The Life And Times Of Mexico

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. "A work of scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico." —History Today The Life and Times of Mexico is a grand narrative driven by 3,000 years of history: the Indian world, the Spanish invasion, Independence, the 1910 Revolution, the tragic lives of workers in assembly plants along the border, and the experiences of millions of Mexicans who live in the United States. Mexico is seen here as if it were a person, but in the Aztec way; the mind, the heart, the winds of life; and on every page there are portraits and stories: artists, shamans, teachers, a young Maya political leader; the rich few and the many poor. Earl Shorris is ingenious at finding ways to tell this story: prostitutes in the Plaza Loreto launch the discussion of economics; we are taken inside two crucial elections as Mexico struggles toward democracy; we watch the creation of a popular "telenovela" and meet the country's greatest living intellectual. The result is a work of magnificent scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico.

Who was Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna? What was his role in the Texas War of Independence and eventual settlement of Texas? Reading about the past as well as the people who made significant decisions that forever changed history will allow you to learn from mistakes and successes. Go ahead and grab a copy today.

Based on archival research, this study of Pancho Villa aims to separate myth from history. It looks at Villa's early life as an outlaw and his emergence as a national leader, and at the special considerations that transformed the state of Chihuahua into a leading centre of revolution.

Originally published in 1843, Fanny Calderon de la Barca, gives her spirited account of living in Mexico–from her travels with her husband through Mexico as the Spanish diplomat to the daily struggles with finding good help–Fanny gives the reader an enlivened picture of the life and times of a country still struggling with independence.

World-renowned bestselling author Carlos Castaneda's selection of his writings on the shamans of ancient Mexico. Originally drawn to Yaqui Indian spiritual leader don Juan Matus for his knowledge of mind-altering plants, bestselling author Carlos Castaneda soon immersed himself in the sorcerer’s magical world entirely. Ten years after his first encounter with the shaman, Castaneda examines his field notes and comes to understand what don Juan knew all along—that these plants are merely a means to understanding the alternative realities that one cannot fully embrace on one’s own. In Journey to Ixtlan, Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to this new approach for the first time and explores, as he comes to experience it himself, his own final voyage into the teachings of don Juan, sharing with us what it is like to truly “stop the world” and perceive reality on his own terms.

This biography of Dr. Alberto G. Garcia documents his unlikely life as a pioneering open-heart surgeon, Maderista in the Mexican Revolution, brave opponent to the Ku Klux Klan, pathbreaking journalist, civil rights activist, astrologer, yogi, siddha and father and grandfather to a remarkable family. This book offers a unique glimpse into the Mexican Revolution, the long and ongoing relationship between Mexico and Texas, and an array of occultists and saints and their antagonists in in 19th and early 20th Century Austin, Texas and Mexico.

From the author of Pulitzer-nominated The Devil’s Highway and national bestseller The Hummingbird’s Daughter comes an exquisitely composed collection of poetry on life at the border. Weaving English and Spanish languages as fluidly as he blends cultures of the southwest, Luis Urrea offers a tour of Tijuana, spanning from Skid Row, to the suburbs of East Los Angeles, to the stunning yet deadly Mojave Desert, to Mexico and the border fence itself. Mixing lyricism and colloquial voices, mysticism and the daily grind, Urrea explores duality and the concept of blurring borders in a melting pot society.

Legendary travel writer Paul Theroux drives the entire length of the US-Mexico border, then goes deep into the hinterland, on the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind today's brutal headlines. Paul Theroux has spent his life crisscrossing the globe in search of the histories and peoples that give life to the places they call home. Now, as immigration debates boil around the world, Theroux has set out to explore a country key to understanding our current discourse: Mexico. Just south of the Arizona border, in the desert region of Sonora, he finds a place brimming with vitality, yet visibly marked by both the US Border Patrol looming to the north and mounting discord from within. With the same humanizing sensibility he employed in Deep South, Theroux stops to talk with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting, communing with people of all stripes who remain south of the border even as their families brave the journey north. From the writer praised for his "curiosity and affection for humanity in all its forms" (New York Times Book Review), On the Plain of Snakes is an exploration of a region in conflict.