigaard as he offers shelter to Rosemarie, an ill and penniless woman who is suppose to serve as his landscaping consultant. The two slowly grow to accept one another, and love begins to bloom. "Bent Dreams" is a touching tale, highly recommended for community library fiction collections.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Review by Jo Ann Callis

Bertha Alyce is a book about a daughter/photographer's career-long intense
struggle, through photographs and video, to reconcile her relationship with
her mother. Photographing Bertha Alyce from 1973 until her death in 1991,
Gay Block has given us a book that is ultimately about redemption and
forgiveness.
This book is so rich that it makes one want to drink it in and hold on
for awhile. It is deep, troubling, and intensely human. The role of the

photographer is touching throughout: all the characters are portrayed with
compassion and identification. Myriad issues are touched on: of beauty,
desire, and class; of feminism and of women's need to be pleasing; of power
and domination; of face-lifts and strokes and whose breasts are prettier; of
women's rivalry; of mother-daughter rivalry; of the control ideology and
culture has over us. Block deals with all these issues with grace and tact.
This book is funny, like Jewish humor, often painfully so. I'm amazed that
it is all integrated without bludgeoning. Often I had to stop and look
closely to know what what Block was doing because everything is not obvious:
as a reader I was asked to make leaps which left me room to feel my own
experiences in intimate relationships.
When I say reader I'm not inferring the text is more than the pictures
because this is a book of photographs that are to be read. It is a
brilliantly laid-out, beautifully designed picture book with the text so
crucially, carefully integrated.
Both essays, by Eugenia Parry and Kathleen Howe's essays are valuable
and enrich the book.

This book took over eight years to research and write, and is a labor of love yet grounded in sound historical research. You will get to know Donna in a very personal way, experience her growth into a thoughtful and caring adult, share her enthusiasm for her new teaching career and delight in her introduction to falling in love (and out of love)! You'll hold your breath as she rides with student pilots across the frozen tundra and wind and snowswept mountains, landing in remote bush villages as they stop to ask directions, and let go a huge sigh of relief as they land on fumes. It is a book of hopes and dreams fulfilled and lost. It is a book Donna had hoped to write, but could not---so instead, I wrote it for her with the help of her twin sister and older sister, best friends, colleagues, former students, and even a landlord; as well as extensive research in local, regional, state, and national archives.
Please enjoy it! I think she would be proud!

Between Two Rivers consolidates all the published history of the Atrisco Land Grant (New Mexico Historical review Articles and Sanchez's previous book) into one well written book. The Book covers the whole history of the land grant as well as it's later Westland Development phase to the Suncal buyout or rather sellout. The book, despite being a very scholarly work, reads well and even gives a taste of the Atrisco people and culture. If you have heard of Atrisco then this is the book for you.

In Beyond the Missouri, Richard Etulain demonstrates how the American West is, and has long been, a complex region characterized by change. In his comprehensive and engaging study, Etulain examines the changing inhabitants, social patterns, and industries of the West. Creating more than a basic narrative, Etulain discusses how public perception of the West has evolved through the use of multiple mediums.

The earliest known inhabitants of the West included a variety of Native tribes. After centuries of establishing unique cultures and societies, the Native population began to decline with the first contact with Europeans in the 16th century. Spanish, Russian, British, and later Mexican and American interests attempted to exert control over all or parts of the West, in the process physically and socially displacing the previous inhabitants.

During the 19th century, predominantly Anglo Americans migrated to the West as trappers, prospectors, miners, and businessmen. In addition to changing the human aspect of the West, these settlers altered the West that surrounded them. Trappers reduced various animal populations, some to the brink of extinction. Prospectors and miners changed the landscape of the West by boring into the land and engaging in the destructive practice of hydraulic mining. Many businessmen prospered for brief periods in the many boomtowns that emerged throughout the region, while others enjoyed the growth of towns like Denver and San Francisco that would remain important regional centers.

The growing and urbanizing West remained a virtual colony dependent on the East until World War II. During the war, the federal government awarded a large number of defense and support contracts to multiple regions of the West. The resulting inflow of people and money transformed the West into an independent region with its own unique identity that continues to evolve today.

One of Etulain's strengths is his discussion of the perception of the West in popular culture, the individuals who created the images, and the various forms in which the images were transmitted. If there is a shortcoming of the study, it is that Etulain's discussion of the modern West is skewed so as to read as an urban and not a regional study.

Beyond the Missouri is a well-written book of the American West that builds upon previous studies to provide the reader with a broad overview of the region.

THIS MARSHA'S BIBLIOGRAPHY HAS BEEN VERY USEFUL, IN FINDING SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF MINERALIZATIONS, WHICH ARE QUITE INDICATIVE OF SOME INTERESTING PHENOMENA, IN TECTONICS AND ITS CORRELATION TO HYDROGEOLOGY AND GROUND WATER FLOW, AND POSSIBLE HAZARDS, OF SOME CHEMICAL ELEMENTS, TO HUMAN HEALTH AND ITS NEAR FUTURE ENVIRNMENTAL IMPACT IN THE HABITAT OF ALL LIVING CREATURES, IN A SO FRAGILE SETTING, AS IS NOW IN THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO. THIS OPINION IS RELATED TO MY CLOSE RELATIONS WITH THE RESEARCH OF THE GEOLOGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, OF NEW MEXICO TECH.

I'D LIKE THAT MARSHA OR HENRY KOEHN, SEND ME AN E-MAIL ¡¡¡.

I read this collection of "Big Bend" lore (relating to TransPecos Texas south of the first rail line, roughly south of the Davis Mtns) during a recent visit to the region, and was able to pick up on a lot of the cultural elements of this fascinating country. The publishing date (1955) gives it a peculiar added interest, namely that of a snapshot of west Texas at the outset of the "civil rights" era; Ms. Madison, like most intelligent white Southerners (yes, Texas was a "Southern state" at that time), varied between cultural liberality and defensiveness, a "we have problems, but we can solve them ourselves" sort of thing. She is a skilled discursive writer, and people with an interest in this area should find the book enjoyable.