ANAYA, RUDOLFO
Randy Lopez Goes Home
Chicana & Chicano Visions of the Americas
Rudolfo Anaya’s latest novel, Randy Lopez Goes Home, explores life at the boundaries of existence. The boundaries traveled in this book include the middle lands between tradition and modernity and Hispanic and Anglo cultures but the focus falls on the gray and crumbling realm that lies between life and death.
The book was born in the experience of loss and grief he shared with his wife Patricia during her illness and death but death is not the topic of this book; Anaya writes about life as seen from the perspective of what theologians call limit situations. Most of the chapters present episodic encounters with various religious, spiritual, cultural, and psychological figures, encounters shaped by the fact they take place at the boundaries of experience. These encounters are presented in the form of richly detailed stories that are sometimes funny sometimes tragic but always contribute to a journey toward a vision of life and death that is both holistic and, in the context of the author’s grief, healing.
An important theme in the novel is the relationship between tradition and identity. The central character, a man who calls himself Randy, inhabits both the space between life and death and the territory between a past rooted in Hispanic village traditions and the Anglo world he embraced as an adult. As Randy encounters various characters and events that are part of his roots, Anaya cleverly poses the question: Is Randy dead to his tradition or is the tradition itself dead and in need of restoration? Anaya’s stories bring to mind Jung’s observation that symbols and traditions that once communicated archetypes rooted deeply in the soul can in time cease to do so. But Anaya also offers the hope that the healing power of tradition and symbols can be renewed.
If these observations make it sound like Anaya has written a dry philosophical abstract that impression would be false. As the excellent and wise writer he is, Anaya fills his chapters with fascinating characters like the Devil, St. Peter, and the psychopomp Unica. His text achieves universality as he moves easily among various traditions including both Catholic and Gnostic forms of Christianity, Buddhism, Greek mythology, and Judaism. I enjoyed his vivid and loving descriptions of Hispanic village customs presented through English and Spanish phrases, a mixture that reflects the boundary situation in which his novel is set. Anaya uses cleverly designed caricatures to present various figures drawn from both myth and village life in a fresh and revealing light. His story is brightened with humor including the moment when Randy’s dog, in a time of danger, starts barking in both English and Spanish “in case the mexicanos were nearby.” Episodes in which Randy remembers certain qualities of Anglo culture are both hilariously and disturbingly insightful. Less impressive to me was the author’s implied conviction that illegal immigration from Mexico could renew Hispanic culture in America. At one time this may have been true but the tragic violence afflicting that particular borderland makes this hope less convincing today.
For all its cultural insights this is ultimately a book about life and death and the border space between. Randy inhabits that gray and crumbling space and as he does so the urgent question he faces is where does his life go now, a question framed in terms of the words there and here. To answer that question Randy must decide what is real, the here of whatever existence he remembers or the there of what is not yet completely known. Was his journey through Anglo culture real, did he leave reality behind when he left his village, or were both experiences illusory? Anaya’s book suggests that this is a question that cannot be answered at the level at which it is posed. It invites us to define life in a way that embraces but also expands the perspective of all the myths, ideologies, creeds, and experiences he describes. Anaya leaves it up to his readers to discover their own definition of life but offers a clue that may speak to what he has learned in his and his wife’s journey through the borderlands. In one of his episodes he observes that the difference between there and here is a “t.” That letter translated into religious symbolism suggests the cross which, for Anaya, speaks of a deeper force beyond every here and there that unites everything in the enduring power of love. Wise observations and deep insights of that kind fill this book and by sharing them Anaya has turned his pain into a source of wisdom for others and has made his sorrow redemptive.
Reviewed by Jim Thompson, author of The Physics of Genesis and the soon to be released The Ethics of Chaos.
CALIENTE AWARD WINNER
Andrews, Martha Shipman, editor
The Whole Damned World: New Mexico Aggies at War: 1941 -1945,
World War II Correspondence of Dean Daniel by Jett
WINNER 2009 New Mexico Book Awards
BEST NEW MEXICO BOOK 2009 New Mexico Book Awards
The Whole Damned World is the first book to receive ReadingNewMexico.com’s
Caliente Award for outstanding books. The award, given only occasionally, goes to a book that the reviewer and editor consider “hot” – a must have for libraries and a must read for the public.
The following is an excerpt from review - click here for the whole review
As a narrative, The Whole Damned World is compelling with a variety of characters and plot twists guaranteed to keep the reader engrossed. As a history, it’s fully footnoted with several appendices including a timeline and a full listing of all those from A&M who served, including their fates. It also includes a comprehensive index. As a photo album, it makes the people and events come alive.
So why did ReadingNewMexico.com award this book the Caliente Award? Because it makes history compelling, real, and readable. It gives faces to those who served and captures a history that fewer and fewer remember as time goes on. In my opinion, this book should be required reading in history classes at every high school and college, not just in New Mexico, but across the world. And every library – especially every New Mexico library – should have it as part of their collection so that we never forget.
Kudos to Martha Shipman Andrews and New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, for recognizing the treasure they held in their hands. And kudos to Rio Grande Books for giving Dean Jett’s story and impact the setting it deserved. (Read whole review)
3/09 Reviewed by Sabra Brown Steinsiek, owner/editor ReadingNewMexico.com
Andres, Armijo
Becoming a Part of my History Through Images and Stories of my Ancestors
This book is an explanation of how Andrés Armijo began to examine his family history. It contains stories of family members such as his great-grandfather, Serafín Bernal, his grandmother Aurora, and his great great grandfather Ramón Nuanes.
Armijo discusses various ways to do your geneaology. Some of them include oral histories, archival histories, diaries and photographs. The book gives insight into New Mexico’s Hispanic traditions such as weddings, the First Communion, and burial.
Armijo includes a family tree. My one complaint is that a more extensive family tree including uncles, aunts and cousins would have been helpful in understanding the relation of people in the text to Andrés.
The real treasure of this book is the variety of family photos. Andrés has old photos, new photos, colorized photos. There are posed pictures, snapshots and even explanations of the photography style at the time some of the photos were taken. He has photos of family members as well as photos of some of their prized possessions. There are photos ranging from 1907 to the present.
I think the text and photos in this book would be wonderful in demonstrating to students or adults how to research their family and present them in an interesting way.
6/11 Reviewed by Georgia Roybal
BAUGHMAN, SHARON
Freedom’s Challenges: The Dismantling of America
ISBN: 0-978-5294-1-3
P.A.D. Company, $15.95
Author Baughman takes a highly superficial look at American history during the twentieth century in one long lament over American’s loss of character and values.
Baughman’s statements are far too sweeping and generalized to be useful as history or even to be taken at face value. What does she mean, “women never considered it a sacrifice to be a stay-at-home mom.” What women? What about the numerous biographies of active women available?
Even as the author protests that modern changes have caused a loss of “traditional values” she recognizes that not everything was wonderful about washing clothes by hand or heating water for a weekly bath.
She mentions the great hardships faced by early immigrants to American, but concerning today’s immigrants, says “our entitlement programs [never mentioning what programs!] are the motivation for many illegal immigrants. They steal across our borders… [for] a ‘free ride.’”
The author comes into her own only when she offers her personal reminiscences, such as memories of her grandmothers’ scrub board and her description of watching wildlife in New Mexico. There are far too few of these, all too brief to counteract her theoretical questions and unsubstantiated opinions that make for wearisome reading.
BAUGHMAN, SHARON L.
Grandmother’s Recipe for Revolution: The Perilsof Unscrupulous Government
P.A.D. Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9785294-2-0
Because I have been a political activist, I was looking forward to reading Recipes for a Revolution. I hoped to learn what actions could really bring about change, as opposed to simply amusing the usurpers wielding power. But I was disappointed. The "recipe" turned out to be a gimmick - just a list of numbers the author found interesting, listed once at the beginning of the book and never mentioned again. . Baughman is well informed on current events, and on some of the history leading up to our present situation. Nevertheless, the book is somewhat dated. Although the book has a 2008 copyright, Baughman calls for action on several bills that were being considered in 2007.
The book does have some structural problems. The writing, for example, could be better organized. Many claims are made without any supporting examples or arguments. Several of the claims are contradictory. In addition, there are many grammar and editing errors.
Here’s an example of a passage from "Grandmother's Recipe"
“The legal status that the bill grants its beneficiaries means they can petition almost immediately to bring family members into the country. The bill did not reach the Senate floor, but there are others along the same line in both the House and Senate. Senate and House Resolutions and Bills currently introduced ... are too numerous to count. It's time to adjourn Congress and send the members home! Executive orders, directives, and proclamations are equally overwhelming. Time to shut them off. The paper used to print all these nonsensical resolutions, bills, and executive orders probably destroys hundreds of acres in the Rain Forests every year. If Congress and the President are so concerned about the environment and global warming, they should shut off the presses, turn off the lights, and take a bus home! And maybe get a real job instead of living off the taxpayers. Congress passes bills to regulate, tax or negate almost every freedom the Framers of the Constitution hoped to protect. It's like chasing a mole ...”
This paragraph continues with a brief discussion about moles and roots and traps which leads to a quote from General MacArthur.
Clearly, Baughman is upset with America's decline, and expresses that discontent passionately. But in Grandmother’s Recipe for Revolution, passion overcomes the structure of the arguments. I cannot recommend this book.
