Nasario García

It takes all kinds to populate Northern New Mexico, and this book has every one: from gypsies and gamblers to ranchers and criminals. Noted author Nasario García introduces us to some of these people and the challenges they face. The title character, Adelfa, flirts with the glamour of casinos and finds herself addicted to gambling. Sam "Spam" Austin, an inmate serving a long sentence for murder, is paroled, attends medical school, and becomes a doctor....

Nasario García grew up in Ojo del Padre, a village in the Río Puerco Valley northwest of Albuquerque, the way rural New Mexicans had for generations. His parents built their own adobe house, raised their own food, hauled their water, and brought up their children to respect the old ways. When he was young, García's mother taught him to mend his clothes and enlisted his aid in slaughtering chickens. Here he offers detailed accounts of these and...

On his grandfather's ranch in New Mexico's Río Puerco Valley, eight-year-old Junie's family celebrates matanza, the annual ritual of hog butchering. Includes pork recipes.

Bernalillo: Yesterday's Sunshine, Today's Shadows is a compendium of oral stories from fifteen Hispanic old-timers from Bernalillo, New Mexico, that takes the reader back fifty-plus years to their beloved town with a colorful and long-standing history. They speak both proudly and sadly of their language and culture. Language, in spite of everything, cannot exist without culture or vice versa. Two primary goals were considered in putting this book...