Blue Clay People

William Powers

In this elegantly written memoir, a young man recounts his life-changing sojourn in a world of immeasurable poverty and instability: Liberia under President Charles Taylor's rule.

William Powers went to Liberia as a fresh-faced aid worker in 1999 and was given the mandate to “fight poverty and save the rainforest.” While flying over the country’s Sapo National Park, he gets his first taste of Liberia’s stunning, gem-like rainforests—“a block of peacock, kelly, and olive green stretching out to the horizon”—and finds himself filled with purpose and hope.

But it’s not long before Powers learns that years of fighting and famine have left Liberia poor, environmentally looted, scarred by violence, and barely governed, with Taylor himself supporting the massive logging efforts that seek to turn Liberia into a virtual desert. During his mission, Powers comes face-to-face with unspeakable horrors, vast ecological destruction, and the insidious corruption behind every transaction.

With the pacing and prose of the best novels, Blue Clay People is an absorbing blend of humor, compassion, and rigorous moral questioning. It proves that the fate of endangered places such as Liberia must matter to all of us.

Corridors of Migration

Rodolfo F. Acuña

In the San Joaquin Valley cotton strike of 1933, frenzied cotton farmers murdered three strikers, intentionally starved at least nine infants, wounded dozens, and arrested more. While the story of this incident has been recounted from the perspective of both the farmers and, more recently, the Mexican workers, this is the first book to trace the origins of the Mexican workers’ activism through their common experience of migrating to the United States.

Rodolfo F. Acuña explores the history of Mexican workers and their families from seventeenth-century Chihuahua to twentieth-century California, following their patterns of migration and describing the establishment of their communities in mining and agricultural regions. He shows the combined influences of racism, transborder dynamics, and events such as the Mexican Revolution and World War I in shaping the collective experience of these people as they helped to form the economic, political, and social landscapes of the American Southwest in their interactions with wealthy landowners. Acuña follows the steps of one of the murdered strikers, Pedro Subia, reconstructing the times and places in which he lived.

By balancing the social and geographic trends in the Chicano population with the story of individual protest participants, Acuña shows how the strikes were in fact driven by human choices rather than the Communist ideologies to which they have been traced since the 1930s. Corridors of Migration thus uncovers the origins of twentieth-century Mexican American labor activism from its earliest roots through its first major manifestation in the San Joaquin Valley cotton strike.

From one of the founding scholars of Chicano studies comes the culmination of three decades of dedicated research into the origins of the migrations and the labor activism that have helped to shape the economics and politics of the United States into the twenty-first century.

Crónicas chúntaras. La música de la plebada, sobre música regional mexicana, sale el 16 de septiembre.  Son reportajes y entrevistas con Los Tigres del Norte, Lupillo Rivera, Banda El Recodo.

With its release on the 16th of September, this new book focuses on regional music of Mexico. It consists of news reports and interviews with groups such as Los Tigres del Norte, Lupillo Rivera, and Banda El Recodo.

Dancing with Butterflies

Reyna Grande

From Reyna Grande, the American Book Award-winning author of Across a Hundred Mountains, comes a new novel about the friendship of four women bound together by their Mexican roots and their love of Folklórico dance.

Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women in a Los Angeles dance company called Alegría to weave a story of friendship and love. Yesenia, who founded Alegría, finds herself unable to dance and seeks a miracle from a plastic surgeon in Tijuana. Elena, grief stricken by the death of her child and the end of her marriage, falls dangerously in love with one of her under-age students. Elena’s sister Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegría, must make the dangerous journey north after she returns to Mexico to see her dying grandmother.

Reyna Grande has succeeded in bringing the world of Folklórico dance to life, with characters whose stories are so gripping, the reader cannot help but cry along with their travails and cheer their triumphs. Ajúa!!

Fire, Chaparral, and Survival in Southern California

by Richard W. Halsey

Updated and revised second printing of the best- selling book on the basics of chaparral natural history, how wildfires are fought, what we have learned from them, and why it is important to reconnect with one's natural surroundings. Includes details about the October 2007 fires and an updated color photo identification section with 64 of the most common chaparral plants and animals.

Follow the Sun

by Gordon and Janet Gastil

This epic tale of exploration and discovery tells the story of Follow the Sun, a young man talented in language and science, whose patron is the Pharaoh, Rameses II, and of his journey around the earth-by boat, horse, and on foot beginning in 1278 BCE. His interactions with native peoples from Cuba to China make this an ideal work of historical fiction for young adults.

Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert

Edited by George Jefferson & Lowell Lindsay

The Anza-Borrego Desert region boasts the longest continuous fossil record in North America with fossils of such unique animals as giant camels, sloths, mammoths, and a sabertooth cat. This book, a Discovery Channel Book Club Selection, was written by 23 experts in paleontology, zoology, and geology, and includes hundreds of color illustrations, plus maps, glossary, and index.

Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment

Ella deCastro Baron

Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment is an ironic Curriculum Vitae where life and work experiences one wouldn’t want a potential employer to know are highlighted using vulnerability, wit, observation and candor. Ella deCastro Baron—a first generation, Asian American woman challenged by her Filipino culture, parents’ faith, inherited sickness, and questionable life choices—shares beginning and ending relationships, restlessness, miracles, prejudice, entitlement, and community.

Lavandería: A Mixed Load of Women, Wash and Word

Edited by D. J. Watson, with co-editors Michelle Sierra and Lucia Gbaya-Kanga, published by City Works Press (2009).