11/09 Reviewed by C. David Eagle, writer
BROWN, STEVEN C., DD
The Secret of Jehovah
Self-publishedISBN 9 781461 170532
This book is a walk through the Bible, quoting scripture passages from both the Old and the New Testaments, with comments by the author showing his interpretation of those scriptures and explaining how he understands them to relate to the present day. He attempts to answer questions about God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, angels, demons, creation and life after death as he is led to understand them through the Holy Spirit. He addresses, among other things, the word “salvation,” creationism vs. evolutionism, giants of the Bible, whether Satan was an angel, where we go when we die, who were angels of the Lord, and what Jesus was before He was born in Bethlehem.
It is difficult to distinguish at times what is a scriptural passage and what is the author’s own comment when he cites a particular chapter and verse; other than that, I found it to be a good study guide. (Use of different fonts for scripture and for his comments would have been helpful.) It needs to be read along with one of the Bible translations for the average lay person to better follow where the author is leading the reader.
Biblical scholars and those wishing to understand more fully the Christian Bible will find it a welcome source of reference.
12/11 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, author, free-lance writer, poet and Bible student
BRUCE, HANK and FOLK, TOMI JILL
Global Gardening
Petals and Pages Press, ISBN 978-0932855749
I really like this book. I’ll tell you why I like it so much and, believe me, it’s not because I’m a botanist or even an avid gardener. Rather, it’s because the book is so interesting.
Here is a book about edible plants from around the world that not only informs but also entertains with folktales about and history of the plants, and suggests ways we can stop world hunger. Global Gardening covers a lot of ground!
The book is chockfull of information about hundreds of edible plants, some of which I never knew existed. For instance, the authors describe 14 kinds of spinach. Spinach! Wouldn’t Popeye have loved to know that?
Not only do the authors include pen and ink drawings of many of the plants, they also give growing instructions, advice about climate, and soil and water needs of each plant. In fact, all the plants are rated according to their use as a food source as well as an ornamental, whether they have more than one purpose, how easy they are to grow, and whether they can be continually harvested. The authors even describe how many of the plants are best prepared and when is the best time to pick them.
I will admit right now that I haven’t read the entire book. It’s not the kind of tome that I can sit down and read from cover to cover. Rather, I’ve found that I enjoy opening it at random because I always find something that enlightens or delights me.
When I opened to the section on dandelions, I was amazed to discover how many uses there are for that much abused plant. I flipped the pages and read a folk tale about the baobab tree, a source of edible flowers, leaves, and fruit. The story goes that it got its strange shape because it was never satisfied with wherever the Creator wanted to plant it and kept asking to be moved. Finally, in exasperation, the Creator, “seized it and threw it as far as possible. The baobab landed upside-down in the dry plains of Africa, and there it has remained until this very day.”
At another random opening, I learned the history of the breadfruit tree. Did you know that the famous mutiny led by Fletcher Christian had to do with the breadfruit trees that Captain Bligh was carrying to the Caribbean? Did they ever mention that fact in the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”?
Another flip of the pages and there is a whole section on weeds, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Do you see why I like this book so much?
Besides offering so much entertainment and information, Global Gardening could also be very useful as a resource for gardeners who want to try new plants whether they are greens, tubers, beans, or vegetable fruits like tomatoes and melons. My only wish is that the authors had included names of nurseries where various seeds can be purchased.
I can’t begin to imagine the time and effort it took the authors to complete this very comprehensive book, but I applaud them. Well done!
BRUCE, HANK and FOLK, TOMI JILL
Windowsill Whimsy, Gardening and Horticultural Therapy Projects for Small Spaces
Petals & Pages Press, ISBN 978-0-9797057-4-8
WINNER 2009 New Mexico Book Awards
Compost your problems away. What can you do with a pickle jar? When should you start clover, so that it’s ready for St. Patrick’s Day? Which plants make the best air filters? You can cheer up a winter day by bringing in cuttings from a tree or bush for early blooms. Best of all, here are a multitude of ways to use plants in therapeutic programs. All this and so much more in a volume packed with plant lore.
Urban living can be blamed for many ills today, as our buildings, paved streets and traffic cause people to lose contact with the realities of nature. The healing and therapeutic benefits of hands-on working with plants brings nature indoors in Windowsill Whimsy, which offers a virtual hodgepodge of projects that can be adapted to any age, from preschoolers to Alzheimers patients.
The authors have written a number of books relating to gardening, horticulture and combating world hunger.
A great amount of information on plants is mixed in with projects, stories, legends, trivia quizzes, and glimpses of individuals and how they responded to many of these projects.
Divided into three parts, Part 1 “Whimsical Plant Projects, Just for the Fun of It” is the largest. Projects center around plants, from African violets to cactus, gourds, Venus flytraps and everything in between. There’s even a recipe for dandelion pudding.
Part 2, “After Dinner Gardening” includes more projects using the seeds and plant parts that arrive in our kitchens, such as avocados, dates, garlic, etc.
Part 3, “Thinking Like a Plant” is a necessary adjunct, with its information on how to keep plants healthy and thriving.
Inside the colorful cover, all illustrations are black and white. The rare lapse in editing is unfortunate, as are most photos which reproduced rather poorly. The drawings are generally clear and more would have been welcome. This book lacks an index, which might have been useful considering the whimsical arrangement of its contents.
9/09 Reviewed by Kate Harrington, writer
BULLIS, DON
Duels, Gunfights & Shoot-outs
Rio Grande BooksISBN 978-1-890689-63-6
FINALIST 2010 New Mexico Book Awards
Violent historical events of New Mexico’s earlier days are told in short, short stories that whet one’s appetite for – as Paul Harvey would say – “the rest of the story.”
Here are stories taken from newspaper accounts at the time and much research by the author about the acts of notorious bad men and law officers, as well as some of whom most people probably never heard.
Bullis quotes historian Wm. A. Keleher regarding the “time-honored custom” of escape of those early years. It would seem that criminals tended to escape much of the time, especially during the territorial era, which makes one wonder how many of those gunfighters managed to create lives as respected citizens after their run-ins with the law. They not only got away from posses, but often escaped from custody in jails and even the state penitentiary.
I found interesting one stated fact which differed from the television version as told in a historical program recently. The author’s research showed that One-Arm Wilson, who had eluded Comanches who had attacked him and cattleman Oliver Loving, had nothing on but his long johns, not even a hat, in his long walk to get help. The television history, however, alluded to the fact that Wilson’s hat probably saved him from death from the desert sun. What really happened will forever be lost in the annals of time, which proves how difficult it is to regain history’s truths.
This is a good collection of bare-bones tales that will interest history buffs and those who love to delve into the old West. I appreciated that the author directs the reader to the publications which provide the more comprehensive telling of each of his tales.
Reviewed 3/10 by Lola R. Eagle, author and poet
Old West Trivia Book: New and Completely Revised
17.95
2009 New Mexico Book Awards Finalist
The glamour and fascination of the Old West is brought to life in a new way in this interesting collection of facts and figures. Historic photographs tell stories of their own as the faces of such Old West characters as Geronimo, General Custer and the Unsinkable Molly Brown enliven the text.”
Once again, Don Bullis has a hit on his hands with this tome about interesting western facts and tidbits. The trivia is related in a question/answer format that is easy to read. Chapters are organized by category and there is a handy index that can be used for anyone wishing to purchase this book as a reference volume. Photographs are scattered throughout, giving a two-dimensional picture of some of the people and places he writes about.
Although many of the factoids are nothing new – like information on Billy the Kid, the Wild Bunch, Texas Rangers, etc. – there are some unusual ones, too. The trivia about Levi’s jeans, the first cowboy hat, and the real difference between cowboys and vaqueros all caught my eye.
It is no question that Don Bullis is the king of the Old West when it comes to nonfiction books. This is another winner, and one that I will keep on my reference shelf and refer to often.
COOK, MARY LOU; LURIE, JAN; POLESE, RICHARD- Compilers
The Book of Kindness: Power of the Gentle Path
Ocean Tree Books, ISBN: 978-0-943734-47-7 www.oceantree.com
FINALIST 2008 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
This slender volume contains over one hundred inspirational quotations on the power of kindness. The compilers, Mary Lou Cook, Jan Lurie, and Richard Polese say in the introduction that “the world seems vastly complicated and difficult [and] is becoming more so. The three of us have come to realize that simple kindness to others, to oneself, and to all that lives and breathes is possibly the most transforming force of all.”
Their powerful collection includes proverbs - A kind word is like a spring day (Russian) – religion – The highest form of wisdom is kindness (The Talmud) – and everyday encounters – Kindness is the bridge to life’s opportunities (from a Daisy sour cream carton). The quotations are arranged in chapters and are indexed by speaker, something most useful and almost unheard of in a small book such as this, and are followed by a full bibliography.
This is the perfect little book to keep by your bedside or give as a gift of appreciation for another’s kindness towards you. For those of us who collect quotes like they were precious jewels, this book is a must-have.
11/08 Reviewed by Sabra Brown Steinsiek, author of Red Velvet Shoes: Contemporary Haiku
DAVIS, CYNTHIA
From A Grain of Mustard Seed
Lulu.com, ISBN: 978-0557027637
I must confess to a feeling of guilt upon completion of Cynthia Davis’ wonderful book. I served many years as Parish Pastor at several Lutheran churches. I don’t believe I grasped the history or values of any of these churches as well as I understand the congregation of the Cathedral Church of St. John in Albuquerque New Mexico having read her book, From a Grain of Mustard Seed.
