"In To the End of the Earth, Hordes explores the remarkable story of crypto-Jews and the tenuous preservation of Jewish rituals and traditions in Mexico and New Mexico over the past five hundred years. He follows the crypto-Jews from their Jewish origins in medieval Spain and Portugal to their efforts to escape inquisitorial persecution by migrating to the New World and settling in the far reaches of the northern Mexican frontier." "Drawing on individual...

Describes the summer the mother ditch went dry, a time of crisis for the Romero family, who grow fruits and vegetables by irrigation in the dry Cerrito region of New Mexico.