A Rare Thing is a story of redemption and forgiveness. In the small New Mexico town of San Carlos in the 1950s and 60s, a motherless Chicano youngster Javier Jimenz, finds himself forced into an early manhood. The boy's father, Nicols, a Korean War veteran, drinks himself into the depths of alcoholism, struggling through life wallowing in self-pity. Javier tries his best to cope not only with his own loneliness but the day-to-day hardships of living with an alcoholic father.  Into this setting enters Deborah Perkins. She moves into Javiers neighborhood. Javier and Deborah eventually fall in love, much to the chagrin of Deborahs mother, who doesnt share her husbands fascination for Southwestern culture and believes her daughter can do much better than what Javier has to offer.  Tragedy strikes, and Javier moves to California to live with an aunt and uncle. Deborah and he struggle to continue their relationship despite the distance and Deborahs mothers prejudices. Confused and unsure of his future, Javier leaves college to join the Army and ends up in Vietnam, where he sees his fellow soldiers dying every day.  Reminiscing about his father, he must face his own mortality, as he grapples with his own identity. Nicolss spirit appears at a critical moment with words to give Javier strength. Contemplating the real possibility of his death, he reconciles with himself, gaining strength from visions of his father as a good man who had his share of bad luck. Javier comes to grips with whether he has forgiven him for his frailties and failure as a parent.
At age 55, John Garcia is one of Albuquerque's most successful lawyers. His skill at defending insurance and corporate conglomerates has won the praise of the firm's other key partners, and the money he bills, their envy. Still, something nags at him...life has become nothing but business. He feels trapped, driven to keep up on the one hand and to find a way out on the other. But he has a wife and children, a family used to the good things in life that money brings. Into this setting comes a young Chicano, Bernardo Soliz, charged with the attempted murder of the mayor's daughter. John believes the boy is innocent and, despite the demands of his work, he decides to defend the young man. As he takes on the Soliz trial while trying to keep up with his other work, another challenge appears. Persons from his military past in Vietnam surface to threaten him...unless they get what they want. John is shaken. He needs time to face this new menace. But how? He's in the midst of the boy's trial. The trial is going badly, coming to an inescapable conclusion in the face of eyewitness identifications of Bernardo as the assailant. As the trial and events from his military past take their toll, another threat descends upon John...his marriage is coming apart. Amid the twists and turns in the Soliz case, he finds himself in a moral quandary. He fears his personal problems may have gotten in the way of representing Bernardo to the fullest. He feels he should hang in and fight for the boy's life. Guilt hangs over him. As the Soliz case comes to its double-twisted conclusion, John begins to get a grip on the mysterious foreign threat from the past, but not before it jeopardizes the national security of the United States.
At age 55, John Garcia is one of Albuquerque's most successful lawyers. His skill at defending insurance and corporate conglomerates has won the praise of the firm's other key partners, and the money he bills, their envy. Still, something nags at him...life has become nothing but business. He feels trapped, driven to keep up on the one hand and to find a way out on the other. But he has a wife and children, a family used to the good things in life that money brings. Into this setting comes a young Chicano, Bernardo Soliz, charged with the attempted murder of the mayor's daughter. John believes the boy is innocent and, despite the demands of his work, he decides to defend the young man. As he takes on the Soliz trial while trying to keep up with his other work, another challenge appears. Persons from his military past in Vietnam surface to threaten him...unless they get what they want. John is shaken. He needs time to face this new menace. But how? He's in the midst of the boy's trial. The trial is going badly, coming to an inescapable conclusion in the face of eyewitness identifications of Bernardo as the assailant. As the trial and events from his military past take their toll, another threat descends upon John...his marriage is coming apart. Amid the twists and turns in the Soliz case, he finds himself in a moral quandary. He fears his personal problems may have gotten in the way of representing Bernardo to the fullest. He feels he should hang in and fight for the boy's life. Guilt hangs over him. As the Soliz case comes to its double-twisted conclusion, John begins to get a grip on the mysterious foreign threat from the past, but not before it jeopardizes the national security of the United States.
