Southwest Books of the Year
Richard D. Quartaroli's Picks
Richard Quartaroli is Special Collections Librarian at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and a Colorado River runner par excellence.
Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants
edited by Nicholas J. Cull and David Carrasco. University of New Mexico Press.
Driving through the Tohono O'odham Reservation to a Southwest Books of the Year meeting, I hadn't seen that many La Pinche Migra since I drove through El Paso. A perfect juxtaposition, I was reading The Devil's Highway: A True Story ("In the desert, we are all illegal aliens") and Hard Line: Life and Death on the U.S.-Mexico Border; either could have been picks. "Alambrista", an award-winning 1977 film, debuted at a time when now it appears that being a wetback then was a safe way to enter the U.S. On DVD, this new "director's cut," the way Robert M. Young would today like the film to be seen, has enhanced value as a teaching tool with an accompanying collection of essays, providing context and film analysis. Eleven chapters in two parts, "Footsteps" and "Sights and Sounds," each contains discussion questions. Assisting researchers, I have found that the richest resources are those contained in multiple formats such as this, allowing for different learning styles and teaching methods. A new musical score on CD by "Dr. Loco and Sus Tiburones del Norte" both complements and stands on its own, whether riding to a meeting or writing a book review.
Bailing Wire & Gamuza: The True Story of a Family Ranch Near Ramah, New Mexico, 1905-1986
by Barbara Vogt Mallery. New Mexico Magazine.
The first thing you notice about Bailing Wire & Gamuza is its look, then its feel. The faux scrapbook/album with embossed cover, including string leather binding, photo corners, and transparent tape, could have come across as hokey, but in fact works very well in the charm and attractiveness of this family memoir. Evan Z. Vogt came to New Mexico in 1906 because of tuberculosis. Written by his daughter Barbara Vogt Mallery from Vogt's voluminous records of his life, she says that "[h]e was a dreamer and a schemer who believed in the impossible, [her] mother [Shirley] had the calm determination to make the best of it." A sheeprancher and custodian of El Morro National Monument, he hosted and accompanied well-known artists, anthropologists, and authors of the era, such as Clyde Kluckhohn. For 14 years Mallery turned "the pages of [her] mind," using her father's copious files, including one marked "For the Book I Plan to Write." I, for one, am delighted that "they" collaborated on this wonderful reminiscence.
The Books of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, the Green River & the Colorado Plateau, 1953-2003, A Selective Bibliography
by Mike S. Ford. Fretwater Press.
John Wesley Powell: An Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes in American History)
by Marcia L. Thomas. Praeger Publishers.
In my position as Special Collections Librarian, bibliographies such as these by Ford and Thomas are indispensable; they also are for readers of this genre and for book collectors. Ford's is an update of the last 50 years since Francis P. Farquhars similar volume, an admirable feat that some have only suggested especially since the explosion of publications in that time period. Thomas' work includes archival citations pertaining to John Wesley Powell, resources that rarely are contained within such compilations. Both go beyond mere lists, containing appropriate annotations. My admiration to Mike and Marcia for outstanding accomplishments: they make my work so much easier and certainly more interesting.
¡Caramba!: A Tale Told in Turns of the Card
by Nina Marie Martinez. Knopf.
"All of the sudden," this riotous novel takes off. Lucha becomes fatherless at the age of nine when "the machine that places the small but sturdy staple at the end of the chorizo went wild, pumping Lucio, head of quality control in the chorizo department at The Sausage Factory, full of the metal stapling devices. . . . "Small constellation that is," said Conseulo. Consuelo spoke English and Spanish, but neither to perfection. . . . "Besides, all that typin might lead to carpal trouble.'" Thelma and Louise on the border, with a lot of Lucy and Ethel thrown in. Be prepared to laugh out loud.
Cataract Canyon: A Human and Environmental History of the Rivers in Canyonlands
by Robert H. Webb, Jayne Belnap, John S. Weisheit. University of Utah Press.
Geologist Bob Webb continues his seminal work in environmental rephotography, traveling upstream from Grand Canyon. He is joined by naturalist and "biological soil crusts" expert Jayne Belnap, and river guide and historian John Weisheit, to further contribute to our understanding of the landscape changes of the greater Colorado Plateau. As primary access to Cataract Canyon has always been by boat, river-running history is at the forefront, which is exactly where I like it. The last chapter, subtitled "Common Threads among the Canyons of the Colorado River," compare and contrast Cataract to the Grand Canyon and San Juan River below, with Desolation and Gray Canyons above, but is all too short. As Webb and cohorts head upstream, their work will no doubt include an overarching "common threads" for the entire Colorado River system.
