Mexico Books

This wonderful story about Nina Delmar and her sea turtle named CHELONIA
is the perfert mix of science and art. Beautifully illustrated by Dawn E. Navarro the book is filled with natural history diagram. Both entertaining and educational. Buy it, read it and pass it along.

The beautifully drawn children's picturebook Chelonia: Return Of The Sea Turtle is the very highly recommended and collaborative work of Dawn E. Navarro, Robert E. Snodgrass, and Wallace J. Nichols. Based upon a true story, the exciting and informative text is enhanced with accurate illustrations of the birds, sea mammals, fish, crustaceans, and vegetation associated with the sea and form the habitat and world of the sea turtle. a series of "Sea Log" sidebars provide educative informational asides that are a perfect augmentation to the lively and engaging story of a little girl who rescues a sea turtle and eventually returns it to the sea.

Chelonia: Return of the Sea Turtle is a valuable educational tool for children and a great read. I have been giving talks to kids in San Diego about sea turtles and Chelonia is a great way to wrap up my talks. Kids of all ages absolutely love this story of the rescue of an endangered sea turtle.

If your children love the ocean and marine animals then you should get this beautiful story.

The bibliography and research notes alone justifies the price of the book. The stories of one small town and of 20th Century Globalism are artfully interwoven. Altogether, it's inspiring in a painful, eye-opening sort of way.

Contrary to "About the Author", Chellis Glendinning is a she, not a he.

Chiva paints a picture of Chimayó New Mexico, number one per-capita consumer of heroin in the number one per-capita consumer state in the United States. The book also offers a well-researched history of the global heroin trade from past to present. The picture is ugly indeed.

For those advocating legalization (of hard drugs) as the remedy to this problem, I suggest reading this and then asking yourself: is this the kind of country I want to live in? And for those that think the current plan in the war on drugs is working, I have the same suggestion. Quite obviously it is not working and will not cure the problem.

The author points out that at one time heroin was legally introduced to China. The result: over one quarter of the adult population became hopelessly addicted. In Chimayó, the supply was plentiful, with an individual dose costing $15, but anyhing not nailed down was likely to be stolen. Overdoses and shootings were common events. A friend of mine from a barrio full of tecatos in Juarez speaks of the same.

Anywhere heroin has been introduced without control to a population, usage of the drug has increased exponentially. With disastrous consequences.

The writing is good and kept me interested from start to finish. But I think the weakness of the book comes near the end where solutions to the problem are offered. There, you'll find more questions than answers.

I highly recommend Chiva for anyone interested in the drug problem or the region described in the book.

Every now and then somebody comes along who acts as a bridge or emissary between two cultures. Not as a missionary out to "improve," "evolve," or Christianize the natives, or to sell them slicker TV sets; not to study them like infusoria under a microscope; not to turn their gods into meteorology; but to listen, deeply, into the patterns of their life and language, and then--strictly by invitation within that community--to create a thing of beauty that casts a circle of illumination over what had remained hidden in the shadows cast by the mainstream.

In Chimayo, New Mexico, that emissary is Chellis Glendinning.

At one time Chimayo ranked #1 in drug overdoses in a state (New Mexico) that also ranked first in this grim category. This book is a story--personal, cultural, wrenching, hard to read in places because disturbing in its detail--of how the Chicanos and Mexicanos of Chimayo went back to their cultural roots to push the dealers out of their town, then apply the wisdom of those roots to healing the victims of the dragon Chiva, "heroin."

The use of "roots" is deliberate, because as the author makes clear, the drug problem is a product of a long tradition of colonial expansion and devastation in which a land-based people have been globalized, exploited, and thrust into poverty on soils their ancestors once cultivated and loved. From out of that soil came the remedies to combat sniffed, smoked, and injected poisons which users employ to forget for a moment that they are poor; that they have few options and scarce employment; that they are seen by the culture that has alienated them as aliens.

