""The world is full of sorrow,"" Agapita whispered to Alfonso. Did she stamp those words into his destiny? The story of Alfonso, a Nuevo Mexicano, begins with his birth, when the curandera Agapita delivers these haunting words into his infant ear. What then unfolds is an elegiac song to the llanos of New Mexico where Alfonso comes of age. As this exquisite novel charts Alfonso's life journey from childhood through his education and evolution as a writer, renowned Chicano author Rudolfo Anaya invites readers to reflect on the truths and mysteries of the human condition. Because Alfonso ""didn't write his own biography,"" it falls to his childhood friend, the anonymous narrator here, to tell his story, through a series of letters addressed to a mysterious figure named K. The narrator depicts young Alfonso caught between dual influences: his beloved, devout Catholic mother, Rafaelita, and the folk healer Agapita. After suffering a terrible accident that leaves him physically handicapped, Alfonso faces intellectual crises during his university years, all of which move him down the path of his destiny. In describing these events, the ""old man"" writing the letters interweaves Alfonso's experiences with fragments of his own life and of the New Mexican llano that both men have called home. The trajectory of Alfonso's life in turn mirrors the history of New Mexico and the turbulent beginnings of the Chicano movement in which the young protagonist plays a trailblazing role. As story builds upon story, the commonality of traits among the narrator, his subject, and perhaps Anaya himself appears more than coincidental. Permeated by Anaya's trademark religious and mythological imagery, The Sorrows of Young Alfonso is a luminous meditation on memory, reality, and the human experience.

New Mexico cultural envoy Juan Estevan Arellano, to whom this work is dedicated, writes that querencia "is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect it as our home." This sentiment is echoed in the foreword by Rudolfo Anaya, in which he writes that "querencia is love of home, love of place." This collection of both deeply personal reflections and carefully researched studies explores the New Mexico homeland through the experiences and perspectives of Chicanx and indigenous/Genizaro writers and scholars from across the state. The importance of querencia for each contributor is apparent in their work and their ongoing studies, which have roots in the culture, history, literature, and popular media of New Mexico. Be inspired and enlightened by these essays and discover the history and belonging that is querencia.

"There was an old man who dwelt in the land of New Mexico, and he lost his wife." From that opening line, this tender novella is at once universal and deeply personal. The nameless narrator, a writer, shares his most intimate thoughts about his wife, their life together, and her death. But just as death is inseparable from life, his wife seems still to be with him. Her memory and words permeate his days. In "The Old Man's Love Story," master storyteller Rudolfo Anaya crafts the tale of a lifelong love that ultimately transcends death.

An elegy not just for the dead but for the vitality of youth, the old man's story captures both the heartaches and ironies of old age. We follow him as he proceeds through days of grief and memory, buying his few groceries, driving slower than the other travelers on the road. He talks with his wife along the way. "Go slow," he hears her admonish. As he sits in the garden with their dogs, he senses her worry over his loneliness. A year passes. He longs to care for someone, but--to love again?

Like characters in Anaya's previous fiction, the old man lives in a real New Mexico, but one inhabited by spirits. Death provides a gateway to other worlds, just as memories connect him to other times and places. When he eventually begins a new friendship with a woman, a widow, they share a bittersweet understanding of joy mixed with sorrow, promise mixed with loss.

Anaya's reflections, as shared through the experiences of this old man, point to the power and importance of love at every stage of life. Lyrical and earthy, sad yet suffused with humor, " The Old Man's Love Story" will speak to all readers, perhaps especially to those who have suffered a recent loss.

"[Rudolfo Anaya] continues to shine brightest with his trademark alchemy: blending Spanish, Mexican and Indian cultures to evoke the distinctively fecund spiritual terrain of his part of the Southwest. Here Sonny Baca, a 30-year-old fledgling PI, investigates the murder of his . . . cousin [Gloria] who many years before had introduced him to love. Gloria's husband is worried most about the effect of the gruesome death (Gloria's body is found drained of blood, with a zia sun sign carved on her stomach) on his mayoral campaign in Albuquerque. Sonny believes Gloria's spirit calls to him for vengeance and pursues the case throughout New Mexico's South Valley, from the cocktail-party circuit of the arts community and the company of monied business developers to an assemblage of witches in an environmentalist commune in the mountains. . . ."--"Publisher's Weekly"

." . . a compelling thriller. . . . Though satisfying purely as a mystery, the novel sacrifices none of Anaya's trademark spirituality--a connectedness to the earth and a deep-seated respect for the traditions of a people and a culture. . . . Read this multidimensional novel for its rich language and full-bodied characters. Anaya is one of our greatest storytellers, and "Zia Summer" is "muy caliente!""--"Booklist"

