In the Sierra Madre [Hardcover]

Jeff Biggers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2006

"A stunning history of legendary treasure seekers and enigmatic natives in Mexico's Copper Canyon"

The Sierra Madre--no other mountain range in the world possesses such a ring of intrigue. In the Sierra Madre is a groundbreaking and extraordinary memoir that chronicles the astonishing history of one of the most famous, yet unknown, regions in the world. Based on his one-year sojourn among the Raramuri/Tarahumara, award-winning journalist Jeff Biggers offers a rare look into the ways of the most resilient indigenous culture in the Americas, the exploits of Mexican mountaineers, and the fascinating parade of argonauts and accidental travelers that has journeyed into the Sierra Madre over centuries. From African explorers, Bohemian friars, Confederate and Irish war deserters, French poets, Boer and Russian commandos, Apache and Mennonite communities, bewildered archaeologists, addled writers, and legendary characters including Antonin Artaud, B. Traven, Sergei Eisenstein, George Patton, Geronimo, and Pancho Villa, Biggers uncovers the remarkable treasures of the Sierra Madre.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Sierra Madre is familiar to readers because of B. Traven's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and John Huston's film version of the novel, which starred Humphrey Bogart. Now comes Biggers' engaging memoir of this mountainous range in northern Mexico. Based on the author's year-long journey among the 80,000 Raramuri/Tarahumara, the book chronicles this indigenous culture. Biggers informs us that they are the last remnants of a pre-Columbian Mexico, spread out over miles of barrancas and forests. He describes the people and the villages; one was no more than a 250-year-old mission, a boarding school, a clinic, and a cooperative shop "plopped into the basin of a creek-forged valley of steep rock faces." Biggers visits their corn beer celebrations, Sunday gatherings at the mission plaza to attend mass and the judicial assembly that follows, caves in which some Raramuri still live, and their wood-chopping expeditions. He takes readers on an astonishing sojourn into a remote region. George Cohen
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Review

"Jeff Biggers has the keenest eye in the business, and he has a fine, luminous voice to tell you what he has seen. Biggers manages to write like a poet, historian, naturalist and an adventurer. His pages are burnished and alive, and I admire his work. You need to read this one soon." Luis Urrea, author of The Hummingbird's Daughter and The Devil 's Highway "Half a century after the release of the film, Jeff Biggers brings home the true treasure of the Sierra Madre: its stories. Biggers weaves a tapestry of intertwined tales that sheds light on this little-known region. Warm-hearted and compassionate, these stories bring to life the Raramuri." Michael Shapiro, author of A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk about Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration "Once every generation a book comes along that captures the stunning terrain and hidden life of Mexico 's remote western Sierra Madre. In the Sierra Madre is that book for this generation. Jeff Biggers has seen the strange and remarkable that the rest of us can only imagine." Tom Miller, author of The Panama Hat Trail and On the Border

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1 edition (August 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252031016
• ISBN-13: 978-0252031014
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,536,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Biggers has worked as a writer, educator, radio correspondent and community organizer across the US, Europe, Mexico and India. Winner of an American Book Award, a Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award and a Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, his work has appeared in scores of magazines, newspapers and national public radio programs. He blogs frequently for the Huffington Post and Grist. His website is www.jeffbiggers.com

Biggers' new book, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, is forthcoming in January 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Treasures of Copper Canyon, September 5, 2006

By 

The Senior Traveler (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Sierra Madre (Hardcover)

Since I made the train journey up to Copper Canyon, I bought this book and felt like I re-lived the trip, and then another I wished I had made. This is a wonderful, moving, often poetic, memoir of an American's year-long sojourn in a Tarahumara (he uses the traditional name, Raramuri) Indian village. The writing, however, never falls into any anthropological notes. Biggers moves back and forth from his own experiences in his adopted village, where he chops wood with the local lumberjacks and plants corn and weathers the worst drought in the region's history, and the often hilarious adventures of famous travelers who have made their own foray into the canyons. The book's range is fantastic: characters like French poet Artaud, black West Point cadet Henry Flipper, a young George S. Patton, and a Russian sailor--to name only a few--pepper the stories like characters from a great drama. Jeff Biggers, who is the author of a book on Appalachia, is that chatty companion you wished you had along for the journey, someone who knows world literature and history as well as he knows the intimate details of the local canyons and people, and someone who loves to mix the two. Biggers writes about the ups and downs of tourism in Mexico's famed Copper Canyon by spinning a tale of a modern-day tragicomedy based on the Greek Antigone; he discusses the plight of logging by recalling a poem by Scottish bard Robert Burns and the Scottish debacle at Darien.

I'd recommend this to anyone planning a trip to Copper Canyon, or those armchair travelers who love their world history written through a great journey.

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars travel writing that makes you want to travel to Copper Canyon, November 7, 2006

By 

Bill Ridley (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Sierra Madre (Hardcover)

In the Sierra Madre is one of the best travel memoirs I've read in years. It's a real page turner. I couldn't put it down. Situated in Mexico's Copper Canyon, author Jeff Biggers traverses the legendary canyons of the native Raramuri or Tarahumara, while weaving in the history of centuries of travelers, including some unforgettable characters like writer/adventurer Frederick Schwatka, George S. Patton and Black Jack Pershing, an Irish lord and his African American mistress, etc etc. Biggers is funny, informed, and his pages move from story to story. And of course, the fabulous tale of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre always lurks in the background. This is a great book and makes me want to travel to Copper Canyon. By the way, Biggers in person is also quite a raconteur. Should he come to town, don't hesitate to see his performance.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Insight, January 26, 2007

By 

D. Rhodes "Sierra resident" (Cerocahui, Chihuahua, Mexico) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Sierra Madre (Hardcover)

Biggers book of experiences living in a Tarahumara village capture the many nuances of life here in the Sierra. His writing has a good, readable style and is fun to boot. His tangents although sometimes distracting are always informative and frequently educational. Biggers is to be respected for not naming the village where he lived but he provides more than enough clues to figure out the location. Although not a general travel book, Biggers book is a must-read for anyone wanting a true and enjoyable insight into the Tarahumara style of living.