Cynthia Davis has accomplished something special. She has allowed the story she tells to unfold in such a way that the strength and the weaknesses of the people and the Church of which they are a part stand revealed for what they are without the necessity of authorial comments. In this book the story tells itself. Pain and frustration, joy and satisfaction are all encountered but in the lineaments of the tale rather than in editorial commentary. There is a name for this accomplishment -- it is called good writing.
That kind of writing elevates a narrowly focused story like this to the level of the universal. Any well written Church history quietly becomes an occasion for theological reflection as the reader begins to think about the implications of this story for his or her understanding of the faith. In the case of the story of St. John the reader is drawn into the decades long struggle of a congregation to define its identity and mission. This theological reflection is enhanced by the fact that this is a story told rather than a didactic commentary about someone else’s experience. We walk with these people though their history and as we do so we discover our own faith and values in the mirror of their lives.
Cynthia Davis’ writing quietly and effectively draws one into personal reflection. Every decade in the life of St. John’s is introduced by short, well written histories that recount the social and political changes that provided the context for the challenges faced by the Church. In each decade important figures in the life of St. John’s are introduced not with dull description but through their own words and the words of those who knew them. This approach, as any good writer knows, provides the clearest picture of a person’s character and values.
I must add that this book offered a personal revelation for me as it told the tale of the formation of the innovative St. John’s Curriculum for Christian education. Far from Albuquerque, in the rain-washed Willamette Valley of Oregon there was a pastor who adopted that unique approach in ministering to his congregation. That Pastor was me. It was a surprise to discover that St. John’s was part of my life long before I knew anything about it. But is that really so surprising? We are reminded every day that our disparate paths are deeply intertwined. History is not many stories, it is one story in which we all play our part.
Every member of St. John would do well to read this book. Any staff person considered for employment there would be out of their mind not to buy and read this prior to an interview. But there is a wider audience here. Anyone who loves the Church will find in the story of St. John as told in this book a mirror that will help them better understand their own parish and its unique struggles to define what it means to be faithful to God.
11/09, Reviewed by Rev. Jim Thompson, author of The Physics of Genesis
DUNBAR-ORTIZ, ROXANNE
Roots of Resistance: A History Of Land Tenure In New Mexico
University of Oklahoma Press: ISBN: 978-0-8061-3833-6
I recall coming to New Mexico in 1970 as a bright-eyed kid from Idaho thinking I had just arrived in the new world. In fact I had just arrived in a very old world. The raid on the Rio Arriba Court House in Tierra Amarilla was still fresh and people talked of land grant wars and underlying racial tensions. Even then I wondered what could cause such deep rooted tension and decades-long court battles. Fast forward to today and I have matured and I understand more and more of the world around me, taking my centrist view and broadening it to understand cause and effect. I have spent a lot of time in Northern New Mexico with people who lived a minor part of the struggles. I work with Pueblo members and I actually have a tie by marriage to some of the oldest Spanish families in New Mexico. And yet I still know little.
Roots is a story of the land in this state we all love. It tells of tribal tenure before and after Spanish colonization, American conquest, displacement, industrialization and many other factors and how all these influenced the people, the land and the court battles of today.
Roots of Resistance is a text book, written as a text to inform without embellishment. It is factual, well researched and important. I highly recommend it to anyone with a love of history or a curiosity about some of what makes New Mexico the enchanted land it is.
EBRIGHT, MALCOLM
Land Grants & Lawsuits In Northern New Mexico
30.00 Hardback
“To the victor go the spoils,” despite a treaty to the contrary. 1846, America invades Mexico for reasons that are still debated, including such lofty excuses as injustice, criminal trespass, and ‘Manifest Destiny.’ What is sure is that in less than two years Mexico capitulated. The two belligerents signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and Mexico, under gun-point, ceded 55% of its territory including what is now New Mexico, to the United States subjecting some 80,000 of its citizens to the laws of a new country. So ended a war and so began a hundred and sixty years of land use and ownership disputes. A legal war that continues today. This is the story Ebright brings to light in this, the fifth volume in the New Mexico Land Grant Series.
It’s not often one gets to read a definitive work and this is what I found in Land Grants & Lawsuits In Northern New Mexico. You hear the term ‘Nortenòs,’ but you may have no idea of the long history of the families who define it. Families who trace their ancestry to old Spain and who were granted ownership, either personal or community, to vast tracts of land. Rights that were to be protected under the treaty, and rights that were often misunderstood, misinterpreted or more often, ignored by the new authority. Read this book and you will begin to understand the struggles, sometimes passive, many times bloody, that have defined the tapestry of this great state. I moved to New Mexico in 1970, not too long after the 1967 court house raid in Tierra Amarilla and that was my first introduction to the land grant struggle. I was an outsider not understanding and using an outsider’s view to judge. This book changed my perspective. If you are a history buff or just curious about the stories behind the headlines, read this book.
EBRIGHT, MALCOM and HENDRICKS, RICK; illustrations by STROCK, GLEN
The Witches of Abiquiu: the Governor, the Priest, the Genizaro Indians, and the Devil
Strange things were happening at the edge of the Spanish colonial frontier between 1756 and 1766 in what is now New Mexico. The priest in Abiquiu was having horrible stomach pains, people were seen flying and turning into animals, people were dying from excruciating illnesses, and a group of women were writhing and making horrible noises whenever they attended Mass. In their book The Witches of Abiquiu : the Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks take a well-researched look at the complex tensions that led to this last major outbreak of demonic possession at witchcraft trials in North America.
Abiquiu during this time period contained a seething brew of cultures, spiritual beliefs, and anxieties. The pueblo was made up largely of Genízaro Indians – people from primarily Plains groups, some Eastern Pueblos, and Hopis who had been captured as slaves and sold into Spanish households, but were now released from servitude. Brought together in Abiquiu by a land grant created in 1754, these people who had been traumatized and stripped of much of their culture, found themselves serving as a buffer between the raiding nomads of the plains and the Spanish settlers. Under the direction of a Spanish priest who was unable or unwilling to understand their traditions, languages and beliefs, some members of the pueblo used traditional healing practices, native ceremonialism, and witchcraft, sometimes as resistance to the Spanish and Christianization.
This is a little known era in New Mexico history, and the discussions of the major players and events leading up to the witchcraft trials and how they were resolved elucidates many aspects of frontier life in the southwest during the 18th century. The Governor of New Mexico, Tomás Vélez Cachupín, was a remarkably practical and culturally astute man for his time, and his approach prevented things from escalating as far as they did in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. This is a truly fascinating account of an era of rapid change and turmoil in a unique pueblo at the center of many cultures in Spanish colonial New Mexico – probably the only community in the southwest ever given the choice between the legal designation of Indian pueblo or Spanish village.
6/10 Reviewed by Lisa Kindrick, Librarian
Visits With The Old Indian Storyteller
Petals and Pages Press ISBN 978-0-9797057-1-7 AMAZON
$19.95
FINALIST 2008 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
In this book, Ms. Folk relates some of the words spoken by her husband in his sleep. One night she realized the voice was not her husband but the voice and cadence of an elderly Native American storyteller. She is unsettled but is drawn into this and begins to record his words, even to enter into conversation with the Old Indian.
This curious work--fractured, disjointed, at times disorganized--explores faith and a search for something to believe in. I cannot vouch for the accuracy or authority or value of the contents. A paradox is that, stripped of all pretenses, this work retains power. I can only present what opinions I formed.
You may find some unique answers to some questions you didn’t even realize you had. You may find some deeper insights into common qualities. When you read further you will find the strength of rites and ceremonies that unite us all, through shared incidents and scenes of life.
On the rereading-once, twice, several more-perhaps having answers, some insights, is more than any of us can ask for. The thoughtful themes may draw you into an examination of, and perhaps a redefining of your ideological differences.
The sensitive storyteller guides us into emotional concepts-into a better understanding of the human condition--that is love, brotherhood, and justice.
I can only present a few examples.
The Spirit Dolls--from my husband’s dream, April 24, 1998
…Finally the Old Indian reaches into his canvas bag and removes a cornhusk doll dressed in the traditional costume of a Pueblo Indian woman. Next he pulls forth a Cowboy doll, then a cornhusk version of a Mariachi doll. He continues to take dolls from the bag until that are dozens spread across the dirt at his feet.
“The colors and cut of these clothes speak to you of their cultures. Do they not?” He points to several, then waves his hand across the rest of them.
The children are gleefully pointing to the dolls that represent their culture. Then try to identify some of the other ones.
The Old Indian raises his hand and motions for silence, “But look on this,” he waves his hands over the bouquet of dolls and there is haze that conceals them all.
When this haze clears, all the clothes are gone and all the cornhusk dolls look much the same.
“They all look the same. I can’t tell which one was mine.” Several of the children spoke in unison.
“Do you not see the lesson here?”
The children are all silent for many seconds.
“Does this mean that inside we are all the same?” one of the children hesitantly asked.
The Old Indian clapped his hands, "Yes. You have learned a great truth tonight.”…”
Here is an introduction and experience to reinforce a truly common idea.
From Substance and Beauty--September 8, 1998
“...And he scoffed at them all.
for thinking only of food as sustenance for the body,
telling them that beauty was the food of the soul…”
At the end, Ms. Folk leaves us at March 16, 2007. Did the storyteller cease to come? Why did he come to her husband, Hank? Readers need to take their time with this book and absorb the lessons presented as they settle on their next step.