Whence this black-market plague of Thebes? Nations in which the United States Government has intervened to make the world safer for its businessmen: Afghanistan, Columbia, the Asian Golden Triangle, where farmers made poor by either military activity or "free" trade (free for whom?) are forced to grow opiates for sale to Europe and, of course, the United States of the Fifties, where 20,000 users would soon swell into millions.

Their supply? Substances sold by "freedom fighter" drug lords (remember Air America? Burma, now Myanmar? the Afghanistani Northern Alliance?) in the pay of the CIA--even while conservatives sold the sham of a righteous war on drugs. Just say no, except that "like a McDonald's hamburger, heroin can be had just about anywhere in the world."

Chimayo said no and meant it, and although overdoses continue, the last part of this book could be used as a manual for how healing practices implemented locally--NOT from the top down or imposed from outside--successfully grapple on many levels (land, culture, faith, mentoring, and ceremony) with a scourge of the colonialism that continues today transnationally.

Arizona private detective Brinker doesn't want to go back to Mexico. When a pretty reporter asks for his help investigating a death and a story, Brinker turns her down. But when April Lennox becomes the next victim, Brinker feels personally involved. Unfortunately for him, everyone seems to be quiet and no one knows anything. The Mexican police think April's death is just another sex crime. The Arizona police have no reason to get involved--there is no obvious connection to the unidentified body on their side of the border. Which leaves Brinker with nothing but his instincts and an IOU he really hadn't wanted to call from Mexican drug-lords.

A reporter makes enemies. One of those enemies just might be an ex-boyfriend who got abusive when his girlfriends didn't cooperate. Possible, but Brinker thinks the truth is more complicated. Because April had been investigating a story that involved oppression and murder, Brinker thinks of the maquilas--border factories set up by companies fleeing the wages of the USA. His suspicions become more pointed when he learns that a number of murders seem to have maquila connections. April could have been investigating one of those--but would someone really kill an alternative press reporter just to cover up a bit of union-busting?

Author James C. Mitchell spins a delightful noire story. Brinker has problems with his women--April is murdered, his longtime girlfriend has left Arizona to move to New York, away from Brinker's dangerous life, and he can never quite connect with longtime best-friend Gabi. He ends up putting his trust in druglords who put even less value on human life than the maquila owners. Still, guilt and that strange private investigator honor keep Brinker on the job--until things get personal.

Mitchell's writing gave me a strong sense of place--of windswept LA, the deserts of Arizona, and the frenetic border towns of Mexico--where jobs, money, drugs, and sex create a vibrant but dangerous society. Once the story really got going, it dragged me in and kept me reading. Nicely done, Mr. Mitchell.

Once again Mr. Mitchell has given us an interesting, well-thought out and gripping novel involving his favorite gumshoe... Private Detective Brinker. When Brinker becomes privy to a man being shot following an NCAA Basketball final in his home town of Tucson, Arizona, he's surprised to get drawn into the murder the next day by a female news reporter who had been about to meet the dead man shortly before he was killed. Brinker is inclined to stay out of the whole thing but decides to ask a few questions and the answers lead to a plot that thickens as the story flips back and forth between the Southern US and Mexico until it reaches it's exceptional climax. Somewhat faster paced than Mitchell's first novel "Lover's Crossing", "Choke Point" still retains all of the interesting side-bar detail including more references to old 60's songs that remain with the reader when the narrative is on hold. There is no doubt that James C. Mitchell is going to be around for some time. He has already developed a style that gives promise of reaching that plateau where such authors as Tanenbaum, George, Lescroart and Turow dwell

Bryan Lord, Philippines

A riot broke out at a college football game leaving a Hispanic man dead. The next day April Lennox informs PI Brinker at his Tucson office that the victim was a whistleblower who contacted her about wrong doings in Nogales, Mexico. She asks him to accompany her on a visit to the deceased's mother to see if she can provide some light on what her son knew. Brink says no and not long afterward, April's sexually abused body is found in Nogales.