Relatively few Latino novels are published yearly in the United States. Now, from Rudy Apodaca comes When the Angels Came, a compelling story of a 12-year-old boy and of the old man who befriends him and a poignant narrative of their unparalleled friendship. The story begins in 1934, in west Texas, when Santiago Dominguez, as a six-year-old, loses his parents and is then raised by his loving uncle. Four years out of high school, as a Marine, Santiago finds himself fighting in Korea, where he’s injured and awarded the Silver Star for bravery. Two years later, in 1952, he moves to San Miguel, the “tiniest” of villages hidden along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico. There, for many years, he lives a quiet and private life, earning a reputation as a good man but nonetheless a recluse. Being modest, he tells no one of his past. Not until 2011, when Jamie Almaguer moves into San Miguel with his parents, do the boy and Santiago, now 83 years old, meet. The old man is now known as Don Santiago, the title, a tribute of respect. Despite warnings from other youngsters to stay away from Don Santiago, “The Hermit,” as they call him, Jamie, by mere happenstance, meets the old man at a grocery store. From that chance meeting, the two begin a relationship that bonds them, despite their age difference. Don Santiago guides and comforts Jamie through difficulties in his young life, his first confrontation with racism, the sexual assault of his close friend, and the sudden illness of his mother. In time, Jamie comes to treasure Don Santiago, who molds him, providing the tools to tackle life’s issues. This, at a time most youngsters, often with considerable apprehension, are exploring the world around them and what living in it is all about. Ten years later, when a graduate student, Jamie makes his final entry in his journal, the spirit of Don Santiago within him. Above all else, Jamie writes, Don Santiago gave me what I considered the greatest gift anyone can give another. He believed in me. That can do much to invigorate and inspire the soul and the mind of a youngster just barely starting out in life.
 A Rare Thing is a story of redemption and forgiveness. In the small New Mexico town of San Carlos in the 1950s and 60s, a motherless Chicano youngster Javier Jimenz, finds himself forced into an early manhood. The boy's father, Nicols, a Korean War veteran, drinks himself into the depths of alcoholism, struggling through life wallowing in self-pity. Javier tries his best to cope not only with his own loneliness but the day-to-day hardships of living with an alcoholic father.  Into this setting enters Deborah Perkins. She moves into Javiers neighborhood. Javier and Deborah eventually fall in love, much to the chagrin of Deborahs mother, who doesnt share her husbands fascination for Southwestern culture and believes her daughter can do much better than what Javier has to offer.  Tragedy strikes, and Javier moves to California to live with an aunt and uncle. Deborah and he struggle to continue their relationship despite the distance and Deborahs mothers prejudices. Confused and unsure of his future, Javier leaves college to join the Army and ends up in Vietnam, where he sees his fellow soldiers dying every day.  Reminiscing about his father, he must face his own mortality, as he grapples with his own identity. Nicolss spirit appears at a critical moment with words to give Javier strength. Contemplating the real possibility of his death, he reconciles with himself, gaining strength from visions of his father as a good man who had his share of bad luck. Javier comes to grips with whether he has forgiven him for his frailties and failure as a parent.
Right now we look like a cricket. What is a cricket? King of the Insects; a little, tiny animal. All the cricket can do is [say] 'cricket, cricket, cricket.' Just a noise, that's all. But you know, if that cricket gets in the ear of the lion and scratches inside, there is nothing the lion can do. There is nothing; there is no way the lion can use his claws and jaws to destroy the cricket. The more the lion scratches himself the deeper the cricket goes. . . ."--Reies López Tijerina, 1971 Throughout his career in New Mexican land grant politics, Reies Tijerina frequently used this fable to inspire persistence in the face of impossible odds. As the leader of a grassroots Hispano land rights organization, the Alianza Federal de Mercedes Reales (The Federal Alliance of Land Grants), Tijerina has made an indelible imprint on New Mexico's Hispano culture. King Tiger details Tijerina's life and efforts--those real, rumored, and mythologized--in the first systematic study of the origin of his political ideas. Rudy Busto shows how one of Tijerina's particularly powerful mystical visions led him to northern New Mexico to fight to restore land to those who lost it during various nineteenth-century land grant title conflicts. More than three decades after the infamous Tierra Amarilla County courthouse raid, Tijerina remains an important touchstone for all New Mexicans. In his life and activism are found the interdependent issues of land, water, language, economic development, sovereignty, political power, and rights to cultural formation in the Southwest.
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