Readers of Rudolfo Anaya's fiction know the lyricism of his prose, but most do not know him as a poet. In this, his first collection of poetry, Anaya presents twenty-eight of his best poems, most of which have never before been published. Featuring works written in English and Spanish over the course of three decades, Poems from the Rio Grande offers readers a full body of work showcasing Anaya's literary and poetic imagination. Although the poems gathered here take a variety of forms - haiku, elegy, epic - all are imbued with the same lyrical and satirical styles that underlie Anaya's fiction. Together they make a fascinating complement to the novels, stories, and plays for which he is well known. In verse, Anaya explores every aspect of Chicano identity, beginning with memories of his childhood in a small New Mexico village and ending with mature reflections on being a Chicano who considers himself connected to all peoples. The collection articulates the themes at the heart of all Anaya's work: nostalgia for the landscape and customs of his boyhood in rural New Mexico, a deep connection to the Rio Grande, the politics of Chicanismo and satire aimed at it, and the use of myth and history as metaphor. Anaya also illustrates his familiarity with world traditions of poetry, invoking Walt Whitman, Homer, and the Bible. The poem to Isis that concludes the collection honors Anaya's wife, Patricia, and reflects his increasing identification with spiritual traditions across the globe. Both profeta and vato, seer and homeboy, Anaya as author is a citizen of the world. Poems from the Rio Grande offers readers a glimpse into his development as a poet and as one of the most celebrated Chicano authors of our time.

"The storyteller's gift is my inheritance," writes Rudolfo Anaya in his essay "Shaman of Words." Although he is best known for Bless Me, Ultima and other novels, his writing also takes the form of nonfiction, and in these 52 essays he draws on both his heritage as a Mexican American and his gift for storytelling. Besides tackling issues such as censorship, racism, education, and sexual politics, Anaya explores the tragedies and triumphs of his own life.Collected here are Anaya's published essays. Despite his wide acclaim as the founder of Chicano literature, no previous volume has attempted to gather Anaya's nonfiction into one edition. A companion to The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories, the collection of Anaya's short stories, The Essays is an essential anthology for followers of Anaya and those interested in Chicano literature. Pieces such as "Requiem for a Lowrider," "La Llorona, El KookoOee, and Sexuality," and "An American Chicano in King Arthur's Court" take the reader from the llano of eastern New Mexico, where Anaya grew up, to the barrios of Albuquerque, and from the devastating diving accident that nearly ended his life at sixteen to the career he has made as an author and teacher. The point is not autobiography, although a life story is told, nor is it advocacy, although Anaya argues persuasively for cultural change. Instead, the author provides shrewd commentary on modern America in all its complexity. All the while, he employs the elegant, poetic voice and the interweaving of myth and folklore that inspire his fiction. "Stories reveal our human nature and thus become powerful tools for insight and revelation," writes Anaya. This collection of prose offers abundant new insight and revelation.

"The world is full of sorrow," Agapita whispered to Alfonso. Did she stamp those words into his destiny? The story of Alfonso, a Nuevo Mexicano, begins with his birth, when the curandera Agapita delivers these haunting words into his infant ear. What then unfolds is an elegiac song to the llanos of New Mexico where Alfonso comes of age. As this exquisite novel charts Alfonso's life journey from childhood through his education and evolution as a writer, renowned Chicano author Rudolfo Anaya invites readers to reflect on the truths and mysteries of the human condition. Because Alfonso "didn't write his own biography," it falls to his childhood friend, the anonymous narrator here, to tell his story, through a series of letters addressed to a mysterious figure named K. The narrator depicts young Alfonso caught between dual influences: his beloved, devout Catholic mother, Rafaelita, and the folk healer Agapita. After suffering a terrible accident that leaves him physically handicapped, Alfonso faces intellectual crises during his university years, all of which move him down the path of his destiny. In describing these events, the "old man" writing the letters interweaves Alfonso's experiences with fragments of his own life and of the New Mexican llano that both men have called home. The trajectory of Alfonso's life in turn mirrors the history of New Mexico and the turbulent beginnings of the Chicano movement in which the young protagonist plays a trailblazing role. As story builds upon story, the commonality of traits among the narrator, his subject, and perhaps Anaya himself appears more than coincidental. Permeated by Anaya's trademark religious and mythological imagery, The Sorrows of Young Alfonso is a luminous meditation on memory, reality, and the human experience.

