Chicano, Hispanic, & Latino Books

BANDIDO: Oscar "Zeta" Acosta and the Chicano Experience
by Ilan Stavans. Condition: NEW 1995 IconEditions hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Remainder mark bottom edges. Content: Don't know Oscar Acosta? He's an American icon. Read this book! The inspiration for Hunter S. Thompson's notorious "Samoan" attorney in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a quixotic campaigner for Los Angeles sheriff, the hard-living Chicano activist Acosta (b. 1936) remains shrouded in myth, thanks to his mysterious disappearance (drugs? U.S. agents?) in 1974. In this brief but probing biographical essay, Stavans observes that the legacy of Acosta, who wrote The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, is more ideological than artistic. Indeed, Acosta symbolized the hopes and anxieties of his people; he adopted the appellation "Zeta," or Z, a reference to such forebears as Zorro and Zapata, as a sign of his hyphenated self. Combining interviews and analysis, Stavans reconstructs Acosta's struggles with obesity, his tangled affections for white women, his mental instability and his emergence as a writer who wanted attention for his people as Chicanos - or Brown Buffaloes (indigenous but nearly extinct) - rather than as rainbow "minorities." As the author notes, Acosta's concerns about identity and ethnicity presaged their emergence as mainstream national concerns. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 12.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

BRINGING IT BACK HOME: Remittances to Meico from Migrant Workers in the United States (Monograph Series, 37)
by Fernando Lozano Ascencio (Translated by Anibal Yanez) Condition: It may seem odd to say that a book with 6 pages with highlighting can be very good, but for the highlighting, this book was treated well. Tiny edgewear. Content: The economics and sociology and problems of working in the US and supporting a family in Mexico. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 7.89 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

THE BURIED MIRROR: Reflections on Spain and the New World
by Carlos Fuentes. Four B&W and color photo sections. Companion to the TV mini-series. Condition: UNREAD 1992 Houghton Mifflin large soft cover, first printing. Four color and B&W photo sections. Content: Fuentes has used the occasion of the quincentennial of Columbus's voyage to the New World to reflect on the Latin American experience in this tie-in to the BBC series of the same name aired on the Discovery Channel on April, 1992. The theme of his thoughtful essay is the accommodation of cultures--Spain unique in the Old World in bringing together Christians, Moors, and Jews and the New World intermingling the blood and cultures of Spaniards, Indians, and blacks. It is the unavoidable encounter with the Other that has shaped the New World experience: "When we exclude, we betray ourselves," counsels Fuentes. "When we include, we find ourselves." Spanish America's predicament is that it inherited from Spain neither institutions nor attitudes necessary for full partnership in the modern capitalist world. Latin America remains derivative in culture and economy. Every page in this lapidary essay offers profound insight into the Spanish American psyche. [1 copy available]
$ 15.25 + $ 3.49 media shipping.

FOREIGNERS IN THEIR NATIVE LAND: Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans
edited by David J. Weber. B&W photos & illustrations. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1973 Univ. of New Mexico Press Trade Paperback, first edition. Problems: light edge wear with a shelf wear crease back cover and 3 very small remainder marks on fore edges. Content: Most recent writing about Mexican Americans deals only with the twentieth century. This book provides the much-needed historical perspective that is essential for a full understanding of the present. Dozens of selections from firsthand accounts, introduced by the editor's knowledgeable essays capture the flavor and mood of the Mexican American experience in the Southwest from the time the first pioneers came north from Mexico. The first edition was selected as a Choice "Outstanding Academic Book of the Year." [1 copy available]
$ 9.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Internaitonal shipping available.