Lavandería is an anthology of written/spoken word and photography. It highlights the universal ritual and common interaction of people, places, and things found between loads of laundry. Celebrating the task often deemed “women’s work,” this unique collection of voices honors the unsung history of washer women, touching on everything from labor strikes and scrub boards to present day love affairs rinsed away in the automatic double loader. Lavandería provides a unique look into an otherwise ordinary chore by giving it voice and visual representation and serves as a reminder that incredible strength and spirit can reside in the most routine spaces.

Lilac Mines

Cheryl Klein

One part queer epic, one part ghost story, Lilac Mines interweaves the lives of two young women struggling to define their identities in a small California town: would-be hipster Felix, and her aunt, Anna Lisa, who comes of age in the butch-femme bar scene of the 1960s. Writer Nina Revoyr described Lilac Mines as “a novel of great tenderness, humor and wisdom.”

My Ancestors' Village

by Roberta Labastida

Written and illustrated by a grade-school teacher, this charming story is told from the point of view of a young Kumeyaay Indian girl who describes the traditional way her family lives. Drawings of Dove are based on the likeness of Danika Cuero of Campo Reservation. An entertaining way for young readers to learn more about San Diego County's early Indian inhabitants.

Occupied America

Rodolfo F. Acuña

Authored by Rodolfo F. Acuña, one of the most influential and highly-regarded scholars of Chicano history and Ethnic Studies, Occupied America is the leading textbook for Chicano history courses. Beginning with the Mesoamerican civilizations before the 1519 Spanish invitation, continuing through Mexico’s conquests as a developing nation, and ending with an examination of issues of immigration, labor, education, and equality during the last 100 years, this text serves as an ideal foundation for understanding and analyzing Chicano history. This extensively researched and passionately written text not only covers the major developments and incidents in Mexican history, but also explores the complicating factors of race, gender and class in forming Chicano identity.

Orange County

Gustavo Arellano

Nationally bestselling author and syndicated columnist, Gustavo Arellano delivers the hilarious and poignant follow-up to ¡Ask a Mexican!, his critically acclaimed debut. Orange County not only weaves Gustavo's family story with the history of Orange County and the modern Mexican immigrant experience but also offers sharp insights into a wide range of political, cultural, and social issues.

Psst...I Have Something To Tell You, Mi Amor

Ana Castillo

Comprised of both a one-act and a two-act play, Psst...I Have Something To Tell You, Mi Amor is a powerful dramatic pairing centers on Sister Dianna Ortiz, who was kidnapped, raped, and tortured by U.S.-sponsored Guatemalan security forces in 1989.

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen

Marilyn Chin

An uproarious debut that lays bare the complicated generational relationships of Chinese American women. Raucous twin sisters Moonie and Mei Ling Wong are known as the “double happiness” Chinese food delivery girls. Each day they load up a “crappy donkey-van” and deliver Americanized (“bad”) Chinese food to homes throughout their southern California neighborhood. United in their desire to blossom into somebodies, the Wong girls fearlessly assert their intellect and sexuality, even as they come of age under the care of their dominating, cleaver-wielding grandmother from Hong Kong. They transform themselves from food delivery girls into accomplished women, but along the way they wrestle with the influence and continuity of their Chinese heritage.

Santa Claus and the Molokai Mules: A Hawaiian Island Surfing Adventure

by Jeffrey Garcia

This critically acclaimed, beautifully illustrated read-aloud book tells the story of Kala, a young surfer boy living on the Hawaiian island, Molokai.

When a storm threatens to ruin Christmas for Hawaii, Kala--with the help of his friend, an adorable mule--saves the day. Rich in family relationships and

Hawaiian culture, this is the perfect gift for children of any age!

The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism

Barry Sanders

Who's the biggest polluter in the world? The US Military! Pulitzer-prize nominated author Barry Sanders discusses the devastating environmental impact of America's warring ways. All our recycling won't do a thing if the military doesn't stop destroying the planet first!

The Guardians

Ana Castillo

The Guardians is the story of Regina, a fiercely independent widow living in a New Mexican border town. She is working as a school aide, raising her teenaged nephew Gabriel, who is in the U.S. illegally, and waiting anxiously for the return of her brother Rafa, who disappeared somewhere along the U.S./Mexico border. As days pass with no sign of Rafa, Regina and Gabriel resolve to find him and save him if he is still alive. Filled with vivid characters and her trademark warmth and humor, Ana Castillo's novel expertly and engagingly explores themes of immigration and border issues, family bonds, faith, cultural pride, and love after 50.

The Sons of Guadalupe

Michael R. Ornelas

The Sons of Guadalupe documents the experiences, through oral interviews, of the Vietnam War generation from Guadalupe, California. Over 229 Vietnam era veterans, including 57 sets of brothers, served in the military from a town of around 2,500 residents, a figure that is over 250% above the national average. Their stories of growing up in a small-town agricultural area, attending a school that was embroiled in a national scandal, and their experiences during and after the Vietnam War are told using the tools of history and their own voices, producing riveting stories of tragedy and triumph by the town's mostly Latino residents.

Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance

Laurel Corona

The recipient of the 2009 Christopher Award, Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance documents the secret role of Leizer and Zenia Bart in the Avengers Jewish resistance movement, tracing their marriage ninety days before the liquidation of their ghetto home in Vilna, their dramatic escape with fellow members of the underground, and their relationship with Zionist leader Abba Kovner. Until Our Last Breath explores the many ways Jews fought back, focusing in particular on the armed resistance movement known as the Vilna Partisans. Holocaust scholars and book reviewers have acclaimed Corona’s writing, one calling Until Our Last Breath “carefully nuanced and beautifully written, and another, “a narrative of great but controlled power.” The Christopher Award is given for books and productions in other media that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.”