9/08 Reviewed by Lela Belle Wolfert, author of Deception and Desire
FRANZ, MING SHU LIN
Splash Ink with Watercolor, Looking East, Painting West
Splash Ink, LLC, 978-1-60402-088-5
With Splash Ink with Watercolor, Looking East Painting West, Ming Shu Lin Franz has produced a visually appealing guide to an art form that is little known in the west. A short history of the traditional form and usage of the Splash Ink in Chinese art is followed by an explanation of how Ming has incorporated western art forms into this ancient style.
The book includes detailed step-by-step instructions so that even the beginner can begin experimenting with Splash Ink. The art form combines the free-form pouring of watercolors on rice paper with more structured western style painting to complete the piece. Each work is unique and strives, as Ming says, “to capture an impression and express the emotional response [of the artist].”
Fascinating and beautiful photos throughout the book demonstrate the various steps of creating Splash Ink art. Franz also includes photos of her own work and examples of art done by some of her students to offer inspiration for anyone considering trying this intriguing art form. The reader is drawn to experience, with Ming, her feeling of “getting lost in another world…splashing dynamic shapes onto paper…Nature, Ming, and the image become one.”
4/10, Reviewed by Cynthia Davis, author of the Footprints from the Bible series
JAMES, DON photographer, BECENTI, KARYTH text
One Nation, One Year: A Navajo Photographer's 365-Day Journey Into a World of Discovery Life and Hope.
$24.99
WINNER 2010 New Mexico Book Awards
This coffee-table paperback is the result of an ambitious journey conceived of by Navajo photographer Don James with the support of his employer, Albuquerque The Magazine. The result is a stunning collection of photographs of the Navajo Nation by one of their own from the inside.
“To truly do it as an insider, James relied on an expense allowance of only $100 a week to pay for gas, food, and lodging.” This also meant he was relying on the kindness of his own people, the people he was photographing, “the Navajos he met along the way” to “help him tell their story.”
Text by Karyth Becenti is at a minimum. The photographs are the heart of the book and tell their own stories without words from a snowy morning near Leupp, Arizona at the edge of the Navajo Reservation, through preparations for a traditional Navajo wedding, a visit with a 70 year old shepherd who still does her own shearing, to corn being planted by a modern young woman in a centuries old tradition, Don James has given us a true insider’s view of a private people. He does it with respect and love, honoring both the old and the new. Cover notes quote James, “I don’t see things the same way anymore…I have more sunshine in my soul now.”
This is a lovely book to have on your own coffee table and should be a must for every library in the West.
5/10 Reviewed by Sabra Brown Steinsiek, author of The Tale of the Pronghorned Cantaloupe.
GARCIA NAPOLEON and DUNN, ANALINDA
The Genizaro & the Artist
$15.95 (PB), $27.95 (PB)
All good biographies and histories, whether sweeping in scope or minutely focused, rely on the stories of individuals to bring them to life. The Genizaro & the Artist delights the reader with both small, brightly polished details and larger pieces of history most likely unknown to the average New Mexican.
This thoughtful, gentle book contains the story of Napoleon Garcia, a Genizaro born and raised in Abiquiú, NM. As he and his coauthor Analinda Dunn explain, the Genizaros (a term long fallen out of use) were native peoples made slaves by the early Spanish settlers, then baptized into Christianity with the goal of eradicating all indigenous identity. According to the authors, the Genizaros “came from many of the nomadic tribes, such as the Navajo, Utes, Comanches, Kiowa, Pawnee, Apache, and other non-Pueblo Indians” who were in the area at the time of Spanish colonization. In later generations, these families intermarried with Spanish families.
Abiquiú is one of the best known of the Genizaro communities involved in the Spanish land grants of the mid-1700s. It is also known as the home of artist Georgia O’Keefe for 40 years, at the start of which time Garcia was a neighbor boy who ran errands for her. His reminiscences of Abiquiú, of Genizaro history and customs, of Ghost Ranch and curanderas, and of his interactions with the “artist lady” and her life in the community should interest not only historians and fans of Georgia O’Keefe but also sociologists, anthropologists, folklorists, and curious readers in general.
The two voices in The Genizaro & the Artist are those of Garcia (speaking in the first person) and Dunn (speaking in the third). These friends create a sweet duet, reviving for us a world now gone and showing the strands that remain interwoven in the Abiquiú of today, where Garcia reigns as one of its elders and local characters. I recommend this slim volume for the gem-like stories, photos, insights, and generosity of spirit running through its deceptively straightforward narrative.
9/08 Reviewed by Natalie Reid, author of The Spiritual Alchemist
GARCEZ, ANTONIO R.
New Mexico Ghost Stories, New Expanded Edition
Red Rabbit Press, ISBN 978-0963402998 AMAZON
$22.00
WINNER 2007 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
The new expanded edition of this book reads rather like a travelogue, beginning each chapter with some history about a different area in the state of New Mexico. It goes on from there with tales of the supernatural that the author has obtained through interviews with diverse people around the state, chronicling inexplicable personal paranormal experiences.
Featured are such places as the Ghost Ranch where artist Georgia O’Keefe had a home, the Luna Mansion, St. Vincent Hospital, and the Grant Corner Inn, as well as lesser-known buildings in small towns.
Homeowners, nurses, nuns, priests, rich and poor all have their story to tell. They relate instances of apparitions that appear and disappear, footsteps when no one is around, objects moving by themselves, doors opening and closing, icy air invading closed rooms, odors that come and go, voices, singing, weeping and wailing.
I keep an open mind where ghosts are concerned, as I believe there are things in heaven and on earth that we humans cannot know or understand. That being the case, it follows that we cannot rule out the impossible just because it seems impossible to us in our limited knowledge.
For anyone with a liking for local history and a willingness to listen to strange events told by ordinary people, this book is an interesting collection of stories, marred only by frequent misspellings and punctuation errors.
9/08 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, author of From The Eye of An Eagle
GRAHAME, PETER
CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE HEART: A Book of the Male Spirit
Ironic Horse Studio, Inc, ISBN 978-0-9774278-0-2
This little volume may have a somewhat limited audience because of its photographic subject matter [male nudity]. Nonetheless, one can hope that will not deter a single reader because the beautifully worded text contains valuable life lessons for everyone. The pages are filled with messages of hope, joy, love, and deftly described examples of physical, inner and natural beauty. Though it takes only a short time to peruse the entire book, its verbal and pictorial images will remain with the reader long after he has put it aside.
In spite of the fact that the volume contains many photos showing frontal male nudity, there is nothing prurient in it. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I think it is one of the more wholesome books I have ever read. The photos, which are enhanced by the author with digital imaging, are artful, exquisite and most pleasing to the eye. They are rendered in a sincere and ingenious manner which serves to enrich the text as well as illustrate it.
Contemplations of the Heart deserves a place on favorite book shelves where it is easily reached and will be read over and over again.
4/09 Reviewed by Jerry R. Davis, author Leafing Through My Family Tree
HENDRICKS, RICK
New Mexico In 1801: The Priests Report
$17.95
FINALIST 2008 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
There are different kinds of history books, reader-friendly like Don Bullis’ Biographical Dictionary (Volume II is reviewed on this website), suited to the general reading audience. Then there are the history books that are too much like the texts we groaned through in school.
New Mexico in 1801: The Priests Report is that kind of history book. Specifically, it is a primary source book, chiefly interesting to the academic historian, although not impossible for the general interest reader. The Merchant Guild of Guadalajara requested these reports: the 20 priests replied with formulaic letters describing conditions in 28 pueblos, or curacies. The Guild desired specific information about each pueblo: what was the state of agriculture in each curacy? What kinds of livestock were raised? What was the condition of the roads? In all, there were eight questions the priests were to address.
I won’t try to enumerate the answers to these questions, but like Don Bullis’ book, knowing the lands the priests are describing enriches the reader. When Father José de Vera of Taos writes of his mission “at the foot of a sierra and in a valley of the same name . . .” it is useful to picture for oneself hulking Taos Mountain and the great sweep of Taos valley.
Bit by bit, the text gives up information of interest. The census figures included in each report are a valuable contribution to what we know about Nuevo Mexico of the time. The figures are divided by gender and race, so we see how many men and women lived in the pueblos, and how many were Indians and how many non-Indians. These figures include the baptisms, marriages, and burials of 1801.
That the Spanish priests all learned to write in a formal manner, lacking the individual voice, can’t be helped. We have the occasional spark, “I would regret leaving in the inkwell . . .” (Father José Rubi of Santa Ana.) Or Father José Mariano Rosete on the bridge across the Rio Grande near his curacy at Santa Cruz, “In crossing it accidents often occur. . .there are no architects who understand bridges.” The frontier also had its hazards. At Abiquiu, Father José de la Prada complained of the Utes, “They go around like a gang of highwaymen . . .The damage this nation does is incredible.”
Hendricks’ introduction gives some valuable background, and his notes are quite helpful. He includes a glossary, and short biographies of the priests, some of whom were embroiled in almost telenovela style controversies (not related to the reports).
A little more interpretation would have been helpful. Hendricks does not place these reports in the context of the long occupation of Spain in the New World, or the coming independence of Mexico, 20 years in the future. He does not shy away from the race question, but he doesn’t have much to say about the state of the Indian mind that so frustrated the priests. The natives “applied themselves very little,” were very poor, and not willing to be taught, either. What conquered people willingly adopt the culture of those who have subjugated them?
The documents being in the Spanish voice give us no interpretation, none of the native point of view. However, historians will now be able to read between the lines of these primary source documents.