I am continually thinking stories," writes Rudolfo Anaya. "Even when I am working on a novel, the images for stories keep coming."Considered by many to be the founder of modern Chicano literature, Rudolfo Anaya, best known for Bless Me, Ultima and other novels, has also authored a number of remarkable short stories. Now for the first time, these stories, representing thirty years of Anaya's writing, have been collected into a single volume. They constitute the best and most essential collection of Anaya's short story work. Unlike his novels, which range broadly over the American tapestry, Anaya's short stories focus on character and ethical questions in a regional setting - from the harsh deserts of the American Southwest and northern Mexico to the lush tropical forests of Uxmal in the YucatAn. These tales demonstrate Anaya's singular attitude toward fiction: that stories create myths to live and love by. "In the end the story has to speak for itself," Anaya writes. "Its purpose can be studied, but never fully known." With The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories, the reader ventures deeply into the world of Rudolfo Anaya, a world of magic, mystery, harsh realities, and redemption.

When he was a young man, Randy Lopez left his village in northern New Mexico to seek his fortune. Since then, he has learned some of the secrets of success in the Anglo world--and even written a book called" Life Among the Gringos." But something has been missing. Now he returns to Agua Bendita to reconnect with his past and to find the wisdom the Anglo world has not provided. In this allegorical account of Randy's final journey, master storyteller Rudolfo Anaya tackles life's big questions with a light touch.
Randy's entry into the haunted canyon that leads to his ancestral home begins on the Day of the Dead. Reuniting with his "padrinos"--his godparents--and hoping to meet up with his lost love, Sofia, Randy encounters a series of spirits: coyotes, cowboys, Death, and the devil. Each one engages him in a conversation about life. It is Randy's old teacher Miss Libriana who suggests his new purpose. She gives him a book, " How to Build a Bridge." Only the bridge--which is both literal and figurative, like everything else in this story--can enable Randy to complete his journey.
Readers acquainted with Anaya's fiction will find themselves in familiar territory here. Randy Lopez, like all Anaya's protagonists, is on a spiritual quest. But both those new to and familiar with Anaya will recognize this philosophical meditation as part of a long literary tradition going back to Homer, Dante, and the Bible. Richly allusive and uniquely witty, "Randy Lopez Goes Home" presents man's quest for meaning in a touching, thought-provoking narrative that will resound with young adults and mature readers alike.

Is the ChupaCabra mythical or real? Stories of the creature abound in Latino communities. The illusive creature is said to suck the blood of goats. Thus, its name, goatsucker. Whenever a backyard goat or chicken is mysteriously killed, the story spreads in the barrio that the ChupaCabra struck.

When Professor Rosa Medina began to research the folklore of the ChupaCabra, she never expected to tangle face-to-face with the monster. Rosa journeys to Mexico to examine a ChupaCabra incident. The creature has killed a campesino in the jungle. And the drug traffickers who have captured the ChupaCabra also control a large drug shipment destined for Los Angeles.

The monster is set loose on the streets; so is the meth that is destroying the brains of the young and vulnerable. This fast-paced story moves from Mexico to Los Angeles to New Mexico. Danger lurks at every corner as Rosa fights to protect her students from the forces of evil.

Written for young adults, the story has a universal message. Only Rudolfo Anaya can combine the excitement of a thriller and the wisdom of traditional healings to create a page-turner that has lessons to teach us all.

"Levi Romero is a strange kind of wizard. He can walk up a New Mexico arroyo and come back with a mysterious object full of quotidian magic. Like a rusted tobacco can the grand-fathers used to roll their smokes. And when you pry open the lid, you can hear their laughter and gossip coming out. That's what he does in poem after poem. I read his work and I learn again how to love this life."--Luis Alberto Urrea

Through familiar details--leaking faucets and lowriders, "chicharrones" and chicken coops--Levi Romero remembers "familia, comunidad, " and "tradiciones" from his upbringing in northern New Mexico's Embudo Valley. Alongside his training and jobs in the building trades and the architectural profession, and now a teacher, his writing has maintained and nurtured his connection to the unique people and land he knows so well and that have seldom been represented in American poetry.

In this second ChupaCabra mystery, Professor Rosa Medina has just arrived in Santa Fe where she meets Nadine, a mysterious sixteen-year-old who insists that the two of them travel to Roswell, New Mexico. Nadine is convinced that C-Force, a secret government agency, has decoded the DNA of ChupaCabra and an extraterrestrial. If the two genomes are combined, a new and horrific life form will be created.