FROM INDIANS TO CHICANOS: The Dynamics of Mexican American Culture
by James Diego Vigil. B&W drawings and photos illustrate. Condition: Very good +, 1994 Waveland Trade Paperback, first edition reprint (17th printing). It appears unread, but I can't swear to it. Tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: This book offers an informed and penetrating approach to the history of Chicano development. Anthropologist-historian Diego Vigil shows a perceptive and knowledgeable background in brief, clear outlines of each stage of Mexican-American history, charting the culture change sequences in the Pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, Mexican Independence and Nationalism, and Anglo-American periods. He analyzes not only the events and the underlying conditions that affect them but also the dynamics that shaped contemporary Chicano life. The author has absorbed an enormous amount of information and has condensed it in a very readable and understandable fashion. Vigil's ethnohistorical introduction to the Mexican- American experience in the United States is simple yet comprehensive so that readers clearly understand historical developments and the specific socioeconomic, sociocultural and sociopsychological forces involved. [1 copy available]
$ 6.89 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

GROWING UP CHICANA / O
edited by Tiffany Ana Lopez. Forward by Rudolfo Anaya. Condition: NEW 1995 Avon Books Trade Paperback, 4th printing. Remainder mark bottom edges and tiny edgewear. Content: Stories of joys, pains, frustrations and triumphs of a Mexican-American childhood - 20 Chicana/o writers explore their search for identity in America. [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

HISPANICS IN HOLLYWOOD: A Celebration of 100 Years in Film and Television
by Luis Reyes and Peter Rubie. B&W movie stills and photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 ifilm HUGE soft cover, no printing given. Content: Although Hispanic Americans have been involved in many aspects of the American film industry, there has been little note taken of this fact in standard film-reference works. In addition to the biographical sketches and descriptions of films and television programs that make up the bulk of this work, there are also essays on the role of the Hispanic American in American film and television. The book begins with an essay on movies, followed by alphabeticallly arranged entries on films that had a Hispanic character, setting, or subject or in which a Hispanic actor starred. Each entry includes producer, director, writer, cast, and a brief summary of the plot. Individuals whose names appear in boldface type are the subject of biographical sketches later in the book. The next section begins with an essay on television followed by entries on individual programs, which include network, cast, and a brief plot summary. Again, boldface type is used to indicate persons who are the subject of biographies. This section is followed by brief essays on Zorro and the Cisco Kid, with complete chronologies of their movie and television incarnations. Finally, there is the biographical section, which lists Hispanic American performers and behind-the-scenes personnel. The authors indicate that they have "also included . . . a number of non-Hispanic individuals who are nevertheless identified in the public mind as Hispanic, on the basis of the roles they played or their Hispanic-sounding names." There is a separate section of "profiles of selected non-Hispanic filmmakers who have contributed substantially to shaping the cinematic image of Hispanic Americans through classic films they made." These include such directors as John Ford and John Huston. An index completes the work; a selected bibliography precedes the front matter. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 10.00 + $ 3.39 media shipping. International shipping is available - but it will cost a ton of money - email us.

HUNGER OF MEMORY: The Education of Richard Rodrigues (An Autobiography)
by Richard Rodriguez. Condition: UNREAD 1988 Bantam paperback, 13th printing. Light edgewear with pale diagonal crease bottom front cover corner. Content: In this autobiographical work, the author attempts to put forth his views on a number of topics within a personal context. He does this within the framework of his being Mexican-American. His parsing of the effect that education had on his life is both interesting and food for thought. While education provided a means of connecting to the world outside his cultural enclave, it also created a distance between him and his cultural roots. As he assimilated into the larger world outside his immediate cultural milieu, it created a divide between him and his parents. As they remained in their self-contained, unassimilated world, only their mutual love for each other was able to bridge the chasm that education created, for figuratively they no longer spoke the same language. [1 copy available]
$ 1.55 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

IMAGES AND CONVERSATIONS: Mexican Americans Recall a Southwestern Past
by Patricia Preciado Martin. B&W photos by the late Louis Carlos Bernal. Condition: NEW 1996 University of Arizona soft cover [10.1 x 8.6 x 0.3 (110 pages)], second printing. Remainder. Content: A beautiful memoir by Arizona Hispanic Americans who remember when barrio was not a bad word. These 13 first-person accounts of southern Arizona residents capture a spirit evocative of the Hispanic presence in the Southwest, while striking photographs reflect the grace and dignity of their lives. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

INTRODUCTION TO CHICANO STUDIES (First Edition)
by Livie Isauro Duran and H. Russell Bernard. Condition: Good+, 1973 Macmillan Trade Paperback, no printing given. Peeling bottom spine with small edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: In this book, Chicano history begins with the great pre-Columbian civilizations of the ancient Americas - the Mays, the Aztecs, and the Incas. Essays detail all aspects of Hispanic/Latino history up to 1973. Obviously some of the essays and history may be dated, but most of it is not. Thoughtful and informative. Worth the read. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 5.55 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

