The Blood of the Serpent - Mexican Lives [Paperback]

Robert Joe Stout (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2003

Unlike the United States, Mexico took shape suddenly and abruptly. Earlier civilizations systematically were destroyed and newcomers took over. There was no systematic formation of boundaries and possessions. While the first English pilgrims clung perilously to a few acres of Massachusetts forest, Mexico already had laws, churches, mines, shipbuilding, riots and a compelling mestizo conscience. This narration takes readers through Mexico City at night and in the daytime, through its suburbs rich and poor, into its ceremonies - Christian and pre-Christian - and on journeys with reformers, rebels, manipulators, workers. It unravels "The Imaginary State of Petroleo" (which is more real than you might think), explores the orchards and landed estates of northeastern Mexico and the deserts where ancient cave paintings mark the existence of lost cultures and where drug dealers have established hidden landing strips. From rural villages in the northwest through Tijuana and the melee that is life on the U.S.-Mexican border, and from Baja and the cultivated coastal plains to the changing rhythms of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Yucatan, the experiences, opinions and adventures of Mexicans from all walks of life form a mosaic designed to perplex, provoke and entertain. Robert Joe Stout has written major articles about Mexico for The Christian Science Monitor, Notre Dame Magazine, and American Educator. His fiction has been published in The South Dakota Review, Kansas Quarterly, Southern Humanities Review and various anthologies. Portions of this book have appeared in Aim, Catholic Digest, Commonweal, Focus, Kit-Kat Review, Mexico West, Rosebud, Toward Freedom and other magazines.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This engaging and passionate book meanders through journalism, history and autobiography. It is an anthology of conversations the author, who has written for the Christian Science Monitor and other publications, has had throughout Mexico over the past 40 years, grouped together by geography. Starting in Mexico City, the "urban core" of the country, he moves north to border towns dominated by their economic and migratory relationship with the United States and concludes in the highlands of the south, where expanding Mexican power confronts increasingly displaced indigenous peoples. The stories told by government officials, farmers, hustlers, cripples, migrant laborers, children, street vendors, teachers, university students, social activists, union organizers, oil prospectors, loggers, traditional healers, refugees and truck drivers give the book a rich chorus of voices, which produce not a song but an energetic discussion and argument about the soul of Mexico. Interspersed between these extended quotations are Stout's accounts of how he came to meet these people (often on the street with the conversation continuing at the local cantina) as well as discussions of the larger social context behind their remarks. He pays particular attention to the plight of those who have been pushed from farms, villages and forests into cities and slums by business development and political corruption, and is clearly charmed by the spirited reaction of ordinary people to forces beyond their control. His fascination and frustration with Mexican society will no doubt rub off on any curious reader.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Algora Publishing (December 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875862152
• ISBN-13: 978-0875862156
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,659,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.