Mexico Books

Ms. Alcala has created a compelling and informative novel. I was sucked in from page one. It will transport you straight into the tumultuous political climate of late 19th century Mexico under the oppressive rule of Dictator Porfirio Diaz. I think you will appreciate this book for its harsh beauty, its rich characters and its multi -layered story of loss and survival. A book that is this entertaining and at the same time educational is a rare find. I only hope that Ms. Alcala will write another book so that I can learn more about Beto and Estela and all of her other memorable characters. I recommend this book without reservation.

You can't get any better than this: a great story about a woman asserting her independence during the early 1900s in Mexico City--a time of social and political revolutions. To those of you who have read Alcala's earlier works, this is truly a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. To those who have not read the earlier works, you will only have your interest piqued. Alcala writes with authority about pre-revolutionary Mexico and the tales she spins are unforgettable accounts of strong women who persevere against personal and social challenges. This author's best achievement is the way she dispels the myth of the passive Mexican woman repeatedly in her compelling body of work.

A Treasury of Mexican Folkways by Frances Toor
Illustrated with 100 drawings by Carlos Merida
and 165 black-and-white photographs

This fascinating book is a magnificent, all-inclusive account of the Mexican people, their colorful, dramatic, and ancient traditions and ways of life, worship, work, and play. It is filled with rare and wonderful stories of saints, heroes, cowboys, bandits; descriptions of exotic dances and fiestas; accounts of strange customs and ceremonies. All the folk arts -- pottery making, gold and silver work, carving, weaving, hand-drawn work -- are thoroughly described and lavishly illustrated with line drawings and photographs.

Included also are over one hundred songs with music and with words in both Spanish and English. Many of these songs and much of the music, directly transcribed by the author or her associates, had never been available to the public before they appeared in this book.

The author, regarded in her lifetime as the premier authority on Mexican folklore, searched all the authentic sources for material including the ancient Spanish Chronicles and the Codices, in libraries, and, of course, among the various peoples of Mexico.

All periods of Mexican history are covered, as are all regions of the country and all the indigenous peoples, as well as later arrivals.

Aside from the drawings and photographs, the book includes an ethnographic map that clearly delineates the various regions and concentrations of the various native groups.

All in all, A Treasury of Mexican Folklore is nothing less than an encyclopedia, a virtual one-volume course in Mexican lore and culture. It is a book packed full of meaty, useful information, rich with good reading and human interest.

This was originally published in 1948, the author being an anthropologist who wrote several books about Mexico. It contains everything that one could wish to know on the subject, although some of these folkways may have disappeared since the book was published. So much the better that Toor wrote about them while they were still active.

The Two Mountains is a very beautiful book. I had to do it for a book report and it was an excellent choice. If you haven't read it , or even if you have read it, it is a marvelous book and I will sincerely recommend it for all ages, from little ones to adults.

Tonatiuh, the sun god who lives in Third Heaven, had a son named Ixcocauqui whom he loved very much. His son was told that he could explore all that there was to see, but whatever he did he was not go beyond the garden wall. Curiosity got the best of him. An exciting retelling of the legend of how the Valley of Mexico came to be. Beautiful and brightly colored illustrations do a fine job depicting the events in the story and express the emotions of the characters involved. A pronunciation guide is included for assistance in pronouncing the Aztec names.

The authors, Jeanne Simonelli and Duncan Earle, effectively and powerfully convey the heartfelt and thoroughly thought out alternative economic, social, and political models found at the forefront of the Zapatista movement in La Selva Lacandon, located in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. This ethnographic research breaks the boundaries of contemporary ethnographies by becoming part of the process, rather than observing from the sidelines.

Utilizing the objective methodologies, tools, and knowledge culminating from over 100 years of ethnographic studies in the discipline of Anthropology, the authors take the next step and move into the realm of anthropologist as activist, rather than solely acting as objective observers. Earle and Simonelli make a well articulated call for action to everyone who is in a position to help others in need.

