More Voices of New Mexico is the third edition of the Voices award-winning series for the New Mexico Book Co-op. It gives writers a chance to express themselves and get their essays out to the public. There are beginners in the book and established authors. All have a voice waiting to be heard. Some of the essays are funny, some are sad, and some are information to live by. There are poems, art, photos, and many words about New Mexico. This is a little snapshot into the lives of many people and what is important to them. Curl up with a book in front of a fire and READ! New Mexico books are worth the time. You might have forgotten how much fun it can be to read a book!
This book pays homage to the counterculture movement through the words and photographs of a select gathering of people who lived it. At its height in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the counterculture movement permeated every region of America as thousands of activists took on the establishment. Although counterculture has often been trivialized as “dirty hippies” and “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” committed activists formed powerful strands of resistance to the political/military/industrial complex. American Indians, Hispanos, Blacks, and Anglos joined in marches and protests—often at their peril. Veterans of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, communards in northern New Mexico, practitioners of drug-induced mysticism, disciplined seekers of spiritual awakening, back-to-the-landers, defenders of wilderness—counterculturalists all—questioned, reframed, and redefined American and global perspectives that remain to this day. The American Southwest became a haven for individuals from both coasts seeking refuge in this vast landscape. Many found an affinity with the native cultures and local inhabitants who were already here. Others joined forces to combat the Vietnam War, racial discrimination, and pillaging of the environment. Still others founded communes based on diverse cultures of practice. Movement leaders organized community events, protests, and spoke for their generation; many used their talents as writers, musicians, artists, and photographers to express their angst and promote change. Jack Loeffler draws from his extensive archive of recorded interviews and transcribed conversations with contemporaries—among them writers, artists, elders, activists, and scholars—including Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Edward Abbey, Shonto Begay, Camillus Lopez, Tara Evonne Trudell, Roberta Blackgoat, Richard Grow, Alvin Josephy, David Brower, Dave Foreman, Elinor Ostrom, Fritjof Capra, and Melissa Savage. The book includes personal essays by Yvonne Bond, Peter Coyote, Lisa Law, Peter Rowan, Siddiq Hans von Briesen, Art Kopecky, Bill Steen, Sylvia Rodríguez, Enrique R. Lamadrid, Levi Romero, Rina Swentzell, Gary Paul Nabhan, Meredith Davidson, and Jack Loeffler. It includes photographs by Lisa Law, Seth Roffman, Terrence Moore, and others.
The colonialist West has spoken for New Mexico since 1540 when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado traveled to Acoma Pueblo in his search for the legendary cities of gold. With the Spanish incursion, followed fifty-six years later by the first English-speaking colonists in New Mexico, began the representation of New Mexico from an outsider's perspective. The colonial West imagined itself to hold central claims to knowledge, so it knew its peripheries only as it encountered and articulated their presence to itself. This Western narrative, based on an imagined Western privilege to foundational or platonic knowledge, has become the dominant Euro-American discourse through which New Mexico has come to be known. The comparative study of this collection of travel and contact narratives traces the enforcement of--and resistance to--the Western myth of the Euro-American and European as normative, as well as the Hispanic and the native as Other. The author ably introduces the platonic quest as a new unifying thread that links each of these travel narratives to his argument that identity and claims to knowledge may be tested, recovered, or created in movement within New Mexico. The platonic journey has mostly been understood as an intellectual journey toward truth. This study expands upon the platonic journey to show that it may also, like the quest, be played out in geographical space. Travel Narratives from New Mexico will be a very valuable resource for students and scholars of literature, especially of the American Southwest and travel theory.
New Mexico Voices, Too is the second book in the series to honor New Mexico and to give writers the chance to express themselves. This book is mostly about New Mexicans but things can also be human in nature like the Sandia mountains. Poetry, historical essays, and essays about mentors, family and friends are all part of the mix. These essays and poems - by seventeen New Mexico authors - are on all subjects and give the reader a wide range of ideas and topics. This is a project of the New Mexico Book Co-op, a collaborative organization designed to help its 1,400 members join together in their love for the printed word. The New Mexico Book Co-op has novelists, poets, history writers, children's writers, comic book writers, bloggers, consultants, booksellers, readers, and others who strive to share their knowledge about the book in this changing world. Collectively, Co-op members want to showcase New Mexico's long history with book publishing. Books still make a difference and these essays and poems show how important people can be in the lives of New Mexicans. They say writers write because they are compelled to do so. While it is possible my writing is motivated by such a compulsion, I write mostly because there is so much to write about; so much about New Mexico's history that still needs to be told; so many voices from the past that cry out to be heard. "I too lived here and contributed to what we are today," they seem to say; and I hear the voices and write so they might not be forgotten.-Robert J. Torrez, New Mexico State Historian (1987-2000) and contributor to Voices of New Mexico (2011)
This book is a simple, no nonsense telling of New Mexico history and geography for those who are new to the Land of Enchantment and for those who want a quick, uncluttered story based on the theory that history should be fun. For those who want a meatier course, consider it an appetizer, a first course. Maps, a glossary, ideas for teachers, and a recommended reading list are included. There are no footnotes, which should please most people. Studies have proven that readers will learn more from this approach. From the Pleistocene to the Atomic Age, Folsom to Chaco and Cibola, Santa Fe to Raton Pass and Cimarron, Glorieta Pass to Fort Sumner and Lincoln Town, Silver City to Hobbs and Farmington, Columbus to Route 66 and Los Alamos, the trip is fascinating. Kermit Hill's family migrated to New Mexico in 1912 and 1922 for health reasons. His parents became well known teachers and he followed his genetic destiny for forty-three years. Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, raised in Santa Fe, Sacramento, and La Luz, educated at Weed, Alamogordo and the University of New Mexico, he is an avid reader, a member of the Historical Society of New Mexico's Board, Tularosa Basin Historical Society, and Old Santa Fe Trail Association. He taught middle school, high school and college social studies courses. That career included ten years as an instructor at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, ironically one of his easier teaching jobs. Hill is as true a New Mexican as ever traveled this vast amazing land. Fair warning: he does not cotton to anyone messing with New Mexico history, so DON'T!
She Faces Her Enemy By: Sharleen Daugherty She faces her enemy, the second book of the Double Doll series, is a tale about taking chances, starting over and over again as the author moves through life finding success, joy and unexpected obstacles. It is about love and trust and betrayal and resentment and, as the title notes, facing the roadblocks that the universe puts in our way. One of the memoir’s central themes, a narrative thread that will resonate with many readers, is that whether our enemies are outside forces, ghosts, memories from our past, or dysfunctional elements of our own psyche, none of us has to face them alone.
Thirty-four authors from all over New Mexico, explore what it means to be in New Mexico-the traditions, history, quirks, landscape, and people. New Mexico artists also illustrate the book. The essays are on all subjects and give the reader a wide range of ideas and topics. This is the first book published by the New Mexico Book Co-op to showcase New Mexico's long history with book publishing, just in time for New Mexico's Centennial celebrations in 2012.