Hendricks successfully arranged punctuation and paragraphs, but I have a quarrel with how the book is formatted. For one, the text lacks quotation marks. For another, the formatting is misleading to the reader, making it difficult to distinguish when each priest’s report concludes and the next one begins. The Table of Contents is meant to make up for this deficiency, but it does not substitute for the appropriate use of heading fonts, white space, and quotation marks that would have smoothed the way for the reader. I can’t help but think Rick Hendricks’ painstaking work could have been better served.
New Mexico in 1801: The Priests Report is truly for the history specialist. I cannot imagine the difficulty of translating hand-written documents in 200-year-old Spanish, but this book adds to the understanding and interpretation of New Mexico when it was still a remote and impoverished province of New Spain.
9/08 Reviewed by Drusilla Claridge, author of Peacock Ore
KIDDER, LYN and BRUNELL, HERB
Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs
Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 13-978-0-7385-7069-3
This is a most enjoyable book for those who have fond memories of the past few decades, or for those who like small-town history. With many photographs, it is a pictorial treasure documenting the life of the village of Ruidoso, New Mexico, from the 1860s to more recent times. Stories of the early days of the town, the Civilian Conservation Corps during the great depression, World War II activities for soldiers stationed at nearby Alamogordo, skiing at Sierra Blanca, horseracing at Ruidoso Downs, floods and fires -- all this and more, told in pictures and interesting tales of events and the people who lived them. The pictures alone are worth the book, but the sidelights offered of those who built up the town into what it is today make it a wonderful piece of work.
6/10 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, free-lance writer and poet
LOWRY, JOE DAN and LOWRY, JOE P.
TURQUOISE: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone
Gibbs-Smith, ISBN 978-1-4236-0289-7
This book could have easily been titled “Everything and More Than You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Turquoise”. Father and son Lowry’s do their best to educate the reader in this stunning, heavily illustrated book.
Chapters include “Knowing the Mystical Qualities of Turquoise”, “Studying the Geology and Mineralogy of Turquoise”, “Grading and Caring for Turquoise”, and “Identifying Turquoise Imitations” among several other well-written chapters. The prose and picture captions are written clearly and simply making the book accessible to all readers (with maybe the exception of the “Studying the Geology…” chapter – a little slow going for my non-scientific mind.”)
The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book. Not just rocks but beautiful jewelry and objects d’art are included. In a coffee-table size format, this book isn’t for bedtime reading but it’s definitely worth reading.
Well-done, gentlemen.
4/11 Reviewed by Sabra Brown Steinsiek author of New Mexico Book Award Winning books, Annie’s Song, Timing Is Everything, and Tale of the Pronghorned Cantaloupe.
LUX, ANNIE with photographs by DANIEL NADELBACH
Historic New Mexico Churches
Gibbs Smith Publisher, ISBN: 978-1-4236-0169-2
“The history of New Mexico is the history of its churches,” claims Annie Lux. Historic New Mexico Churches is proof of her claim. Traveling throughout the state, Lux narrates the historical circumstances of a church’s founding and construction, beginning with some of the earliest sites that date from shortly after the Entrada in 1598. Her narrative weaves together nuggets of information from the political and religious history of the time for each church’s founding, what the life of the community was like, how a specific church contributed to the cultural and economic life and New Spain and eventually New Mexico. Lux presents her material in a generally historical framework while managing to work in examples from all quarters of the state. These examples include well known sites in the state, such as Santuario de Chimayo, famous for its healing dirt and Good Friday pilgrimage; and the much photographed Church of San Francisco de Asis in Rancho de Taos, subject of a series of famous paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe. Also well represented are lesser known though still significant sites such as San Antonio de Padua in Cordova and San Augustin Mission on Isleta Pueblo. Lux includes a selection of church ruins at sites destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. Each chapter is accompanied by beautifully evocative photographs by Daniel Nadelbach.
No discussion of New Mexico’s churches or history would be complete without at least some mention of the Penitente brotherhood and their moradas tucked away in northern villages. Lux touched upon Penitente history and mention in passing New Mexico’s unique Crypto-Jewish history, while pointing the reader towards more comprehensive sources of information.
Lux discusses not only the churches, but also their interior decorations. New Mexico’s historic churches are repositories of unique sacred art. Santeros and their santos are featured, along with significant examples of reredos, retablos and bultos.
The historic ecclesiastical architecture of Santa Fe merits its own chapter. Included are discussions of San Miguel chapel, Santuario de Guadalupe, Parroquia de La Conquistadora and the miraculous staircase at Loretto Chapel.
3/09 Reviewed by Victoria Erhart
MABERY, MARILYNE V., researched by Richard B. Moore and Kenneth A. Hon
The Volcanic Eruptions of El Malpais: A Guide to the Volcanic History and Formations of El Malpais National Monument
Ancient City Press ISBN 1-58096-007-3
With strange black basaltic lava formations stretching out before you, a lizard blinking suspiciously, and utter quiet except for the occasional shrill call of a bird and the whistling wind, El Malpais can be a very disorienting and unnerving place to visit. The lava has been violently spewed, twisted, spattered, oozed, and cracked into a myriad of shapes and then plants, animals, and even some hardy people have struggled to get a hold here. The Volcanic Eruptions of El Malpais: A Guide to the Volcanic History and Formations of El Malpais National Monument by Marilyne V. Mabery makes this mysterious world much more accessible.
l Malpais National Monument and the surrounding El Malpais National Conservation Area encompass 590 square miles of a unique wonderland of volcanic land forms. Located near Grants, New Mexico, the area is part of the much larger Zuni-Bandera volcanic field and includes formations from at least fifteen separate volcanic eruptions over the last 100,000 years with the latest occurring approximately 3,000 years ago. As you traverse this haunting landscape you will encounter a wide variety of basaltic lava forms, including eleven cinder cones, four shield volcanoes, 33 major vents, lava lakes, and at least 17 miles of lava tubes, which is the longest system of lava tubes on the North American Continent.
This guidebook covers the history of the area, including Native American oral traditions regarding its formation and the reaction of early Spanish explorers who named the area “the bad country”, as well as an exploration of the possibility of future eruptions. The types of formations that can be found in the area are described in detail, including how they were formed, in an understandable, but not simplistic, way. There is also a section that gives specific information about where to find some of the best examples of different formations and how to access those trails. The guide includes black and white and color photographs, diagrams, maps, a bibliography, a glossary, and an index.
El Malpais is the closest most of us will get to the feeling that we have landed on another planet. Don’t begin your adventure without this well-written and organized guide.
5/10 Reviewed by Lisa Kindrick, Librarian
MACNAB, MAGGIE
Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication.
How, ISBN -13: 978-1-58180-969-5
WINNER 2008 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
Maggie Macnab invites the reader to “discover the hidden meanings inside common corporate logos and designs.” The author has designed for over 25 years, and teaches logo design and symbols as visual literacy at the University of New Mexico.
This fascinating textbook on graphic design is arranged with a chapter for each number from zero to ten. Macnab discusses the symbolism relating to each number. She then deconstructs a familiar logo such as Target in the chapter on One, MasterCard in Two, H&R Block and Red Cross in Four, etc. She follows these with case studies, frequently using her own designs in illustration, and takes the reader through the creative process.
Five, the longest and most intriguing chapter, symbolizes humans, magic, health and much pertaining to nature and growth. Included are spirals and stars, the “golden” angle and the Fibonacci sequence. The amazing statement that plants bearing five-petal blooms indicate edible fruits illustrates a splendid synchronicity with a human's five-pointed starfish shape.
A delightful read, highly recommended for students, and for those who wish to improve their visual acuity.
2/09 Reviewed by Kate Harrington, writer
MANNO, LOIS
Visions Underground: Carlsbad Caverns Through the Artist’s Eye
19.95
WINNER 2009 New Mexico Book Awards
BEST OF SHOW 2009 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS
Let me begin with a disclaimer. I grew up in Carlsbad. On my sixth birthday I had a choice of a birthday party or a trip to the Caverns. I chose the Caverns. This didn’t make me prejudiced toward this book; in fact, I held it to very high standards knowing that the author had better get it right if she wanted a good review from me.
She got it right. More than right. She brought back memories and succeeded in making me homesick.
For others, I believe this book will whet the appetite for more, and the New Mexico Department of Tourism should be thanking her for bringing new folks here.
This is an extensively researched book by a caver with thirty years experience, a volunteer at the caves, who has coordinated several shows of speleological art over the years. From photographs to modern art, she has covered a whole gamut of artists who have found the allure of the Carlsbad Caverns to be one they had to capture.
Chapter 1 includes the “Artist-Explorers” with photographs from 1925 (the Caverns were discovered by Jim White, possibly as early as 1898) and artwork from 1928 including the breathtaking “Carlsbad Caverns Trilogy” by Raymond Jonson (1891-1982).
Chapter 5 “Portrait of a National Park” includes the story of photographer Tex Helm and his one-shot picture of the vast “Big Room”. In August of 1952, Helm (with a lot of help) placed three miles of copper wire, fifty aluminum reflectors, uncounted scores of flexible foil reflectors, thirteen cameras, and 115 Carlsbad residents into the “Big Room” From pure darkness (and there is nothing darker than the “Big Room” without lights!) Helms did the countdown to his command when 2400 flashbulbs went off at once and the “Big Room” in all its glory was caught for posterity.
This book, with a cover from a 1939 National Park Service poster, “See America”, is full of similar anecdotes and the beautiful images captured in photograph, paint, and even paper cutting up to modern day. Visions Underground is a great history as seen through the eyes of the artists who did their best to bring to light the beauty of what was hidden in the dark.
