Philip Connors, the editor of the “New West Reader,” and a fire lookout in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico, recommends some reading. He begins:
New Mexico is a world of almost blinding clarity and color. The vistas are vast. The hot peppers are eye-watering when fresh and bright blood-red if left to dry. Summer sunsets nearly make you want to weep. A person could write a good guide to New Mexico merely by compiling a list of Hatch green chile recipes and cataloging the state’s fire lookouts — one of which I’m lucky enough to occupy, and where on a clear day I can see a dozen mountain ranges, some in Mexico and Arizona. Yet it’s the spooky human history pulsing just beneath the surface that makes New Mexico such a fascinating place; any real reckoning with the literature of the state has to involve a reckoning with genocide and apocalypse. It would also, ideally, be undertaken by a bilingual reader. Long before English dominated the written stories of the region, Spanish reigned supreme. Indeed, the original masterpiece of American writing appeared before America even existed. It was composed as a report for the king of Spain by a remarkable explorer with a wonderful name, Cabeza de Vaca, or “head of a cow.”
Connors choices:
The Narrative of Cabeza De Vaca by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Last Cheater’s Waltz by Ellen Meloy
Songs of the Fluteplayer by Sherman Apt Russell
Any suggestions from NewMexiKen’s readers?