With decades of combined experience in the region, Earle and Simonelli clearly and concisely express the mission of the current Zapatista movement. The intimate relations developed with the local community members involved place the authors in a position for truly understanding and expressing the ideas behind the actions of the Zapatista's alternative models. By allowing the communities to participate in the reviewing process, this ethnography becomes more precise in its information and less laden with the foreign ethnographer's bias and ideologies found in other ethnographic works.

For anyone wanting to learn a detailed account of the current Zapatista movement, and how it came to its current state, this book is a must read. It avoids focusing on the famous Subcomandante Marcos, and more accurately focuses on the power of the movement, the people. A must read for anyone wanting to know about the Zapatista's history and current status and the struggles of Mayan indigenous rights movements. Further, this book serves as an excellent guide for current and future anthropologists as a new form of ethnography.

This is the book for anyone who needs to know, whatever happened to the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas? Ever since the Mexican army dismantled the Zapatista liberated zone in 1998, it has been very difficult for outsiders who don't know Chiapas to figure out at what level the movement still exists. The two authors are U.S. anthropologists who take their students on service-learning trips. Between Earle and Simonelli, they have many years of contact with Mayan peasant families who are still Zapatistas, as well as with others who have rejected the movement. This enables them to chicken-bus their way past the rhetoric hurled by Zapatistas and their detractors. It also enables them to work their way into the autónomos, the autonomous municipalities that were set up by the Zapatistas, only to be wrecked by the Mexican army in 1998. But not destroyed, as the authors learn when some of their Mayan friends turn out to be quietly reconnecting to Zapatista headquarters.

Earle and Simonelli eschew the "ongoing search for the one true Subcomandante Marcos." Their passion is instead grassroots development, and the basic issue they face, raised by a decade of political reverses since the 1994 uprising, is whether there is any hope for the Zapatistas. Their answer is yes. Instead of discrete geographical entities, the autónomos now appear to be an NGO-supported logistical system for Zapatista loyalists cut off by government patronage machinery. The current era of negotiation and reconstruction is less attractive to news media than the previous era of machete-waving. But it is a blessing for the Zapatista and non-Zapatista peasants who have to get along with each other.

Earle and Simonelli argue that "live-in conservationist peasants" are the way to protect rainforest. They spiritedly defend the rationality of the smallholder even under capitalist globalization. And they believe that Zapatista-style autonomy can stablize Mexican society. The ideal, they argue, is a subsistence-oriented farmer who has enough urban skills to earn cash through savvy forms of production for the world market, e.g., the organic honey that the authors help their friends commercialize in the U.S. under what they call ZAFTA -the Zapatista Autonomous Free Trade Agreement. So what do the Zapatistas mean by autonomy? "Like the larger national and global civil society," Earle and Simonelli answer, "they are in search of balance between isolation and loss of control, wanting to be the authors of their own lives and, most especially, the lives of their children while still being tied in and tuned in to the larger world."

Vol. 2 contains Asclepias to Canavalia. I guess Amazon doesn't carry it. (...)
Saving the rainforest is great, but let's save what's here too. First we have to find out what IS here. This encyclopedia does that. All the uses for all the plants - Texas & the South.

Definitely a must have for those interested in plants! You'll never look at the "weeds" around your house the same again :)

Extremely in depth coverage of plants from Abronia spp. to Arundo spp. is given, including all manners of uses from culinary to utilitarian. (Other genuses are to be covered in future volumes.) The book is full of wonderful color photographs of all the plants covered - usually several per plant. There are wide margins listing the various uses of the plants (pointing out their discussion in the text), location diagrams of where the plants are found and more.

Although the book covers only the areas described in the title, anyone with more than a fleeting interest in useful plants is sure to appreciate this book - no matter where they might reside.

The book is steeply priced for sure, but once you open it you will understand why. It is extremely well researched, a fact that is very evident throughout the text. Also, as mentioned above, the book abounds with gorgeous color photographs. Had the book not been a gift, I would have gladly paid twice the price for it.

The next volume(s) couldn't come fast enough for me. I am beginning to get a bit worried though as to the future of the series since I obtained my copy in 1996 and haven't heard anything on newer volumes... Even if this is the only volume that comes out it is still definitely worth the purchase.