LATINA ADOLESCENT CHILDBEARING IN EAST LOS ANGELES
by Pamela Erickson. B&W charts illustrate. Condition: NEW 1998 Univ. of Texas Press Trade Paperback, no printing given. Content: Preventing teen pregnancy has become a national goal, but a one-size-fits-all strategy for achieving it may never be found. Because varying social and cultural factors lead to pregnancy among different ethnic/class groups, understanding these factors is essential in designing pregnancy prevention programs that work. This book explores the factors that lead to childbearing among Latina adolescents. Pamela Erickson draws on both quantitative data and case histories to trace the pathways to motherhood for Latina teens. After situating her study within current research on teen pregnancy, she looks specifically at teen mothers enrolled in programs at Women's Hospital in East L.A. She describes the teens' relationships to their babies' fathers and their own families and discusses how these relationships affect whether teen mothers want to become pregnant, their use of prenatal, postpartum, and family planning services, and their ability to prevent a repeat pregnancy. Erickson describes culturally appropriate intervention efforts and assesses the limitations of prevention programs in institutional settings such as schools and clinics. While somewhat dated, it is an excellent resource for scholars and writers. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 3.79 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

LATINO FOLK MEDICINE: Healing Herbal Remedies from Ancient Traditions
by Anthony M. DeStefano. Condition: UNREAD 2001 Ballantine Trade Paperback, first edition, first printing. Content: Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter DeStefano (New York Newsday) offers information on approximately 60 of the most widely used medicinal plants in Mexico and Central and South America and among North American Hispanic populations. The Latino folk pharmacopoeia is one of the largest and richest on earth. Drawing on a centuries-old culture of healing tradition, informed by a deep reverence for history, this marvelous resource gives a vivid, balanced look at Latino folk medicine as practiced across America. Inside you will meet the lay healers, curanderes, who prescribe for the sick, visit the botanicas that sell hundreds of medicinal plant products, and learn all about the folk remedy tradition. Each botanical profile lists the scientific and common name, where the plant is grown and its physical characteristics, traditional uses, availability and dosage, and contraindications and special precautions. It is important to note that herbs should only be taken with the consultation of your physician. Welcome to the world of the yerba buena ("good herb"), where scientists are finding new hope for chronic disease and ordinary folk are discovering new possibilities for better health and well-being! [2 copies available]
$ 5.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

LATINOS: A Biography of the People
by Earl Shorris. Condition: UNREAD 1994 W. W. Norton large Trade Paperback, second printing. Content: Latinos in the U.S., as Shorris defines them, are a complex of people of varied ancestry--Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadoreans, for example--"in danger of becoming the largest insignificant minority in American history." Moving from the barrios of New York City's Spanish Harlem and East Los Angeles to Miami's Cuban community to Southern farms on which migrant workers endure abominable, Third World conditions to El Paso where Hispanics have launched an assault on the bastions of Anglo economic power, Shorris gives eloquent voice and texture to Latino dreams, history, culture and aspirations. His montage of social analysis, reportage, folkways and oral history is a magnificent portrait of diverse people struggling against stereotyping, racism, exploitation and the racismo which causes one Latino group to demean another. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 6.55 + $ 3.49 media shipping.

LUIS LEAL: An Auto/Biography
by Mario T. Garcia. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 2000 Univ. of Texas Press Trade Paperback, first edition, first printing. Content: Professor Luis Leal is one of the most outstanding scholars of Mexican, Latin American, and Chicano literatures and the dean of Mexican American intellectuals in the United States. He was one of the first senior scholars to recognize the viability and importance of Chicano literature, and, through his perceptive literary criticism, helped to legitimize it as a worthy field of study. His contributions to humanistic learning have brought him many honors, including Mexico's Aquila Azteca and the United States' National Humanities Medal. In this testimonio, or oral history, Luis Leal reflects upon his early life in Mexico, his intellectual formation at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, and his work and publications as a scholar at the University of Illinois and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Through insightful questions, Mario García draws out the connections between literature and history that have been a primary focus of Leal's work. He also elicits Leal's assessment of many of the prominent writers he has known and studied, including Mariano Azuela, William Faulkner, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Tomás Rivera, Rolando Hinojosa, Rudolfo Anaya, Elena Poniatowska, Sandra Cisneros, Richard Rodríguez, and Ana Castillo. [1 copy available]
$ 5.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

