Arturo Longoria grew up in South Texas, roaming the Brushlands and learning the names of the plants, animals, and even insects that thrived in that harsh environment. He spent much time in northern Mexico, too, where his father owned ranch land. One of the places he found in southern Tamaulipas captured his imagination and his heart in a special way.
In a little-known area of South Texas, extending across the Rio Grande into Mexico, a mysterious, lush land once harbored mighty trees, bushes, and grasses--brushland home to a plethora of wildlife. In Adios to the Brushlands native son Arturo Longoria remembers this chapparal land of his childhood: hot summer days and frigid winter mornings walking with his grandfather or his best friend through the dense underbrush, watching birds, studying reptiles, identifying plants. Boyhood hunting and varmint calling, encounters with rattlesnakes and fierce pamorana ants, hours spent with his grandfather, Papagrande, and cousins bring to life another time and place. A trained biologist and one-time investigative reporter, Longoria brings his skills of observation and expression to sing the song of this vanishing habitat that once covered nearly four million acres of the Rio Grande Valley. In moving but understated prose he captures the wonder of the brushland and symbolically and emotionally links its loss, through rootplows and bulldozers, to the death of his grandfather, who had introduced him to that world. He reports as well the public policies and private actions that have reduced the brushland to less than five percent of its former extent. He chronicles the efforts to publicize the brushland’s destruction and to save the remaining richness for future generations. At once a celebration of a region’s nature and a call to preserve the little bit of it still left today, this book is to the South Texas Brushlands what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was to the nation’s wetlands or John Graves’s Goodbye to a River was to the Brazos River. Rife with the natural history of an endangered ecology and capturing as well the binational culture of the region, Adios to the Brushlands draws readers into a land as raw, beautiful, and complex as life itself. A unique descriptive documentary of a disappearing natural treasure, it is a slice of the new natural history that weds the details of the physical world with their significance to the human heart.
Arturo Longoria grew up in South Texas, roaming the Brushlands and learning the names of the plants, animals, and even insects that thrived in that harsh environment. He spent much time in northern Mexico, too, where his father owned ranch land. One of the places he found in southern Tamaulipas captured his imagination and his heart in a special way.
More than two million acres of sand, born and blown from an ancient sea beginning about ten thousand years ago, stretch across eight counties in deep South Texas. Known as the Coastal Sand Plain, the Texas Coastal Sand Sheet, or just the Sand Sheet, it is a region of few people, little rainfall, and no water. Among the dunes and dry, brown flats, only the hardiest shrubs and grasses provide habitat for the coyotes, quail, and rattlesnakes that live here. Arturo Longoria, whose cabin sits amid the sand scrub and desert motts of granjeno, brasil, and mesquite, knows this land intimately. A student of bushcraft and natural history, Longoria found refuge in this remote and hostile country as he recovered from a rare illness. He weaves a story of beauty and survival in a land where the vastness of Texas' storied ranches and rich oil fields serves as the backdrop for a steady migration of long distance “travelers,” who cross over the border and into el desierto at great peril. This book is about a harsh and dangerous landscape that has nonetheless given sustenance and solace to a writer for whom the Sand Sheet became both his home and his inspiration.
In a little-known area of South Texas, extending across the Rio Grande into Mexico, a mysterious, lush land once harbored mighty trees, bushes, and grasses--brushland home to a plethora of wildlife. In Adios to the Brushlands native son Arturo Longoria remembers this chapparal land of his childhood: hot summer days and frigid winter mornings walking with his grandfather or his best friend through the dense underbrush, watching birds, studying reptiles, identifying plants. Boyhood hunting and varmint calling, encounters with rattlesnakes and fierce pamorana ants, hours spent with his grandfather, Papagrande, and cousins bring to life another time and place. A trained biologist and one-time investigative reporter, Longoria brings his skills of observation and expression to sing the song of this vanishing habitat that once covered nearly four million acres of the Rio Grande Valley. In moving but understated prose he captures the wonder of the brushland and symbolically and emotionally links its loss, through rootplows and bulldozers, to the death of his grandfather, who had introduced him to that world. He reports as well the public policies and private actions that have reduced the brushland to less than five percent of its former extent. He chronicles the efforts to publicize the brushland’s destruction and to save the remaining richness for future generations. At once a celebration of a region’s nature and a call to preserve the little bit of it still left today, this book is to the South Texas Brushlands what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was to the nation’s wetlands or John Graves’s Goodbye to a River was to the Brazos River. Rife with the natural history of an endangered ecology and capturing as well the binational culture of the region, Adios to the Brushlands draws readers into a land as raw, beautiful, and complex as life itself. A unique descriptive documentary of a disappearing natural treasure, it is a slice of the new natural history that weds the details of the physical world with their significance to the human heart.
Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement is the most comprehensive account of the arduous struggle by Mexican Americans to secure and protect their civil rights. It is also a companion volume to the critically acclaimed, four-part documentary series of the same title, which is now available on video from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Both this published volume and the video series are a testament to the Mexican American communityÍs hard-fought battle for social and legal equality as well as political and cultural identity. Since the United States-Mexico War, 1846-1848, Mexican Americans have striven to achieve full rights as citizens. From peaceful resistance and violent demonstrations, when their rights were ignored or abused, to the establishment of support organizations to carry on the struggle and the formation of labor unions to provide a united voice, the movement grew in strength and in numbers. However, it was during the 1960s and 1970s that the campaign exploded into a nationwide groundswell of Mexican Americans laying claim, once and for all, to their civil rights and asserting their cultural heritage. They took a name that had been used disparagingly against them for yearsChicanoand fashioned it into a battle cry, a term of pride, affirmation and struggle. Aimed at a broad general audience as well as college and high school students, Chicano! focuses on four themes: land, labor, educational reform and government. With solid research, accessible language and historical photographs, this volume highlights individuals, issues and pivotal developments that culminated in and comprised a landmark period for the second largest ethnic minority in the United States. Chicano! is a compelling monument to the individuals and events that transformed society.
Challenge-based research focuses on addressing societal and environmental problems. One way of doing so is by transforming existing businesses to profitable ventures through co-creation and co-evolution. Drawing on the resource-based view, this book discusses how social challenges can be linked with the industrial value-chain through collaborative research, knowledge sharing, and transfer of technology to deliver value. The work is divided into three sections: Part 1 discusses social challenges, triple bottom line, and entrepreneurship as drivers for research, learning, and innovation while Part 2 links challenge-based research to social and industrial development in emerging markets. The final section considers research-based innovation and the role of technology, with the final chapter bridging concepts and practices to shape the future of society and industry. The authors present the RISE paradigm, which integrates people (society), planet (sustainability), and profit (industry and business) as critical constructs for socio-economic and regional development. Arguing that the converging of society and industry is essential for the business ecosystem to stay competitive in the marketplace, this book analyzes possible approaches to linking challenge-based research with social and industrial innovations in the context of sectoral challenges like food production, housing, energy, biotechnology, and sustainability. It will serve as a valuable resource to researchers interested in topics such as social challenges, innovation, technology, sustainability, and society-industry linkage.
El Centrolista20122015 is written to inspire Yes we Can Hispanic Si se Puede Republican, Democrat, and liberal political warriors to register, participate, and vote for human-first American politics in America today. The text in this book consists of my cyberpolitical advice and correspondence to and from President Barack Obama in our effort to dignify humanity by way of Hispanic political power as I see it.
More than two million acres of sand, born and blown from an ancient sea beginning about ten thousand years ago, stretch across eight counties in deep South Texas. Known as the Coastal Sand Plain, the Texas Coastal Sand Sheet, or just the Sand Sheet, it is a region of few people, little rainfall, and no water. Among the dunes and dry, brown flats, only the hardiest shrubs and grasses provide habitat for the coyotes, quail, and rattlesnakes that live here. Arturo Longoria, whose cabin sits amid the sand scrub and desert motts of granjeno, brasil, and mesquite, knows this land intimately. A student of bushcraft and natural history, Longoria found refuge in this remote and hostile country as he recovered from a rare illness. He weaves a story of beauty and survival in a land where the vastness of Texas' storied ranches and rich oil fields serves as the backdrop for a steady migration of long distance “travelers,” who cross over the border and into el desierto at great peril. This book is about a harsh and dangerous landscape that has nonetheless given sustenance and solace to a writer for whom the Sand Sheet became both his home and his inspiration.
Captain Alatriste returns in a swashbuckling tale of intrigue, romance and regicide. Captain Alatriste's affair with the beautiful actress Maria de Castro is rankling not only his long-term mistress but also the King of Spain. With loyal companion Inigo distracted by the affections of Angelica, Alatriste becomes embroiled in a series of tussles outside his lover's house. Ambushed by arch-nemesis Malatesta, a skirmish ensues that leads to the death of Maria's other lover - the monarch himself. But behind this tale of sexual jealousy lurks a darker truth. As it becomes clear that both Alatriste and Inigo have been cunningly honey trapped - and that the dead man was an impostor. With a puppet king waiting dutifully in the wings, Alatriste must use all his cunning and swordsmanly guile to prevent the murder of the real king - and his implication in a crime for which he has been perfectly framed.
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