Brink feels guilty that he failed to talk her out of going and not accompanying her. As a former border patrol agent, he has contacts on both sides of the law and borders, which he uses to track April's movements. He learns she was killed in Nogales and her death and that of ten other victim ties to the Mexican factories using cheap labor. Brink's friend visits the mother and finds that her son was pressing for better working conditions at the Amistadt office. Brink feels an obligation to obtain justice for April by capturing a killer and his employer.

The protagonist uses a drug dealer and that man's associates in Nogales to assist him in his efforts to provide justice to the victims as Brink believes the end justifies the means. The law means nothing to his unknown enemy so Brink adapts the same game theory leading to quite a border thriller. James C. Mitchell takes his audience on quite an eye-opening borderlands' experience with the action-packed CHOKE POINT crime thriller.

Harriet Klausner

This book has all the accurate information one needs to know about retiring in the major gringo havens in Mexico. Chocked full of excellent information, much more valuable than any seminar given in Mexico. I highly recommend it.

This book gives down to earth info on relocating to Mexico; it is a great resource. Very readable style. Author reveals his love of the country and people and the reader will most likely have to discard some previous misconceptions about this country. I was ready to pack my bags after reading it.

Well-researched and thorough, Choose Mexico is a no-holds-barred primer for anyone contemplating life in Mexico.

I have never read a book that made me feel quiet and humble like this book did. The author was very good at description and bringing the reader "into" his life. I went through the highs and lows of being a farmer and a father. Very moving, very enriching, and very memorable.

This is a very special tenderly written book about living...loving...working... and dieing. Every one can find something to relate too with Harvey in this book. I would highly reccomend it.

This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and immensely touching. The author interweaves vivid descriptions of his farm and its inhabitants -- both past and present -- with his observations on cider-making, the care of apple orchards, his wife's art, and his memories of his late, much-loved daughter. He doesn't gloss over the irony that, after he spent years working on nuclear testing, his daughter should contract breast cancer; but he isn't polemical about it, and by the end of the book his personal tragedy is subsumed into the rhythms of the seasons and the ongoing life of the farm. The timeline of the book is circular -- it's not a straightforward history -- but I felt that this further emphasized the cyclical nature of life in the orchard. I recommend the book unreservedly.

The historical information, both narrative and pictorial was eye opening for someone that was born and raised in the area. The stories of a port Bagdad all of a sudden became real. The accounts of the rise and fall of goverments in both sides of the border provide an exciting window to the past, a treasure of local history, a tale of two sister cities, which has not been dutifully explored by the locals. The accounts of steamboats on the Rio Grande and the impact they had on the economy of the area at first appeared surreal, yet the oportune historical photography of the 1860's and Thompson's accurate narratives transport the reader into the era.

Civil War And Revolution On The Rio Grande Frontier: A Narrative And Photographic History is the story of the bloody fighting that erupted in Zapata Country only days after the shots fired at Fort Sumter initiated the American Civil War. Featuring more than 125 vintage images taken by a skilled Prussian photographer Louis de Planque and his followers, Civil War And Revolution On The Rio Grande Frontier is a captivating illustrated history that relates the deadly toll of war. It covers not only the Civil War itself, but the guerilla fighting that continued long after the official end of the war, and the murderous raids and mercenary armies that pillaged both sides of the border, as well as the "justice" that would sometimes amount to indiscriminate hanging. A highly recommended contribution to American history and reference shelves.

Just when one feels he has read the best history of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, here comes another. Names, People, Places and now Photographs, This book is like the candles on a birthday cake, with out it, the full picture is not complete. James A. McAllen

Martin H. Hall was the first historian to write about the campaign of the Sibley Brigade in Arizona and New Mexico, but Jerry D. Thompson's books increase our knowledge about the subject by using an impressive array of newly discovered sources. In "Civil War in the Southwest: Recollections of the Sibley Brigade", Thompson provide a new and deeper account of the thoughts and fights of the young Texans in butternut who attempted to conquer the Southwest for the Confederacy. Now, among the outstanding books concerning the Civil War in the Southwest, Thompson's book is one of the best ones, it is a "must" for all the Civil War buffs.
Serge P. Noirsain, Belgian Historian. Author of "La flotte européenne de la Confédération sudiste" and "La Confédération sudiste, Mythes et Réalités".