Congratulations on a wonderful book to Scooter Cheatham and Marshall C. Johnston.

--> Update: The second volume did come out! If you can believe it, it's even better than this one! :D

When the British Empire relinquished control to India, the jewel in the British crown, it became evident the age of Imperial European expansionism had come to an end. The period of global decolonization following World War II paved the way for a more critical approach to colonial history. The Euro-centric historical narratives of the colonial conquests were no longer acceptable within the academic community or for that matter entirely accurate. Stuart B. Schwartz a Professor of History at Yale University has set out to ensure the history of the conquest of Mexico is not written exclusively by the winners, but rather to present a fair and balanced compilation of European and Native American primary sources complemented by his own expert analysis. "Additional alternate texts paint a broader, richer canvas, fleshing out the narrative and conveying to the reader a sense that there was not simply a "Spanish" or an "Indian" view. Rather, there are a variety of visions and opinions, influenced and mediated by personal interests, class and ethnic biases, political considerations, and many other factors."
The introduction provides the reader with a comprehensive description of Mesoamerican and Spanish societies on the eve of the conquest. Included is the rise to power of the Mexica Empire through conquest and expansion and the foundation of the empire's island capital at Tenochtitlan. The author describes the historical background of the primary sources which constitute the majority of the narrative. Nahua sources are drawn primarily from The Florentine Codex, a post-conquest study of indigenous history and culture conducted by literate natives under the auspices of a Spanish missionary named Fray Bernardino De Sahagun. Erudite natives rather quickly adopted the Roman alphabet, for the most part abandoning the use of Nahuatl hieroglyphics, and by the late 1500's were capable of writing both Spanish and Nahuatl. However, the reader is advised of the existence of tribal differences and patron appeasement reflected within the codex as historical partiality as the greater part of Sahagun's indigenous informants were from Tlatelolco, a city under Tenochtitlan political control, and highly critical of the Mexica Empire and Montezuma. The principal Spanish source is Bernal Diaz del Castillo's book The True History of the Conquest of New Spain which chronicles the conquest from a soldier's perspective. Despite the wandering and crude prose of Bernal Diaz, his account documents the typical conquistador's motivations and justifications for the conquest, reveals the true scope of the clash of cultures beginning with the first encounters up to the fall of Tenochtitlan, and provides indispensable anecdotes from a human voice and mind of reason which serve to bring the events and personalities of the conquest to life for the student of Mesoamerican history.
The book is divided into eight chapters proceeding in chronological order from 1518-1521. Each section is preceded by a succinct analysis of the documents, the biases to avoid and the themes to concentrate upon. Integrated among the sources are useful maps, both ancient and modern, and paintings, both Spanish and Native American, which are complemented with academically irrefutable analysis and interpretations.
The first chapter entitled "Forebodings and Omens" deals primarily with a mysterious comet, an unexplained temple fire attributed to vindictive gods, and a weeping prophetic woman in the streets of Tenochtitlan which ominously preceded the tragic death of the empire. The mysterious premonitions are largely attributable to post-conquest indigenous attempts at justifying the procedures of their government. The aforementioned is particularly conspicuous in the legend of Quetzalcoatl, a god/man who left Tenochtitlan in the eastward direction, vowing to return in claim of his land. Thus, as Cortes arrived from the east, the Nahua mistook the Spaniard to be Quetzalcoatl. However, Schwartz informs the reader the myth of Quetzalcoatl is most likely a defense for Montezuma's vacillation. The second chapter "Preparations" concerns the backgrounds of the conquistadors and how Hernando Cortes came to lead the expedition.
