Books about Chimayo from Amazon.com

The distinctive New Mexico style of Southwest cooking. From a celebrated eatery..
Price: $9.84 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Its use as a narcotic is on a precipitous rise. Worldwide heroin production has doubled in the last decade, and the United Nations estimates more than 15 million users are addicted-up to 3 million in the United States. It's big business, too, with yearly global sales of $500 billion-up to $22 billion in the U.S. Enmeshed with terrorism, crime, government collaboration, corporate globalization, and the spread of HIV, the opiate trade is inextricably entangled with the functioning of global society. Finally, heroin is controversial because of the on-going debates about solutions to the health, social and economic havoc it creates.

Chiva uses creative nonfiction to merge the global epic of heroin trafficking with the human-scale story of its presence in the small desert town that boasts the most per-capita overdose deaths in the U.S. The book interweaves three themes:

The true tale of Chimay, New Mexico, terrorized by its heroin dealers since the 1970s until, in the late 90s, its citizens rose up to challenge the epidemic in their midst.
The story of the author's relationship with a local dealer, and his involvement with addiction, crime, love, recovery and the judicial system.
The political context behind these stories: the global workings of the heroin production business.

Compelling, disturbing, yet hopeful, Chiva is both personal and political, revealing the relationship between colonization and drug abuse, and the importance of reclaiming sustainable culture as a key to recovery.

Chellis Glendinning, Ph.D, is a psychologist. An award-winning activist and writer, she is the author of four previous books, including Off the Map: An Expedition Deep into Empire and the Global Economy (New Society, 2002) which won the National Federation of Press Women 2000 book award for general nonfiction. She lives in Chimay, New Mexico.

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Price: $9.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Big Dreams and Dark Secrets in Chimayó is a mythological saga about Flaco Salvador Cascabel Natividad, a native of Chimayó, New Mexico, and an alcoholic Benito Córdova follows Salvador through situations and encounters that expose his vulnerabilities in light of his community's expectations and standards of masculinity.

At various times Salvador is an employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a patient at the Embudo Rehabilitation Center, and a contracted worker for Abiquiu artist Georgia O'Keeffe. In an alcohol-induced moment, Salvador offers to substitute for the groom, his friend, at a wedding because the real husband-to-be is so drunk he can't stand up. However, the ceremony is all too real and Salvador is accidentally married to his friend's intended bride.

At a significant moment in the story, Salvador is hauling wood in a snowstorm from the nearby mountains when he is pinned by a falling tree. Night is approaching, it is getting colder, and, as Salvador lies trapped under the tree, he begins to envision his own death, funeral, and burial in terms of how he has lived his life. He sees the failure of his marriage, which ended shortly after it began in an alcohol haze, and he is tortured by his personal demons concerning his identity as a Génizaro, a Hispanicized Indian.

Salvador's story is a blend of humor and tragedy that exemplifies today's rural New Mexico..
Price: $16.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Ancient and contemporary Indian, Hispano, and Anglo traditions of pilgrimage, healing, and worship in the Chimayo Valley of northern N.M..
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This long-awaited study is the first to examine the Rio Grande Hispanic weaving tradition from 1870 to the present In the past, the story of the weavers of northern New Mexico has often been distorted in popular and scholarly literature by perpetuating romantic lore that has surrounded the craft and by labeling products for the tourist and curio markets as inauthentic and inferior. Chimayo Weaving emphasizes that the long tradition of Hispanic weaving was born in the interaction among weavers, merchants, and consumers; it explores this trade and how it has changed over time. The authors have examined the historic records of trade in woven goods as well as actual textiles in private and public collections and have interviewed many contemporary weavers. Taken together, these perspectives form a case study of the adaptability of a craft tradition to the modern world.

This thorough and beautifully illustrated study is essential reading for anyone interested in the ongoing tradition of weaving in New Mexico and for anyone who weaves or who wants to appreciate and understand the craft more fully..
Price: $18.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This collection of fourteen traditional cuentos, retold in English and regional New Mexico Spanish, unfolds within Usner's memoir of his grandmother, Benigna Ortega Chávez, and their summers together on the Plaza in Chimayó, New Mexico (30 miles northeast of Santa Fe). Presented in bilingual format, and illustrated with original drawings and photographs, this book is an important addition to the Nuevo Mexicano narrative tradition, and a tribute to a master storyteller.

"The first book of traditional Nuevo Mexicano stories to highlight the storyteller and her role as culture bearer." (Enrique Lamadrid, advance praise)

"Listen to this authentic voice from the far land of New Mexico's past. Pull up a chair. Throw away your watch. Benigna Ortega Chavez will tell you a story." (William deBuys, advance praise).
Price: $11.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]