MARTIN, CRAIG and McCLENAHAN, HEATHER
Of Logs and Stone: The Buildings of the Los Alamos Ranch School and Bathtub Row
14.95
2009 New Mexico Book Awards Finalist
Of Logs and Stone captures the reader’s attention immediately and holds it to the very end. The volume is a short, but fascinating, history of what eventually led to the founding of the New Mexico city of Los Alamos. Cities arise because of a variety of reasons and through many different historical actions or happenstances, but few are able trace their beginnings to the same series of events that Los Alamos can.
Originally that area on the Pajarito Plateau was homesteaded as a ranch by H. H. Brook around 1910. He erected a cabin, sheds and barns suitable for ranch operations on the property. About 1916 Brook entered into a partnership with Ashley Pond, a Midwesterner who intended to establish a progressive institution of learning for boys. It was to be called the Los Alamos Ranch School. Pond’s aim was to educate young men by providing them with a classical education in an outdoor setting.
The school was managed successfully by a man named A. J. Connell for about a quarter of a century until it was taken over by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943. The facility was to become the new home of the Manhattan Project, the purpose of which was to develop an atomic bomb. Soon, a small town sprang up around the ranch school buildings and the town of Los Alamos was born. Eventually the population reached into the thousands and became the present-day city.
The authors, Craig Martin and Heather McClenahan, discuss in interesting detail, the initial construction and eventual evolution of each of the main buildings while they were owned by the school and later when they were taken over by the government. Many of those structures were designed or remodeled by New Mexico’s most famous architect, John Gaw Meem, usually known as the Father of the Santa Fe Style.
Equally as interesting to the reader is the discussion of the many well-known scientists who resided in the former school buildings during the life of the Manhattan Project. Among others, they included such notables as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Klaus Fuchs. Because of their thorough research, Martin and McClenahan were able to bring to light scores of insights about many of the people who shaped history before, during and after World War II.
Both historians and architecture buffs will find Of Logs and Stone an interesting and informative volume to read and study.
MELZER, RICHARD, Editor
Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico's Past: V.1, The Spanish and Mexican Periods,1540-1848
RIO GRANDE BOOKS in collaboration with THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NEW MEXICO
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS IN NEW MEXICO’S PAST is a rare treasure, a book for everyone who likes history, or wonders how New Mexico came to be what it is today, or likes gossip and personal stories behind the headlines, or just enjoys a few more good chuckles at life in New Mexico.
Melzer’s collection of essays by New Mexico historians is entertainment to savor, and it’s also meticulously documented history. Each of the ten authors has estimable credentials along with obvious personal interest in his or her subject.
What sets this book apart, though, is the fact that the editor isn’t promoting a particular theme or theory about New Mexico’s history. He has gathered, instead, critical thinking by New Mexico scholars who were encouraged to pursue their own interests and write both about what’s known and what’s missing. In more than one essay, the informed curiosity of the essay writer sheds light on what we don’t know and what that lack of records might mean.
The essays vary widely. Some are rigorous and statistical. Others are the stories of individuals and families from the first settlers to the 1847 treason trials. I found the essays on gender roles and the lives of two colonial women especially interesting, but the essays on the Navajo wars and the introduction of livestock from Spain and the resulting overgrazing of land have important implications for our present political conditions. The essay on the 1847 treason trials in particular highlights questions that continue to simmer beneath our political surface.
In the end, though, this is a book to read first for pleasure. For most readers, there will be the pleasure of new knowledge, or at least the pleasure of being educated gently by lively scholars. The book has the flavor of good conversation in a private or academic library.
By the time I put it down, I was already making a list of friends and family members who would enjoy the book. And maybe that’s the best evidence of the book’s enchantment: It’s well worth sharing with people with whom you’d enjoy good conversation about an outstanding book.
10/10, Reviewed by Mary O’Gara, co-author THE TROUBLE WITH ROMANCE
NEW
MELZER, RICHARD, editor
Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past v.2
18.95
WINNER 2011 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS - NEW MEXICO CENTENNIAL BOOK
Sunshine and Shadows In New Mexico’s Past tells the story of the long journey toward statehood that filled the years from 1848-1912 when New Mexico was a territory of the United States. The book is the second part of a trilogy that has been published by Rio Grande Books in which the first volume titled The Spanish Colonial and Mexican Periods 1540-1848 begins the story of New Mexico and the third volume The Statehood Era, 1912-2012 brings the story up to date. All three volumes have been published as part of the New Mexico Centennial Project, the official celebration of the 100th anniversary of New Mexico statehood.
The story of the territorial period is told through historical monographs written by various experts in New Mexico history. The monographs address such topics as “The Civil War in New Mexico,” “Lawlessness,” and “Politics and the Drive Toward Statehood” The topics are well chosen and the studies are well-written. The fact that the book is a collection of independent monographs might suggest that it could lack internal coherence but that is not the case. The articles mesh well with each other and present a consistent picture of the period as seen through different facets of life such as the history of ranching, railroads, and religion. The book and the story it tells is also bound together by persistent themes that, weaving behind the scenes, have shaped New Mexico’s history and continue to characterize its life even today. These themes include tensions between Anglo and Hispanic settlers, the difficulties involved in developing a vibrant economy in a desert land, and the presence of a persistent prejudice against the state and its people on the part of some elements in national leadership that made the journey to statehood so long and arduous.
The book is fascinating because it tells stories many have forgotten or never knew. I was particularly surprised by the chapter on New Mexico’s role in the Civil War. Many are familiar with the fact that a few small battles were fought in the state during that war but often overlooked is the role New Mexico played nationally in the years leading up to that war. The civil war was largely precipitated by questions about the extension of slavery into territories that were likely to become states. At issue was the political viability of slavery in the country as a whole since the expected admission of a large group of western states would shift the balance of power one way or the other in Congress. In his article “New Mexico and the Coming of the American Civil War,” Dwight D. Pitcaithley makes the point that this historic debate actually boiled down to a question about the fate of New Mexico. It was clear to everyone at the time that states to the north and west of New Mexico would never become slave states but southern politicians held to a hope that slavery could thrive in the agricultural regions of New Mexico territory (which included much of what is now Arizona at the time). The states that could be carved out of that area could, in their estimation, provide a counterbalance to other states that would be admitted as free states. During the debates that precipitated the war the great question centered on the southern demand that territories be given the right to decide for themselves whether to enter the union as slave or free which meant that, as a practical matter, the only real issue in contention concerned the future of the one place where slave state status seemed a viable possibility. Seen in this light it is possible to characterize the American civil war as a battle over the fate of New Mexico.
Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past is full of revelations of that kind. The story it tells is full of surprise, controversy, adventure, and unforgettable characters all brought vividly to life. Dealing as it does with a period of New Mexico’s history that many do not know very well it is an important contribution to the 2012 centennial celebration of statehood.
12/11 Reviewed by Jim Thompson, author of The Physics of Genesis
MOORE, PAULA
Cricket in the Web: The 1949 Unsolved Murder that Unraveled Politics in New Mexico
University of New Mexico Press, ISBN: 978-0826343420
$18.85
The murder of young Ovida “Cricket” Coogler has been an enigma to New Mexicans since the day in April 1949 when her body was found in a shallow grave south of Las Cruces in Doña Ana County. In the 60 years since, there have been as many opinions about what happened to her as there are people willing to voice an opinion. The case remains officially unsolved.
Numerous newspaper and magazine articles have appeared over the years, along with a couple of books and even a film. The best of the lot, by a wide margin, is last year’s Cricket in the Web by Paula Moore. (Note: a book entitled Murder Near the Crosses by Peter Sandman came out a few years ago, and it was something of a disappointment.) Mrs. Moore’s book won the Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award for outstanding publication in the field of History from the Historical Society of New Mexico for 2009, and it was well deserved.
What makes the book particularly useful is that Moore assumes the role of objective observer (Sandman seemed preoccupied with rehabilitating the reputation of his father, Roy Sandman, who went to prison for his role in investigative improprieties). Moore deals with the plethora of participants—politicians, witnesses, suspects, victims and innocent bystanders—with an even hand, and she includes all of them. She deals with the variety of theories concerning how the crime was committed, and who was responsible, without becoming judgmental, which is important inasmuch as the case was never indisputably resolved.
Readers should not expect, however, that Moore simply lays out a one-dimensional spreadsheet of facts and figures. She turns many of the key figures in the case into multi-dimensional characters; particularly the victim: Cricket Coogler. An 18 year old waitress, readers come to know her as a person, troubled though she may have been. Sheriff “Happy” Apodaca is provided the space he deserves, and the assortment of illegal activities in which he participated is documented, as well as his utter incompetence as a lawman (if not his culpability in the case itself).
Political figures—governors, lieutenant governors, U. S. Senators, mayors and judges, not to mention high-ranking bureaucrats—lurk around the edges of Moore’s presentation, just as they did in the actual investigation. Some of them were worried, as they should have been, and they did what they could to protect themselves. Did that, in the end, effectively preclude the possibility of solving the murder? Maybe so.
Much about the case will never be known, but one thing is certain, justice was not served in the homicide of Ovida “Cricket” Coogler.
This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in the middle years of the 20th century in New Mexico history.
6/09 Reviewed by Don Bullis, author of The New Mexico Trivia Book
MUNSON, MARIT K.
Kenneth Chapman’s Santa Fe: Artists and Archaeologists, 1907-1931
Kenneth Chapman arrived in New Mexico while it was a territory searching for its identity and worked quietly and brilliantly behind the scenes of its developing museums. Chapman’s lasting legacy lies in the Laboratory of Anthropology, but also in Santa Fe’s Palace of the Governors and Museum of Fine Arts.
