New Mexico Books

Matt Field, a middling actor down on his luck, sickly, rejected twice by two different women when he proposed marriage, decided in 1839 to take a trip to Santa Fe with one of the trading caravans headed to that city from Independence, Missouri. Accompanied by a few friends, he steamboated from St. Louis to Independence, where in July he joined a small (18 men) caravan and set out across the plains. Going through Council Grove on to Bent's Fort, he continued over Raton Pass after which he left the main caravan and followed a trail to Taos and then down to Santa Fe. Thoroughly enjoying his stay in Santa Fe, but fearing a winter crossing of the plains, he left the capital late in September, took the Cimarron Cutoff, and made it back to Independence by the last day in October.

Fortunately for posterity, Field kept a journal of his trip, which is included here; he was also later hired by the New Orleans Picayune to write a number of articles based on his travels and experiences (they also are included here and make up the main portion of the book). A budding poet as well as an actor, Field turned his outward-bound journal into a long epic poem (the return leg remained in typical diary form). Though his poetic skills are not very good, this poem remains a unique document in the annals of western literature. The newspaper articles are another matter; they are superbly written and fascinating to read. The articles were meant to entertain readers, and hearsay and embellishment abound, but their bases are in fact and in what Field experienced. Everything seemed to be worthy of his attention and subsequent relating, from sights along the trail to humorous anecdotes related to him by others he met along the way. There is the obligatory grizzly bear story and thunderstorm-on-the-prairie story, but also more personal items such as a funeral in Taos and a wedding in Santa Fe. The articles ran for two years in the Picayune and as they still do today must have brought much enthusiasm to their first readers. The trade along the Santa Fe Trail was in decline by 1839, and to have Field's first-hand impressions of what it was like then is remarkable. It's among the half-dozen most important original works regarding the trail and the trade and the people who were involved with both, and it's a delight to read. Highly recommended.

The shipping is very fast and the book is too well preserved. A little expensive but is a rare book to obtain in Mexico. I am glad with the service.

Buettner and Mason hit the mark with this beautifully illustrated and well written narrative of their journey through the Mayan lands. This is a must have for all children and adults who have an interest in anthropology or who have ever dreamt of traveling through foreign lands.

Two Thumbs Up, Boys!

Grant Jones is consistently the best writer on the early colonial history of Belize and adjacent parts of Guatemala and Mexico. He knows the primary documents better than anyone else. He has a sophisticated, thoughtful and sympathetic approach. And best of all, he writes well. This is not bedtime reading, but for a serious scholar of the Spanish encounter with indigenous peoples, this is an invaluable and engrosing read.

If you are as interested as i am in Ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya, you will love this book. Some of the language may be a bit difficult, though author explains it well. Its not for the beginner but definelty best choice book after reading Michael Coe's "primer" book on the MAYA. The photography is incredible also.

An extraordinary book. One of Oxford University Press' 'Library of Latin America' series, translated from the Spanish by Helen Lane, here is a tome worthy of high praise. Fray Servando Teresa de Mier y Noriega (Mexico, 1763-1827), persecuted by the Inquisition for thirty years for his challenge to the colonial mentality and his willingness "to play an active role in movements of emancipation," Written in the Inquisitor's prisons, this is a topsy-turvy book where Europeans are the barbarians. Refreshing! De Mier was famed in his own time as a scholar and thinker, &indeed these 240 pages unsheathe a remarkable man, revealing with a novelist's succinct eye the true nature of the world and its passing, and our time in it. Impossible to overstate the beauty and severity of a spirituality in high bloom. Recommended.

While reading Dan McCall's short novel Messenger Bird, I had to keep returning to the book jacket to remind myself that this was a novel, rather than a particularly engaging and sensitive memoir. Told in the first person, McCall's book recounts two years in the life of a young surgeon, Jim, paying off his medical school loans by working at a small hospital in New Mexico on an Apache reservation. The "messenger bird" of the title is Annie Messenger Bird Lester Mendez, a gifted nurse at the hospital who becomes Jim's lover and best insight into the Indian community. Much of this novel is episodic -- medical emergencies confronted by Jim, or his life in the community. Through these vignettes McCall constructs a community, two characters (Jim and Annie) and a larger social structure that resonate with compassion and truth. I read this short book in two sittings, and wished it were half again as long. Highly recommended.

This text is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students/faculty in Rhetoric, Composition, English, Chicano/a Studies, American Indian & Mesoamerican Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.

I grew up in Mexico and I grew up reading this book. To revist its light prose, delicately drawn village and carefully delineated shadows was an incredible pleasure. I'm so glad I have this copy in my possesion, I've missed it.
I wish I knew more about Josephina Nigli, though.

The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott, edited and annotated by Mark L. Gardner and Marc Simmons, University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, xi + 292 pgs. The book consists of what the title says it does, plus some useful material written later by Elliott but appropriately inserted by the editors. Elliott was an elected Lieutenant in the Laclede Rangers which was a unit from St. Louis and a part of the Missouri Volunteers, in turn a part of Kearny1s Army of the West during the Mexican War. Irregularly, from May 1846 to July of the next year, Elliott sent dispatches back to the St. Louis Daily Reveille, writing as John Brown. In brief, Lt. Elliott with his outfit went from his home to Santa Fe, where with few exceptions, he remained throughout his term of enlistment. Compared to many other soldiers of that time, he led an easy life. (After all, many of us pay to live in Santa Fe, although arguably the amenities may be somewhat better than they were 150 years ago.) However, Elliott's descriptions of the marches, Bent's Fort, Santa Fe and its inhabitants including the native ladies, are most interesting, as are his opinions of some of his associates and high-ranking commanders. The Introduction is helpful and the notes, we think, are the main achievement of the editors: erudite, expansive as need be, and interesting on their own ‹ as you might expect from those two well-known historians. Notes are what turns diaries or dispatches into histories; in this case a valuable piece of New Mexico history and an excellent view of a minuscule part of the Mexican War.