In this fast-paced mystery, Anaya expands the ChupaCabra folklore into a metaphor that deals with the new powers inherent in science. Is ChupaCabra a beast in Latino folktales, used to frighten children, or a lost species being manipulated by C-Force? Rosa's life hangs in the balance as she and her young accomplice try to find a way to stop C-Force before its mad scientists create a monster.

After years of working with at-risk youth, Chicana social worker Rosa Medina leaves Los Angeles's gang-ridden barrios and street violence to settle in the New Mexican village of Puerto de Luna. Her goal: to write a novel about Bilito - Billy the Kid. It all sounds straightforward enough, but things get more complicated - and a lot more exciting - when Rosa is transported back in time to 1879, where she participates in the infamous Lincoln County War, riding alongside Bilito. How Rosa achieves this fantastical feat of time travel, and what she discovers about herself, Bilito, and her Nuevomexicano heritage, unfolds through the course of this novel by master storyteller Rudolfo Anaya. As she travels in time, Rosa passes into an alternative reality inhabited by extraordinary creatures, including shapeshifters, extraterrestrials, Bigfoot, and ChupaCabra. Readers familiar with Anaya's previous ChupaCabra mysteries will remember the heroine's earlier dealings with the elusive monster, a frightening creature of Hispanic folklore. But new dangers are also lurking for Rosa in the land of her ancestors, as a secret group of scientists known as C-Force threatens to clone ChupaCabra to create an army that will rule the world. As she encounters the Nuevomexicana women whose families suffered during the Lincoln County conflict, Rosa finds new reasons to fear the ChupaCabra - and to fight against the forces that threaten to shake the county to its core. With her laptop computer in her saddlebag, Rosa rides into the Lincoln County War and accompanies Bilito on his last ride. By the end, her very soul is transformed, as she realizes that the same evil forces that propelled the violence along the Pecos River are much more resilient than she had hoped. In the finest tradition of magical realism and historical fiction, Anaya invites us to consider the ways that the supernatural reveals the realities of the past - and of our own times.

The legend of Quetzalcoatl is the enduring epic myth of Mesoamerica. The gods create the universe, but man must carefully tend to the harmony of the world. Without spiritual attention to harmony, chaos may reign, destroying the universe and civilisation. The ancient Mexicans, like other peoples throughout the world, wrestled with ideas and metaphors by which to know the Godhead and developed their own concepts about their relationship to the universe. Quetzalcoatl came to the Toltecs to teach them art, agriculture, peace, and knowledge. He was a redeemer god, and his story inspires, instructs, and entertains, as do all the great myths of the world. Now available in paperback, Lord of the Dawn is Anaya's exploration of the cosmology and the rich and complex spiritual thought of his Native American ancestors. The story depicts the daily world of man, the struggle between the peacemakers and the warmongers, and the world of the gods and their role in the life of mankind.

This masterfully written childrens book by New Mexicos favourite storyteller is a delightful tale about a young owl named Ollie who lives in an orchard with his parents in northern New Mexico. Ollie is supposed to attend school but prefers to hang out with his friends Raven and Crow instead. Ollies parents discover he cannot read and they send Ollie off to see his grandmother, Nana, a teacher and farmer in Chimayo. Along the way, Ollies illiteracy causes mischief as he meets up with some shady characters on the path including Gloria La Zorra (a fox), Trickster Coyote, and a hungry wolf named Luis Lobo who has sold some bad house plans to the Three Little Pigs. When Ollie finally arrives at Nanas, his cousin Randy Roadrunner drives up in his lowrider and asks Ollie why hes so blue. Im starting school, and theres too much to learn, and I cant read Ollie says. I cant do it. Randy explains that he did not think he could learn to read either, but he persevered, earned a business degree, and now owns the best lowrider shop in Espanola! Ollie finally decides he is ready to learn to read. The characters and the northern New Mexico landscape come to life wonderfully in original illustrations by New Mexico artist El Moises.

Jade is a young girl who lives in a village next to a towering volcano. On its peak lives a Mountain Spirit who makes his presence known by rumbling the earth, filling the sky with smoke, and pouring lava down the mountainside. Angered by those who forget to honor him for providing their harvest, the Mountain Spirit has stopped sending rain to Jade's village and the people are faced with the possibility of having to abandon their homes and land.

As Jade collects water from the near-dry lake, a blue hummingbird--a messenger from the Mountain Spirit--tells Jade she must take a gift to the Mountain Spirit and ask for rain. Guided by the hummingbird, Jade presents her food offering to the Mountain Spirit. Pleased, the spirit offers the brave girl corn kernels that she takes back to her village and uses to create the first tortilla.