The third chapter "Encounters" relies heavily upon Bernal Diaz's account of the first cross-cultural encounters at Cozumel and the Yucatan. Hernando Cortes is portrayed displaying his horses and cannons to frighten the natives at every chance that presented itself as both a joke and a military tactic. Both Spanish and native accounts however focus on the importance of interpreters such as Dona Marina, diplomacy, and the exchange of gifts in the interactions between the two civilizations. The fourth chapter "The March Inland: Tlaxcala and Cholula" in which Schwartz explains the strategic alliance between the Spanish and the Tlaxcalans, arrived at after a fierce battle, often neglected from native accounts. The Spanish-Tlaxcala alliance was of paramount importance in helping a band of approximately a thousand Spaniards turn the tide against an empire of warriors. However, after the battle for Tenochtitlan, the Tlaxcalans were offered no special consideration by the conquerors, resulting in distortion of the differentiation between historical victors and vanquished. After consummating the alliance at Tlaxcala, the Spanish arrive at Cholula where they are at first cordially accepted but were apparently deceived by the Cholulans. Here history becomes vague as the actors attempt to justify, excuse, or condemn, nonetheless the result was a bloodbath. Adres de Tapia, a Spanish conquistador justifies the Cholula massacre as a provoked attack to prevent a planned ambush. While the native accounts differ because of post-conquest patron appeasements, the consensus leaned toward an unprovoked slaughter.
In chapters five and six Schwartz compares indigenous and Spanish accounts of Cortes' arrival at the island capital which are remarkably equivalent with the exception of the native's bewilderment at the deer upon which the Spaniards were mounted and the Spanish comparison of the city of Tenochtitlan to Venice, Italy. Nonetheless, the sense of awe and astonishment are present throughout both accounts. Conversely, the versions disagree over the incident at Toxcatl with the Indians claiming an unprovoked massacre and the Spaniards claiming Pedro de Alvarado was merely foiling a rebellion. Likewise, the tragic death of Montezuma is portrayed differently in each account. The Tlatelocans appear angered equally by the death of their leader and the capitulation of their leader while the Spanish are mournful of the death of Montezuma. The pure emotion surrounding the foreboding death of the emperor is evident in Bernal Diaz's account when he laments: "Cortes wept for him, and all of us Captains and soldiers, and there was no man among us who knew him and was intimate with him, who did not bemoan him as though he were our father"
Chapters seven and eight refer to the final defeat of the city of Tenochtitlan and the protracted effects of the conquest, colonial rule, and cultural syncretism. Schwartz reveals the glory and sophistication of Mexica civilization, its valiant resistance as it gasped its last breaths at Tenochtitlan, and its resilience under colonial rule. Bernal Diaz's account of the fierce native resistance, the siege of Tenochtitlan and the final defeat of the empire is characterized by his intense reverence of the courage, strength and resiliency of the natives. The native account of the defeat drawn from The Florentine Codex encapsulates the tragedy of the annihilation of the civilization: "the Spainiards took things from people by force. They were looking for gold; they cared nothing for green-stone, precious feathers, or turquoise. Then they burned some of them on the mouth [branded them]; and...the weapons were laid down and we collapsed"
Criticism of Victors and Vanquished can only be directed at the personal agendas, political motivations, class, ethnic, and religious biases contained within the primary sources themselves which supplant historical fact with historical subjectivism. Schwartz reminds the reader that historical scholarship is constructed upon a foundation of anecdotal primary sources and it is the endeavor of the scholar to interpret and distinguish the factual from the tainted and distorted. Schwartz emphasizes the Sisyphean task of creating a true accurate history and invites debate inquiring, "What is a "true" history?"
Nonetheless, the author equips the wary reader with a concise analysis preceding each primary source allowing the scholar to continue reading cognizant of biases to avoid and themes to concentrate upon. His writing style is neither loquacious nor deficient, but rather Schwartz provides the ideal amount of flawless and meticulous analysis all the while exhibiting his dominant command of the subject. Stuart B. Schwartz's Victors and Vanquished is an unprecedented and enriching academic breakthrough in the interpretation of the past, deviating from the archaic tradition of history dictated exclusively by conquerors to a balanced and even-handed scholarship shining light on victors and vanquished alike.
ZC

This well edited text brings students the documents behind the stories they may have read in high school textbooks. How did the Spanish conquer the spectacular city of Tenochtitlan with so few soldiers and in alien territory? The documents tell how they exploited alliances that were already in place. With hundreds of Tlaxcalan warriors accompanying them, housing them, feeding men and horses alike, the group of Spaniards was able to approach Tenochtitlan, make themselves unwelcome, and barely escape from the city alive... A fascinating read.