Changing River: Time, Culture, and the Transformation of Landscape in the Grand Canyon: A Regional Research Design for the Study of Cultural Resources Along the Colorado River in Lower Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, Technical Series 79
by Helen C. Fairley. Statistical Research Inc.
Fairley's research design for prioritizing cultural resources below Glen Canyon Dam attempts to resolve differences between and within federal managing agencies and Native American tribal views by using a landscape-anthropology framework, replacing a natural/cultural dichotomy with a mutually reinforcing and interacting perspective of natural and cultural processes. Although this sounds like a daunting read, and parts of it are (the summary portion of Ch. 6, delineating data needs and outlining questions), I found the writing to be very approachable and enjoyed the historical and cultural portions. Chapter 5, "Traditional Native American Perspectives on the Grand Canyon," is particularly welcome. A book to read while floating the Colorado River, which I did.
Clouds for Dessert: Sweet Treats from the Wild West
by Susan Lowell, photographs by Robin Stancliff. Rio Nuevo Publishers.
There are some exceptional, and recommended, cookbooks: Tex-Mex Cookbook, Crazy for Chipotle, and Southwest Slow Cooking. To satisfy my craving, and expanding waistline, for pastries and cookies, Lowell's Clouds for Dessert is my culinary pick. And the very first recipe is for one of my favorites, ginger cookies, this time in the shape of javelinas. The title recipe, "Clouds in the Sky," is a variation of the old-fashioned "Floating Island." Some recipes can be accomplished on camping or river trips, using campfire and dutch oven techniques, always a hit. A first impression for this compilation of treats, including many family stories and recipes, is one of fun. If you doubt me, just look at the picture on page 31 of the author's little cousin Amelia, building and sampling a gingerbread adobe.
Computation and Analysis of the Instantaneous-Discharge Record for the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona--May 8, 1921, through September 30, 2000
U.S. Geological Survey
One year prior to the negotiation of the Colorado River Compact, which divided the Colorado River drainage and the waters thereon into the Upper and Lower Basins, the U.S. Geological Survey established a gaging station in the Lees Ferry area, with at least eight gages having been used. As the Compact is part of "The Law of the River," the importance of this gage cannot be underestimated. Because of the location of the gages in an open part of the canyon near a tributary floodplain, the stage discharge relationship results in a flattening of the water-surface profile at higher water volumes, thus giving incorrect flow data, which this report seeks to correct. It contains many historical photos, complete gage history and timeline, and is invaluable for anyone with an interest in the geographic area and water politics.
Also available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1677/
Indian Country: Travels in the American Southwest, 1840-1935
by Martin Padget. University of New Mexico Press.
Indian Country includes Hispanos, but the title is heavily influenced by the automobile travel club's map of the same name. It also includes Anglos, who definitely had their influence on the area and the peoples, and defined worldwide perceptions. Padget's coverage of explorers and territorial expansion, travelers and writers, and sellers of art and cultural tourism is well-thought and -delineated, but some chapters lack the depth of others. His "John Wesley Powell's Mapping of the Colorado Plateau Region" disappointed me as I feel it did not offer much new material. However, Padget excelled when writing about Charles Fletcher Lummis, the artists and photographers in "Indian Detours," and especially Elbridge Ayer Burbank. Particularly helpful in my research, I will be rereading Indian Country in the very near future.
Sandstone Seduction: Rivers and Lovers, Canyons and Friends
by Katie Lee. Johnson Books.
Subtle, she's not. Outspoken? You bet. And passion rules her life. Katie Lee recently "performed" readings from her latest book for the Canyon Country Community Lecture Series and the Grand Canyon Semester undergrads, who immediately invited her on their Colorado River trip. Growling border Mex, singing and playing guitar, cowboy yodels, trilling carcajadas, provoking laughter, and some damp eyes. She had them in her pocket. And her in their hearts. Sandstone Seduction is in roughly two portions, the first being about her life almost "pre-canyon country." By far the most outstanding part is after she becomes influenced and captivated, or captured, by Glen Canyon. The natural world, she admits, is her lover and friend, and she is best at her lyrical impressions of those travels and travails amongst the sandstone.