The memoir which Munson edited and shaped into a fascinating story dwells heavily on Chapman’s long relationship with Edgar Hewett, who is credited with much of New Mexico’s early archaeology and the development of the museum complex on the plaza.
Kenneth Chapman’s Santa Fe is a good, juicy gossipy read about the years that shaped Santa Fe style. It is also a well documented story of the development of the market for Indian pottery, the early years of Santa Fe’s museums, and the life of Santa Fe as a developing art center.
Hewett emerges from Chapman’s writings as a man who worked with broad brush strokes, but made impulsive decisions and left much of the work of his developing museums in the hands of other people while he traveled outside the state. Frequently those hands were Chapman’s.
Chapman details his growing distrust and eventual estrangement from Hewett. His well documented charges that Hewett was unconcerned when the new museums couldn’t or didn’t pay as promised. But Chapman was the man who solved the problems left in Hewett’s wake, and his insights provide a valuable history of the Santa Fe museums and especially their work with Native American pottery.
Chapman was the artist who set standards for pottery in early shows and contests. It was Chapman who identified the hallmarks of pottery from individual pueblos, Chapman who worked to develop New Mexico’s pottery collections and preserve them for future researchers.
As a reviewer, I was personally fascinated by bits of family history. Edgar Hewett’s second wife was my grandfather’s first cousin. Mother’s baby gift from “Cousin Donnie” was baby moccasins, and the first wedding Mother remembered attending as a child was “Cousin Donnie and Dr. Hewett”. Family lore told only the positive side of the Hewett legend. Even though Chapman came to dislike Hewett intensely by the end of their relationship, what emerges from this book is a well-rounded picture of a fallible man with a dream (Hewett) and the man who picked up the pieces when the dreamer brushed aside the responsibilities that come with building lasting institutions.
Munson’s personal contribution to the book is extensive. He took incomplete memoirs overly focused on the estrangement between Chapman and Hewett and added background material and annotations that give perspective and lasting value to the story of Santa Fe’s beginnings as a cultural center.
Munson’s own prose is lively and interesting, and the extensive documentation doesn’t interfere with the sheer pleasure of a good read and engaging personalities. The book is heavily illustrated with pictures from New Mexico’s early 20th century.
NEW MEXICO BOOK COOP
VOICES OF NEW MEXICO
Rio Grande Books ISBN 978-1-890689-67-4
$17.95
A collection of stories, essays, and poems by a diverse group of New Mexico authors, this anthology has a little something for everyone.
“We Were a Clan,” by Irene Blea, focuses on an incident from her childhood during the Depression when her father’s bees are lost, only to be found within the walls of their home.
“Wooden Indians and Cedar Cowboys,” by Hank Bruce, is a most interestingly-told tale of a creative process.
“Gremma’s Hands,” by David Corwell y Chavez, is a wonderfully poignant reminiscence that had me hoping my grandchildren would remember me with as much love.
Loretta Hall’s very knowledgeable essay about White Sands Missile Range and the space testing done there was both educational and interesting.
The inspiring story of blind Elizabeth Garrett, the daughter of Sheriff Pat Garrett, written by Sue Houser, was another bit of history brought to life.
The humor deftly written into each of David Kyea’s stories made them fun to read.
A poem about Albuquerque by Lela Belle Wolfert created vivid mind pictures.
A light-hearted account of “The Phantom of Carlsbad Caverns,” by Sabra Brown Steinsiek, gives some history of that famous site and why it has not been glitzed up.
This is a nicely-done little book with only minor editing errata.
7/11 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, author, free-lance writer and poet
NOBLE, DAVID GRANT, Editor
Santa Fe: A History of the Ancient City
19.95 paper
Just in time for Santa Fe’s 400th anniversary, theSchool for American Research has reissued an updated and expanded version of Santa Fe: History of an Ancient City. This volume is very ably edited by David Noble and contains contributions by a veritable who’s who of Santa Fe historians, archaeologists and anthropologists. Santa Fe: History of an Ancient City is a very accessible historical overview of the Santa Fe area, beginning c.5500 BCE with evidence of mobile hunter-gatherers. The history continues through the Spanish colonial period on to American occupation and eventual statehood. Each chapter is well illustrated with copies of paintings, original documents and marvelous historic photographs. Residents and business owners of Santa Fe will want a copy of this book simply for the photographs in order to see what Burro Alley looked like overrun with burros, or the excitement generated on the Plaza when a wagon train rolled into town from the Santa Fe Trail. Reproductions of historic maps and quotations from letters and diaries of prominent residents are scattered throughout the chapters, adding greatly to understanding the city’s history.
For centuries, Santa Fe was primarily an agricultural place. The city’s acequia system, based on Roman irrigation practices in Spain, made establishment and growth of the initial permanent settlement possible. Understanding water rights and usage are essential to understanding Santa F’s history. Residents who live along the Acequia Madre, Santa Fe’s “Mother Ditch” that brought water into the downtown area, will enjoy the photograph of burros drinking from their acequia c.1915.
No history of Santa Fe would be complete without a discussion of the city’s most historic building, the palace of the Governors, the oldest municipal building in America still in use. The Palace receives its own chapter, updated to include preliminary results from the 2000-2005 excavations.
Santa Fe: History of an Ancient City is a much needed contribution to the non-technical writings on the city’s history and archaeology. It would be a welcome addition to a resident’s bookshelf and a perfect gift for visitors.
7/09 Reviewed by Victoria Erhart
PARHAD, ELISA
New Mexico, a guide for the eyes
EYEMUSE BOOKS, 978-0-0820497-0-9
WINNER 2010 NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARD
New Mexico, a guide for the eyes is a visually lovely book filled with photos of New Mexican crafts, traditions, buildings, even food. The author, Elisa Parhad, says she was inspired to create this first in a series of guidebooks. Unlike most guidebooks, you will find little about where to visit and stay, but you will learn the “everyday details that make up the soul of a place.”
Parhad’s book is one that will enlighten even the native New Mexican about the history and usage of nearly 100 important facets of life in the state. Everything from cowboy boots, which evolved in the years after the Civil War to be better used in the West, to the nutritious prickly pear cactus are included. Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo contributions to the life and culture are included. St. Francis and the Navajo Yei images co-exist in the book and in the state as do Queen Anne style architecture and Pueblo buildings.
Not necessarily a book to be read cover to cover, New Mexico, a Guide for the Eyes is a reference newcomers, visitors, and old timers will return to again and again. Parhad, who moved to New Mexico when she was 11 and lived in Japan as an adult, understands the culture shock of encountering “unfamiliar imagery.” Her book will make it easier for all who love New Mexico to find new understanding of the diversity and beauty of the state.
07/10, Reviewed by Cynthia Davis, author of Mary, My Love and 7 other books of historical fiction and non-fiction.
PECK, RICHARD E.
All the Courses in the Kingdom
Repertory PublishingISBN 0-9726308-7-2
A lively tone and amusing tales make this coffee-table book a delight. With gorgeous full-color pictures of the dozens of golf courses in Scotland, so different from the courses in the United States, even the non-golfer will enjoy paging through this book. The author, an avid golfer himself who claims to have played them all, certainly seems to know whereof he speaks.
The book includes a listing of famous players who have won on The Old Course in Fife where the British Open was first played in 1873. Names that even those who don’t play the game will recognize, such as Sammy Snead, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. Peck gives the names of the longest and shortest courses in Fife, and includes definitions of many Scottish golfing terms, which is very interesting in itself. But more than that, each course is explained so that a golfer can know what to expect when he goes to play it.
This is a thorough and lovely book which would be an appreciated gift by any serious golfer. I was tempted to take up the game myself.
4/10 Review by Lola R. Eagle, free-lance writer, author and poet
POWELL, STEPHEN
Apocalyptic Grace; The Evolution of Culture and Consciousness
Ocean Tree Books, ISBN 978-0943734-49-1
24.00
To understand the future, Stephen Powell, author of Apocalyptic Grace, breaks our past into four parts, or Worlds, World One the hunting and gathering society; World Two our move into horticulture, which then evolved into World Three’s agrarian hierarchy, and finally into World Four’s industrial world.
Psychotherapist Powell finds in New Mexico a microcosm of the four worlds, “the unique cultural diversity of Apache/Navajo, Pueblo, Hispanic and Anglo.”
The original hunters and gatherers understood the sacred to be everywhere and identified with the cyclical arc of life and death. Shamans healed through visualization, hypnosis, and ritual. Native American cultures of Navajo and Apache have close ties to World One.
Horticultural societies centered around land and ceremony, people working together. Their sense of territoriality brought a rise in warfare and fortresses. Belief in the Mother Goddess predominated, shamans evolved into priests and individualism was lost as people were expected to conform to the myths. This is the culture of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest.
World Three corresponds to the growth of villages into cities. With hierarchy came growing social injustices. 90% of the female deities were lost and indigenous spirit forces were superceded by monotheism. Priests became prophets. The Inquisition expressed the conflict between Worlds Two and Three; 80% of those killed were women. The early Spanish in New Mexico brought the World Three culture with them.
With industrialization, Christianity, originally a religion for the oppressed, becomes a colonizing tool. Nature loses its primacy when industrialization demands control of nature, land and resources. Psychology replaces shamanism, illness is treated by godless pure science, psychic and physical ills lose their doorway to the deeper language of the soul.