Fans of historic San Miguel de Allende -- as well as armchair travelers -- will delight in this colorful photo collection depicting one of the world's best-loved cities. The dramatic, finely reproduced images from more than 30 photographers are evenly matched by thoughtful commentary and impressions. No other book that I'm aware of captures the heart and soul of San Miguel so well. A "must-have" for anyone who has fallen under the spell of this magical Mexican town!

A friend recently gave me a copy of the book Visions of San Miguel, the
Heartland of Mexico and it brought back so many fond memories of our trip
there.  The photographs really capture the heart and soul of this
magnificent Colonial jewel with so many gorgeous images.  The place comes
alive through market scenes, fiestas, beautiful shots of architecture and,
of course, the character of the local people.  I highly recommend this book
to any potential visitors, former visitors or armchair travellers!

I got this book after a long held interest in visual anthropology. Its simple informative text was very useful for those interested in getting involved with visual anthropology. It might be a little oversimplified for those who those have a stronger background than me. Lots of story examples and pictures to interpret.

I was required to buy Visual Anthropology for my Visual Sociology class my sophomore year of college. This is one i didn't sell back to the bookstore after the class was over because it is so useful. It is a great book to help a person learn how to use a camera as a research tool and get the most out of it.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave a fantastic overview of the women's fight for the right to vote. The author even incorporated some of the real leaders of the movement in this fictional dramatization of this historical event. I would recommend it to all who are interested in this type of literature.

My local book club just completed our discussion of Sybil Downing's The Vote and the concensus was universally positive. We selected the book as our November pick, anticipating the upcoming elections. After having read this book, I feel an even greater responsibility to participate in my duties as an American citizen by voting in every election.

Based in history, The Vote is a fictionalized account of the struggle to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, otherwise known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The book's major character is Kate Brennan, a tough and energetic young woman from a privileged upbringing. Through Kate, we meet Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, leaders of the National Woman's Party (Paul and Burns are actual players in the suffragist movement.

Ms. Downing manages to relate events based in history with a compelling story of political intrigue, relationship issues and violence. I found the characters compelling and the plot fascinating. Having read and enjoyed the book, I intend to go back and do further reseach on the actual historical events and characters who fought to ensure passage of the 19th Amendment. Congrutulations to Sybil Downing for an excellent book.

Santa Fe is home to an amazing abundance of well-known and talented authors--literally dozens of them--and this little book is an amazing guide to the city's incredible literary history.

The book is divided into two easy walking tours--one in the plaza area and one around Canyon Road--and using those two tours to give the book a structure, this very readable little volume gives a concise and clearly written crash course in the city's literary past. What's even cooler is that you can't really tell such a history without incorporating facts from the city's broader history, so by the time you reach the last page, you're guaranteed to know the City Different much better than you ever did. It'll make you see the place differently, for sure.

This is one of three great books about literary Santa Fe (that I know of), and certainly the fastest read of the bunch. For anyone who lives in New Mexico, and especially for anyone who lives in or visits Santa Fe, I couldn't recommend it more highly.

The author also gives actual walking tours of the city (which inspired this book), and if you ever get a chance to take one, you really should. They're as good as the book--except you'll need to find a place to park.

Barbara Harrelson has put together a wonderful way to explore the very interesting city of Santa Fe. More than just a guide book to Santa Fe, it is more like a knowledgible friend taking you by the hand and leading you on adventures both historical and modern.

For example. How many of us know that the English writer D. H. Lawrence owned a ranch a few miles from Taos, New Mexico, and his wife Frieda lived out the rest of her life there after D. H. died. They are both buried on the ranch.

Have this book in hand when you explore Santa Fe and the surrouning area, or when you just want to curl up in a comfortable chair in your home to learn something about the history of the Southwest.