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Acclaimed New Mexico author Rudolfo Anaya presents a northern New Mexico Christmas tale in this third volume from his Owl in a Straw Hat series featuring the loveable Ollie Tecolote and his Wisdom School classmates Uno the Unicorn, Jackie Jackalope, Bessie Beaver, Sally Skunk, Robbie Rabbit, and Ninja Raccoon. The story begins on Christmas Eve morning in Chimayó and the students play in the snow and decorate a Christmas tree for the classroom. They are looking forward to the evening’s activities. Nana, their teacher, is making posole and chile colorado and has invited some special guests to join them for dinner. After that Nana says they’ll walk to El Santuario to visit the Santo Niño and promises hot chocolate and biscochitos afterward! Along the way, they will act the parts of the shepherds in Los pastores, the Shepherds’ Play, which is about shepherds visiting the newborn baby Jesus and bringing him gifts. At the end of their journey, they too will visit the Nativity and bring their own gifts on this magical night.

"This anthology explores plenty of themes, including community, culture, family, history, and identity…. [it] even features poems in Spanish, encompassing themes such as their city and the experiences of asylum seekers. 'Querido Nuevo México, // Te pregunto, pa’ ‘onde vas? (Dear New Mexico // I ask you, where are you going?)' writes Carmella Scorcia Pacheco, who wonders about the past, present, and the future of New Mexico."—Book Riot

“Poetry of Place: A selection of poems from the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023 defines the essence of the Land of Enchantment.” —New Mexico Magazine

“Many of the selections are published bilingually in Spanish-English translation and other languages including indigenous tongues and Yiddish are to be found in these pages. It’s all here: Farolitos. Sephardic Jewish rituals. Family traditions. Grief. Recovery. Resilience. Adobes. Santa Fe. Albuquerque. Taos. Los Lunas. Espanola. Mesilla. Cities, villages, ranches, farms. The homeless. Asylum-seekers. Outlaws. Dancers. Matanzas. Basketball. Mountains. Llanos. Guns. Syringes. Rattlesnakes. Scorpions. Roadrunners. Sandhill cranes. Coyotes. Cattle. Horses. Babies. Abuelitos. Ghosts. Elders. Gringas. Sunsets …. This grand book could come from nowhere else BUT New Mexico, and, arguably only from the present time, the third decade of this 21st century Southwestern/Norteño soul. It’s that special.”— Bill Nevins, Enchanted Circle

“The poems…can be enjoyed in brief, bite-sized readings or in longer sittings. Read them silently or aloud.”— David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal
 

Focusing on the two major areas of the Southwest that witnessed the most intensive and sustained colonial encounters, New Mexico and the Pimería Alta compares how different forms of colonialism and indigenous political economies resulted in diverse outcomes for colonists and Native peoples. Taking a holistic approach and studying both colonist and indigenous perspectives through archaeological, ethnohistoric, historic, and landscape data, contributors examine how the processes of colonialism played out in the American Southwest.

Although these broad areas—New Mexico and southern Arizona/northern Sonora—share a similar early colonial history, the particular combination of players, sociohistorical trajectories, and social relations within each area led to, and were transformed by, markedly diverse colonial encounters. Understanding these different mixes of players, history, and social relations provides the foundation for conceptualizing the enormous changes wrought by colonialism throughout the region. The presentations of different cultural trajectories also offer important avenues for future thought and discussion on the strategies for missionization and colonialism.

The case studies tackle how cultures evolved in the light of radical transformations in cultural traits or traditions and how different groups reconciled to this change. A much needed up-to-date examination of the colonial era in the Southwest, New Mexico and the Pimería Alta demonstrates the intertwined relationships between cultural continuity and transformation during a time of immense change and highlights contemporary thought on the colonial experience.

Contributors: Joseph Aguilar, Jimmy Arterberry, Heather Atherton, Dale Brenneman, J. Andrew Darling, John G. Douglass, B. Sunday Eiselt, Severin Fowles, William M. Graves, Lauren Jelinek, Kelly L. Jenks, Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, Phillip O. Leckman, Matthew Liebmann, Kent G. Lightfoot, Lindsay Montgomery, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Robert Preucel, Matthew Schmader, Thomas E. Sheridan, Colleen Strawhacker, J. Homer Thiel, David Hurst Thomas, Laurie D. Webster

Much knowledge and understanding can be generated from the experiences of everyday life. In this engaging study, Alvin O. Korte examines how this concept applies to Spanish-speaking peoples adapted to a particular locale, specifically the Hispanos and Hispanas of northern New Mexico. Drawing on social philosopher Alfred Schutz’s theory of typification, Korte looks at how meaning and identity are crafted by quotidian activities. Incorporating phenomenological and ethnomethodological strategies, the author investigates several aspects of local Hispano culture, including the oral tradition, leave-taking, death and remembrances of the dead, spirituality, and the circle of life. Although avoiding a social-problems approach, the book devotes necessary attention to mortificación (the death of the self), desmadre (chaos and disorder), and mancornando (cuckoldry). Nosotros is a vivid and insightful exploration with applications in numerous fields.