Each World contains a shadow side. Addictions are only one form of compensation for what has been lost. Powell’s work bridges these archetypes within his clientele. Already entering the Fifth World, it “is crying out for the integration of the shamanic, the ancient, the modern – the tribal, the agrarian, the industrial – a quest to make humanity whole from within.”
Writers of history would find this an excellent resource for understanding the tensions of each age. Not without typographical errors (more than once it’s is used instead of its and in tact for intact), this book deserves better proof-reading.
2/11 Reviewed by Kate Harrington, librarian
RUBIN, GAIL
A Girl’s Pocket Guide to Trouser Trout: Reflections on Dating and Fly-Fishing
1st Books Library, ISBN: 1-4140-1279-9
Being the conservative woman I am, I confess to some trepidation in opening this book with its rather blatant double entendre title. However, I found it to be fun, fascinating, and informative.
The author obviously did a lot of research in order to parallel dating and fly-fishing in a manner both provocative and knowledgeable. She romps through ten chapters with titles such as Your Personal Angling Style, Types of Trout and Other Fish in the Sea, Stalking the Wily Trout, Adventures in Trouser Trout Angling, and Trouser Trout as Time Goes By. Her chapters take the reader from an initial search for the right man to the elder years and their problems.
Drawing on her personal experience, as well as those of friends, she writes wittily, with tongue-in-cheek sexual connotations and great insight about the ways and means of trying to land a trout, defined in the back-of-the-book glossary as “a man with many good qualities” as well as “the appendage inside his trousers that defines him as a male.”
Listing more than two dozen types of trout in Chapter 2, the author points out titillating similarities in the characteristics of each fish and coinciding type of man. How to recognize, angle for, and reel in the best is then explained in ensuing chapters.
A woman can get a lot of good tips about dating in this book while chuckling her way through its ribaldly hilarious chapters.
11/08 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, author of From The Eye of an Eagle
SANCHEZ, JOSEPH P. and MILLER, LARRY D.
Martineztown 1823-1950:
Hispanics, Italians, Jesuits & Land Investors in New Town Albuquerque
Martineztown is now a part of central Albuquerque bounded by Broadway, Interstate 25, M. L. King Boulevard, and Mountain Road. The area is also sometimes called the Santa Barbara/Martineztown neighborhoods.
The authors of this impressively researched study cannot pin down an exact date for the settlement of this area which was originally a village separate from Old Town and was founded before the coming of the railroad led to New Town Albuquerque which itself eventually surrounded and included Martineztown within its borders. By the 1820’s there were a few homes in what is now Martineztown, and by the 1830’s, once the irrigation ditch to the community of Barelas was constructed, the pasturelands became farms since the ditch went through what is now the core of the Martineztown area. Population increased, and we can ascertain that by 1850 Manuel Martin and others farmed on the West side of the acequia. The ditch so important in the early days was finally in the mid-twentieth century covered over with concrete and then completely abandoned.
A photo ca. 1900 reproduced in the book shows a small adobe village quite separate from Albuquerque. I found it interesting to discover that the adobe church in the photo, the only church in the village in 1900, was Protestant, for in the 1880’s the “Bible-loving” Martinez family, the main extended family in the village, had broken with the Roman Catholic Church and had become Presbyterians, and the community was called “La Placita de los Protestantes.” That church is now the Second Presbyterian Church of Albuquerque. It was not until 1913-1916 that a Roman Catholic Church, San Ignacio de Loyola, was built in its imposing location on a sand hill overlooking the barrio.
The big change in population density began after the coming of the railroad in 1880 which was accompanied by the founding of New Town Albuquerque several miles east of the Old Town. Martineztown was just East of the tracks and North of a subdivision called Huning Highlands. Land investors and especially the Jesuits at San Felipe de Neri Catholic Church in Old Town became involved in buying and subdividing the tracts of land that now constitute present day Martineztown and also established the Loyola Church. Although the Twentieth Century population increase in Martineztown included some Italian families and other people who were not of Hispanic ancestry, the area remains even today a predominantly Hispanic barrio where the Spanish language is commonly spoken in homes and among neighbors.
This study of Martineztown was initiated by Frank H. Martinez, Research Scholar in Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico and a community leader in Martineztown.
I found the book both frustrating and interesting. The frustrating part is that one would have to have a good mental picture of the Martineztown neighborhood to be able to make sense out of the many property transactions which are listed . Also, since these transactions which take up a considerable part of the book, only list the names of persons involved in the transfer of title from one owner to another over many years but without indicating the financial figures involved, it is impossible to judge who was profiting from these transactions and by how much. For example, the Jesuits became major property holders and sellers, but I would find it helpful to know how much money they made from their speculation. For that matter, a study of church land speculation in Albuquerque and New Mexico would be quite illuminating, I would think.
The authors make it clear in their preface that their aim is not to focus on “the rich cultural history” of Martineztown but to focus instead on land tenure patterns and changes from 1850 to 1950. Perhaps someone else can build on their study by reporting on the cultural history. What was most interesting to me about the book was the way the authors were able to peel back so many layers of property development to the early beginnings of settlement; What has been regarded by many people as a lower-class blighted inner city area near the “Big I,” the interchange of Interstate Highways 40 & 25, is treated with respect for its history and inhabitants. The authors conclude their study by urging intelligent city planning not only to preserve the neighborhood but also to heal the wounds of the past.
3/09 Reviewed by Richard K. Miller
SANDO, JOE S.
Nee Hemish: A History of Jemez Pueblo
In twelve chapters, Sando follows the Jemez Pueblo Indians (Hemish) with tales taken from oral history of the pre-Spanish era, through the coming of the conquistadors and the Catholic religion in the 14th Century, to the modern village as it is today.
Although the Jemez people were here in New Mexico long before the Spanish came, the land they lived on was “granted” to them by the government of Spain and later by the United States, with diminishing acreage allotted each time.
The citizenship of the pueblo Indians has been called into dispute over the years and court proceedings held for determining their rights as an independent body or as U.S. citizens. They were granted the vote in 1948. Today there are representatives of the pueblo in New Mexico state government. Their own government and leadership are explored in Chapter 4.
With facts, figures and names, Sando tells of long-ago days, court battles, feast days with runners and dances, agriculture, education, and pueblo artists.
Sando, an educator and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New Mexico, speaks and writes from the voice of experience and many years of teaching Indian history.
A comprehensive and engrossing read.
3/09 Reviewed by Lola R. Eagle, author of Visions in Verse
SANDO, JOE S. and AGOYO, HERMAN, editors
PO’PAY: Leader of the First American Revolution
Oppression by a foreign power imposing unequal laws by a king across the Atlantic, unfair taxation and distribution of wealth, loss of religious freedom, slavery. All seeds of revolution. But this is not 1776, this is 1680 and the first revolution on what would become American soil.
PO’PAY is a story of the Native American fight for nothing less than their soul. While the Indians had accepted, even welcomed, the Spanish who had come more than a hundred years before. This is the story of the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley and their struggle for independence. In 1680, after many years of living under the boot heal of the Spanish, they, in their diversity, rose as one and expelled the oppressors. We call it a revolution but the Indians called it by a different name; restoration. Restoration of their culture, their religion which was being crushed by the Catholic Church, and ultimately, their future.
PO’PAY is identified as the leader of this little known chapter in American history and the man himself, known mostly by oral tradition handed down by the many pueblos who participated, was still in controversy as late as the 1990s when a statue of this Native American leader was proposed for the Smithsonian. This book is multifaceted telling not only the story of PO’PAY and the restoration, but the fight to get the statue accepted as a representative of the great state of New Mexico. It details the artists who created this work and its dedication at the Smithsonian. It also presents the impact the restoration had on the culture of the Southwest, the heritage of the Pueblo Indians and the fact that this great event is still celebrated today.
Many of us were blissfully unawae of this is important story. After I read it I conducted an informal survey to see how many people knew of PO’PAY. How many knew of the first American Revolution or how many knew why the modern Pueblo Indians were able to retain so much of what they were when almost every other Native American Tribe had not. The results were not encouraging. I urge you all to take the time to relive this important period of our past. This book is a great place to start.
STOLLER, GALEN
My Life After Life, a Posthumous Memoir
Dream Trader PressISBN 978-0-615-38307-1
No matter what your belief regarding an afterlife, this book is a most interesting read.
Galen Stoller, a real 16-year-old boy from Santa Fe (not a fictional character), was killed in a train/car accident in 2007. This is the story of what happened to him when he “passed over” to the next dimension, told to his grieving father, a noted doctor, by means of paranormal communication. Though the book was put together by Dr. K. Paul Stoller, his claim is that he only put on paper what his son told him about where he now exists. Reminiscent of past television programs featuring John Edwards (“Crossing Over”), the story gathers in the reader and fascinates with an explicit telling of the dimension in which Galen finds himself, what he does with his time, and how he relates to other people and creatures with whom he becomes involved. For example, his on-earth love for dogs is expressed in a relationship with a similar dog creature in his next life. Galen’s learning continues to grow, nurtured and perpetuated by a “teacher,” as he seeks ways he may be of help to others in his new form. To quote from the pages of the book, “The force most central to the matrix of the universe is love,” and “Ultimately, the human is a being of service and to know one’s purpose is to know one’s spirit.”
For anyone wanting to explore the “multiverse,” as opposed to our “universe,” this is a reflective, mind-broadening journey through time and space that may well put to rest one’s fears of death.
Reviewed June 2011 by Lola R. Eagle, author, free-lance writer, and poet
