This 15th anniversary reissue of writer/humorist Tom Miller's travel classic follows the making and marketing of a single Panama hat from the basement of the third world to the penthouse of the first. It's a captivating story of cultures in collision, raw capitalism, "bus-plunge highways," and Miller's unending search for a drinkable cup of coffee. The Panama Hat Trail: A Journey from South America explains that Panama hats don't come from Panama; they are made two countries away, in Ecuador. (The headwear became popular when gold-rush veterans returning from California to the eastern U.S. snapped up the Ecuadoran straw hats they found on sale in Panama.) Tom Miller knows that, because he traveled there to track down the hat's origins. His account - a fascinating look at South American culture - relates an exotic and humorous journey that Miller also reported in a four-part series for NPR's "All Things Considered." The Panama hat trail leads from the Ecuadoran capital of Quito to the boisterous port of Guayaquil, where tropical indulgence is a way of life; from the village of Deleg in the Andes, (where half the adult males have gone to work in the United States) to Lago Agrio in the Amazon (where one-fifth of adult females are prostitutes). He learns of Catholic missionaries seeking converts in a country that is 98 percent Catholic; tries not to think about his chances of surviving bus rides over mountain roads; and profiles some of the last Jews living in Ecuador. Oh, and did we mention the hats? Miller investigates everything from the harvesting of straw in the jungles of Ecuador (where straw-cutters load up their donkeys with sacks of silky fiber) to the remote villages where skilled artisans painstakingly weave each Panama hat by hand (only to sell it for 70 cents) to the chic boutique in downtown San Diego where a well-heeled American purchases the finished product for 35 dollars. Much more than a mere adventure, this book is a study in both culture and the workings (and failings) of global commerce.
Tom Miller has been writing about Latin America and the American Southwest for more than thirty years, bringing us extraordinary stories of ordinary people. His highly acclaimed adventure books include "The Panama Hat Trail" about South America, "On the Border," an account of his travels along the U.S.-Mexico frontier, "Trading With the Enemy," which takes readers on his journeys through Cuba, and, about the American Southwest, "Revenge of the Saguaro" (formerly "Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink" -- which won the coveted Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book of the Year in 2001). He has edited three compilations, "Travelers' Tales Cuba," "Writing on the Edge: A Borderlands Reader," and "How I Learned English." Additionally, he was a major contributor to the four-volume "Encyclopedia Latina."
Miller, a veteran of the underground press of the late 1960s, has appeared in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, LIFE, The New York Times, Natural History, and many other publications. He wrote the introduction to "Best Travel Writing - 2005," and has led educational tours through Cuba for the National Geographic Society and other organizations. The Arizona Humanities Council sponsors his talks about borderland literature and also Thoronton Wilder's Unknown Life in Arizona. His collection of some eighty versions of "La Bamba" led to his Rhino Records release, "The Best of La Bamba," and his book "On the Border" has been optioned by Productvision for a theatrical film.
Miller was born and raised in Washington, D.C., attended college in Ohio, and since 1969 has lived in Arizona 65 miles north of the Mexican border.
In 2008 Miller was honored in a ceremony in the Centro Histórico of Quito, with a proclamation designating him a "Huésped Ilustre de Quito" (Illustrious Guest of Quito) for his literary contribution to Ecuador, especially "The Panama Hat Trail." In 2010 Miller won first prize in the Solas Awards in the "Destinations" category for "A Border Rat in the Twilight Zone," originally published in The Washington Post.. He also won a Bronze award for "Notes on an Andean Pilgrim" in the "Travel Memoir" field.
Well-traveled through the Americas, Miller has taught writing workshops in four countries and his books have been published in Europe and Latin America as well as the United States. In recognition of his work the University of Arizona Library has acquired Miller's archives and mounted a major exhibit of the author's papers. He has been affiliated with that school's Latin American Area Center since 1990, and makes his home in Tucson with his wife Regla Albarrán.
