Over the last decade the West has undergone a political and demographic upheaval comparable only to the opening of the frontier. Now, in "Desert America," a work of powerful reportage and memoir, Rubén Martínez, acclaimed author of "Crossing Over," evokes a new world of extremes: outrageous wealth and devastating poverty, sublime beauty and ecological ruin.

"A complex yet affirming memoir about growing up in northern New Mexico, in a family doubly removed from the community; as Hispanic Protestants, they were a minority among the region's politically dominant Anglo Protestants and a minority within the overwhelmingly Catholic Hispanic populace. Includes photographs by Miguel Gandert"--Provided by publisher.

"Using territory that is now New Mexico as a case study, Manifest Destinies traces the origins of Mexican Americans as a racial group in the United States, paying particular attention to shifting meanings of race and law in the nineteenth century. In this work, Laura E. Gomez explores the central paradox of Mexican American racial status as entailing the law's designation of Mexican Americans as "white" and their simultaneous social position as non-white...

In 2006 Congress established the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area to recognize the four-hundred-year "coexistence" of Spanish and Indian peoples in New Mexico and their place in the United States. Recognizing Heritage explores the social, political, and historical context of this and other public efforts to interpret and preserve Native American and Hispanic heritage in northern New Mexico.