MEXICAN-AMERICAN FOLKLORE: Legends, Songs, Festivals, Proverbs, Crafts, Tales of Saints, of Revolutionaries, and More
by John O. West. B&W drawings & photos illustrate. Cover art by Jose Cisneros. Condition: Gently pre-read (to page 31 & abandoned) 1988 August House hardcover (pictorial boards - no DJ), first edition. After page 31, the book is unread. Clean & tight. Content: Reviewer: "The final chapter of this book is subtitled "A Little bit of Everything." That would also make a good subtitle for this entire volume of folklore that reflects Mexican heritage in America. The book has good folktales and legends from Mexican-American culture, but these texts comprise only a small portion of the interesting volume. There are good chapters on Mexican-American folk speech, proverbs, riddles, ballads and folksong, and folk poetry. The book moves beyond many compilations to include good chapters on folk drama, dance, traditional games, foodways, folk art, and vernacular architecture. The presentation of these forms of folklore is interesting, and West also includes good discussions that place the genres and folk expressions within cultural and historical contexts. It's a good source for general readers who wish to learn a bit about Mexican-American culture, and the supplemental materials and extensive bibliography will appeal to those who wish to delve into a more in-depth understanding of the subject." [1 copy available]
$ 12.49 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

THE OLD ONES OF NEW MEXICO
by Robert Coles. Photos by Alex Harris. Condition: UNREAD 1984 Harvest/HBJ softcover revised edition. Two scratches on the front cover near hinge with small edgewear. Interior clean & tight. 40 B&W photos. Content: "These 'old ones,' these wonderfully expressive storytellers, these wonderfully and deeply introspective individuals (who are fulfilling their human destiny by contemplating things, asking themselves about what truly matters, and why), can be of assistance to those studying literature, philosophy, religion. Here, after all, are twentieth century Americans who knew in their bones how to embrace narratives, their very own, and who also knew how to describe the world and take its measure." Both text and photos are treasures. [1 copy available]
$ 14.50 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

PAIN & PROMISE: THE CHICANO TODAY (With Accounts of the Reawakening of a Proud and Oppressed People)
edited by Edward Simmen. Condition: Very good 1972 Mentor paperback, first printing. Pale spine crease & tiny edgewear/interior edges tanned but otherwise clean & tight. Content: Cover's the struggle and political emergence of Chicanos from Cesar Chavez to Reies Tijerina to Jose Angel Guiterrez (the most visible icons) to one of the most prominent political and social minorities in America. [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

PLACES LEFT UNFINISHED AT THE TIME OF CREATION (Signed copy)
by John Phillip Santos. Family Photo cover. Condition: New 1999 Viking (Penguin) Trade Paperback, first thus. Perfect. Signed on flyleaf by author. Content: Mexican American journalist John Phillip Santos's lyrical and loving memoir explores his family's history in magnificent prose touched with the singing cadences of his Spanish-language heritage yet vibrant with the energy of American English. It's a combination utterly suited to his native San Antonio, where las viejitas--the little old ladies of the Garcia and Santos families -- ruled over their children and grandchildren with the toughness and grandeur of the Mexico they left during the revolution of 1914. "Poised between those ancient Indio origins from the south ... and our Mestizo future in the north," these new Texans made Mexico live for their descendants in the magical stories and folkloric practices of an older culture. Yet there was also a sense of secrets kept and cherished possessions left behind, of people who had traveled far and traveled light. This is a book that restores to memory the drama not just of a single family but of an entire people whose past is more closely entwined with that of the United States than some Americans care to remember. [1 copy available]
$ 10.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

READINGS ON LA RAZA: The Twentieth Century
edited by Matt S. Meier & Feliciano Rivera. Condition: UNREAD 1974 Hill & Wang hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. White cover shows some dark "scuff" marks (I can't get those out) with tag removal marks on loose endpage. Interior pages clean & tight. Content: Essays on the plight of Mexican-American/Chicanos in 20th Century Southwest America. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 8.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