In Civil War in the Southwest, Thompson has edited the accounts of several members of Sibley's Brigade in its New Mexico campaign, the accounts having been printed in the Overton Sharp Shooter in East Texas in the late 19th Century.

The accounts are quite readable, some even humorous. The accounts of major battles are accompanied by battle maps provided by Frazier. While the accounts focus on the major occurances within the campaign, they are filled with minutia as well, allowing the brigade to live and ride on again, as vividly as they did 140 years before.

While the names of many soldiers appear in the accounts, Thompson made no effort to provide complete troop muster rolls, focusing instead only on editing the newspaper accounts. Where names do appear, Thompson has end notes with more information on the soldier, gleaned from a variety of sources.

Civil War In The Southwest: Recollections Of The Sibley Brigade by Civil War scholar and historian Jerry Thompson presents eighteen distinctive episodes written by members of General Henry Hopkins Sibley's command who fought and traveled more than eight thousand miles through snake-infested bayous to snow-capped mountains to fight and die in more than sixteen major battles of the American Civil War. The brigade consisted of young, zealous Texans who sought to invade New Mexico Territory as a step toward the Confederate conquest of Colorado and California in order to seize their resources (including the gold fields) in support of the South. This compendium of eye witness accounts is positively riveting and is enthusiastically recommended as a unique, invaluable contribution to Civil War Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

escrita de manera impecable... al extremo de que al leer, casi puede uno ver las imagen y con un importante trasfondo moral...

escrita de manera impecable... al extremo de que al leer, casi puede uno ver las imagenes.
Es una obra tràgica y clàsica de la liretatura mexicana...un libro con personaje inolvidables.. y con un importante trasfondom moral

màs dolorosa que cualquier otra novela..
Escrita de manera preciosa por Altamirano, ha sobrevivido muchìsimas dècadas... y no por el solo hecho de estar tan bien escrita quen nos cautiva desde su primera pàgina...: El desartrollo es ràpido, ameno, interesantìsimo, y nos tiene con el alma en suspenso desde el principio hasta el final

Preciosa y para cualquier edad... Un libro que debe estar en todas las bibliotecas

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

This book should become a major contribution to Latin American studies, because it provides fresh perspectives on topics we'd thought we already knew well. It does so by relating Latin America to vital issues in history, notably recent research on frontier history, "the new Western history," & themes of race, class & gender. The chapter by Susan Socolow, discussing Argentine frontier women & thus engendering the history of the gauchos, is particularly strong, but so are most of the others. One drawback is that coverage is largely limited to the far margins of Spanish America (northern Mexico & Rio de la Plata regions), when there is plenty of work to do on the frontiers of core areas of Spain's New World empire, e.g. Peru & Bolivia. (There is some fine material on Brazil, but the book's main emphasis is on Spanish America.) Nevertheless, this work definitely advances understanding of important aspects of Latin American history.

A marvelous, quirky blend of Tom Robbins, Tom Stoppard, and general Tom Foolery. Unforgettable characters and bizarre plot intersections leave you wanting more (along with some Smiley -- a plot device I won't spoil by explaining) throughout.

I picked up this book because of the title. Who is this writer? What a gift! Tough and exquisite at the same time. As unexpected as rain in the place she writes.

This is a little gem of a first novel, full of gritty characters, funny-sad situations, and a look at the kind of destiny that walks up and grabs you by the throat even though you've seen it coming. Tough and sensitive, never resting, always moving and taking you along with it. After this book, fleabites press can change its name to beestings.