Cincodemayo 112

Corporal Cortez is tired of the horrible life that he is leading in the mountains of Queretaro, Mexico with the rest of the Mexican conservative troops. He is the smartest person in the group and realizes that the fight is over. The liberals have won in the Mexican Reform War. The liberal side led by President Benito Pablo Juárez García has the support of the United States of America in the Reform War against the Mexican conservatives. Cortez plans to surrender and take the offer of amnesty that President Benito Pablo Juárez García is offering the conservatives who lay down their arms. After signing the amnesty offer, he travels to Mexico City to look for a job. There he meets a lovely teen girl named Bendita who catches his eye. She will not marry him unless he can find a job to support her and her grandparents. Cortez cannot find a job other than being a soldier once again. He must leave Bendita behind while moving back to his parent’s home in a hacienda in Puebla. His friends Jovani and Quintin show up from their victorious triumph at the Battle of Puebla on 5-5-1862 known as the battle of cinco de mayo. Now they are part of the French lead army that is trying to wrestle control of Mexico from President Benito Pablo Juárez García. Cortez does not want his family or friends to know about his cowardly act. Now Cortez must fight alongside the French led forces in the Battle of Mexico City against the government of President Benito Pablo Juárez García. A twist of fate leads him to the position of general in the French armed forces and the honor of leading the men who will recuperate the stolen Mexican lands of the Mexican American War of 1846. Now he is in California fighting against the United States of America army on the side of Mexico the newest colony of France.

The Battle of Puebla on 5-5-1862 known as Cinco de Mayo was a Mexican military victory against the French led forces of King Napoleon III. The French had not lost a single battle since Napoleon Bonaparte lost the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Meanwhile in a parallel universe the French lead forces are able to defeat Mexico on 5-5-1862 leading to the eventual downfall of the Mexican government of President Benito Pablo Juárez García. A new rising star in the Mexican Army earns the title of President of Mexico in the newest colony of France. King Napoleon III has plans for a new alliance with the Confederate States of America, Britain, and Spain. A new war to recuperate Mexico’s lost lands from the Mexican American War of 1846 soon follows to distract the attention of the Mexicans. A group of characters now must deal with the consequences of the defeat on 5-5-1862. Each of them will struggle to adjust to the news. Dulce María discovers a secret that her father Colonel Abraham is hiding in a hole in the wall. Cortez hides in the mountains of Queretaro, Mexico with the rest of the conservative rebels waiting to attack a nearby town to gather supplies for their lost cause. Eva saves the life of a thief by convincing her father that sometimes business comes before revenge. Major José intervenes to help a friend in a tough situation. Francisco earns the title of Mexican Supreme Court Justice after a killing. Enriqueta has a secret plan to preserve her family’s power in Mexico City. Captain Pablo finds a mysterious letter that promises an opportunity to enjoy one last prank before his retirement. Ophelia works as a nurse for the Confederate States of America during the time when the medical field does not accept women. Lyra helps to run a cotton and tobacco smuggling operation out of San Antonio, Texas into the port of Bagdad, Mexico to fool the naval blockade of the United States of America. (Word Count 62, 509)

This book details many aspects of Latin American culture as experienced by millions of people living in Central and South America. The author argues that despite early and considerable European influences on the region, indigenous Latin American traditions still characterize much of the social and artistic heritage of the Latin American countries. Several chapters provide detailed accounts of daily life, including descriptions of contemporary dress, mealtime traditions, transportation, and traditional ways of conducting business. Other chapters focus on the cultural significance of the popular music, art, and literature prevalent in each Latin American country. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Fermented Landscapes applies the concept of fermentation as a mechanism through which to understand and analyze processes of landscape change. This comprehensive conceptualization of “fermented landscapes” examines the excitement, unrest, and agitation evident across shifting physical-environmental and sociocultural landscapes as related to the production, distribution, and consumption of fermented products. This collection includes a variety of perspectives on wine, beer, and cider geographies, as well as the geography of other fermented products, considering the use of “local” materials in craft beverages as a function of neolocalism and sustainability and the nonhuman elements of fermentation. Investigating the environmental, economic, and sociocultural implications of fermentation in expected and unexpected places and ways allows for a complex study of rural-urban exchanges or metabolisms over time and space—an increasingly relevant endeavor in socially and environmentally challenged contexts, global and local.

In a 1995 interview, prolific Chicano writer Gary Soto noted, "Wonderment has always been a part of my life." This book surveys Soto's immense range of poems, stories, novels, essays and plays for audiences of prereaders to adults. Soto's world moves from the cotton and beet fields of the San Joaquin Valley to the blue-collar barrios of Fresno, and to urban and suburban settings in Oakland and Berkeley. Chapters analyze a wide variety of Soto titles, from his breakout works like 1977's The Elements of San Joaquin to the Chato the Cat illustrated books for children. With self-deprecating humor, particularly in his poems, Soto combines his wonderment with the trials and conflicts that beset him throughout life. In such novels as Jesse, Buried Onions and The Afterlife, and in his stories for YA readers, including Baseball in April and Petty Crimes, his broad array of characters confront the anxieties and annoyances of adolescence. Although he continues to motivate young Chicanos to read and write, Soto stakes his greatest claims to literary prominence through his poems, which are accessible to readers of all ages.