THE SHATTERED MIRROR: Representations of Women in Mexican Literature
by Maria Elena de Valdes. Condition: NEW 1998 Univ. of Texas Trade Paperback, no printing given. Content: Popular images of women in Mexico--conveyed through literature and, more recently, film and television--were long restricted to either the stereotypically submissive wife and mother or the demonized fallen woman. But new representations of women and their roles in Mexican society have shattered the ideological mirrors that reflected these images. This book explores this major change in the literary representation of women in Mexico. Maria Elena de Valdes enters into a selective and hard-hitting examination of literary representation in its social context and a contestatory engagement of both the literary text and its place in the social reality of Mexico. Some of the topics she considers are Carlos Fuentes and the subversion of the social codes for women; the poetic ties between Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and Octavio Paz; questions of female identity in the writings of Rosario Castellanos, Luisa Josefina Hernandez, Maria Luisa Puga, and Elena Poniatowska; the Chicana writing of Sandra Cisneros; and the postmodern celebration--without reprobation--of being a woman in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 3.29 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

TWO EAGLES IN THE SUN: Your Questions Answered About Mexican Hispanics In The Border Southwest & Other Hispanics In The United States (Signed Copy)
by Richard C. Campbell, Foreword by Joe Olvera. Gabriel Sanchez cover art. Condition: SIGNED by arthor, but gift inscription bottom of page. NEW 1995 EDITTS...Publishing (Las Cruces) Trade Paperback first edition. Tiny edgewear at corners only flaw. B&W illustrations. Content: Detailed look at Hispanic history, life, language, and traditions in America today. Written in a question-and-answer format, this wide-ranging informational guide addresses everything from "Why is Spanish called 'the Language of the Angels'?"; to "Why is the Virgin of Guadalupe Important to Hispanics?"; to "What are the usual stereotypes about Hispanics?" A first rate information source accessible to readers of all backgrounds with extensive appendix and bibliography. Not the revised edition - it has a shorter title. [1 copy available]
$ 18.50 + $3.39 media shipping.

VOICES FROM THE WILD HORSE DESERT: The Vaquero Families of the King and Kenedy Ranches
by Jane Clements Monday and Betty Bailey Colley. Foreword by Tio Kleberg. Intro by A. CArolina Castillo Crimm. . B&W photos illustrate. Condition: UNREAD 1997 UT Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Problems: Small edgewear and a name on the loose end page. Content: Founded before the Civil War, the King and Kenedy Ranches have become legendary for their size, their wealth, and their endless herds of cattle. A major factor in the longevity of these ranches has always been the loyal workforce of vaqueros (Mexican and Mexican American cowboys) and their families. Some of the vaquero families have worked on the ranches through five or six generations. In this book, Monday and Colley bring together the voices of these men and women who make ranching possible in the Wild Horse Desert. From 1989 to 1995, the authors interviewed more than sixty members of vaquero families, ranging in age from 20 to 93. Their words provide a panoramic view of ranch work and life that spans most of the twentieth century. The vaqueros and their families describe all aspects of life on the ranches, from working cattle and doing many kinds of ranch maintenance to the home chores of raising children, cooking, and cleaning. The elders recall a life of endless manual labor that nonetheless afforded the satisfaction of jobs done with skill and pride. The younger people describe how modernization has affected the ranches and changed the lifeways of the people who work there. [1 copy available]
$ 9.39 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

WINGS OF THE MORNING
by Orestes Lorenzo. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1995 St. Martin's Paperbacks first printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: The most romantic story of the 20th century, IMHO. A moving account of the much-reported story of former Cuban Air Force pilot Lorenzo, who defected to the U.S., then went back to Cuba and rescued his family in an aging Cessna. [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

WITHOUT DOCUMENTS
by Dick J. Reavis. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1978 Condor paperback, first printing. Tiny edge wear with moderate tanning to page edges. Content: This book tells the story of illegal aliens and the inter-governmental wars which affect Mexican citizens coming across our borders for work. This is an older book and some of the information is dated, of course, but the history is valid and is a great resource for researchers and historians. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 2.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping.