Behind the facade of sombreros and tequila, tourist traps and holiday resorts, there lies a very different Mexico. In Sliced Iguana, Isabella Tree finds a town controlled by arm-wrestling matriarchs and party-mad transvestites and in war-torn Chiapas she discovers shamans worshipping Mayan gods inside Catholic churches and conducting exorcisms with the aid of Pepsi. This is a story of Mexico like no other, capturing the essence of its psyche and illuminating the struggles and hopes of a people and a country on the cusp of change.

The author of eight previous books on reptiles and exotic pets now turns his focus to iguanas. This complete guide covers housing, feeding, and taming an iguana, as well as its anatomy, biology, life in the wild, and how iguanas make the trip from jungle to pet shop. (Animals/Pets)

Did you ever wonder what was foreign about the Foreign Service? Neither did I--until I began to live it. This is my story as a Foreign Service wife and mother of five. My husband's job with USAID was to improve conditions in underdeveloped countries where there was war or disaster during the Vietnam War Era. My job was to follow him to the Philippines, Vietnam, Nigeria, Washington DC, and Nicaragua. We touched another thirteen countries. There is humor in the cultural challenges and danger where guerillas terrorized the highways. It is also a peek into the world of diplomacy and embassy life. -My Spanish caused the cook to serve sandwiches of lettuce, tomatoes, and roast beef nestled in gooey peanut butter and jelly at my spur-of-the-moment lunch for the government Ministers. -Our school bus was an Embassy station wagon with a driver, a guard, and a loaded M2 carbine rifle. -The kitchen stove on our vacation was a circle of rocks on the beach. -Managua was over six-hundred square blocks of rubble, ashes, and barbed wire when we arrived.

This book is a compilation of nearly 1000 recipes for amphibians and reptiles. Although all of these recipes have been used by people at one time or another this book is meant primarily to document these recipes. A unique and unusual collection of culinary history.

This is a study of artist/activists and their participation in social movements in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, in Mexico City, Oaxaca, and California. McCaughan places the three movements within their own local histories, cultures, and conditions, but also links them to the 1968 rebellions that were going on across the world.

Americans would swear that the Maryland blue crab, Maine lobster, morel mushroom, or perhaps shrimp DeJonghe are delicacies out of this world because they are surprisingly unique and tasty. But have you ever heard of delicacies such as hakari, smalohove, casu marzu, stracatto dasino, and lutefisk? Meanwhile, others talk about lox, tete de veau, and balutthe list goes on. Welcome aboard to the Global Delicacies gravy trip around the world. Fasten your belts and relax. Our chefs and waitresses are going to serve you with some global delicacies on our expedition. Each and every delicacy will be explained to you, including the source of the foodmammal, reptile, insect, fish, plant, or seaweedand the location that the delicacy comes from. You will be provided with recipes, medicinal properties, and nutritional values of each delicacy. Be warned, however, that you may find some delicacies offensive and distasteful. You may choose what you want to eat and discard what you do not want to eat. This is a learning curve on your part about global delicacies. This might bring cultural relativism at your doorstep.

Into the Hearts of the Amazons is part rousing travel adventure through a little-known world and part popular ethnography, exploring how Zapotec women earned their legendary status in a remote corner of southern Mexico. To satisfy his curiosity about this culture, Tom DeMott journeyed to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where he discovered a thriving modern-day matriarchy among the people of the Isthmus—a cultural crossroads, breeding ground for rebels, and home to a half-million Zapotecs. DeMott integrated himself into the culture by joining in the rites of spring (where women pelt the men with fruit); by interviewing the women who control the marketplace where men are rarely seen; and by honoring the saints with drink and dance at all-night ceremonies. Evoking these singular women and their culture, DeMott tackles a primal question: What would life be like if women, rather than men, had the advantage? "For centuries the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, like a magnet, has attracted travelers, adventurers, scholars, romantics, and rebels. Something about Oaxaca and the Zapotec culture appeals to the curious and restless. DeMott's fine memoir captures the spirit of this quest. It will be of interest to anthropologists and general readers alike."—Howard Campbell, author of Zapotec Struggles "Driven by an unquenchable personal passion for his subject, Tom DeMott has produced an exceptional narrative that deconstructs the clichés of a Mexican region and a people shrouded in romance and myth. Acutely observed, richly experienced, Into the Hearts of the Amazons exposes issues of matriarchy and culture through intimate, often bizarre, and surreal yet indelibly moving close encounters with the people of Juchitán and Tehuantepec."—Tony Cohan, author of On Mexican Time and Mexican Days

Singing for the Dead chronicles ethnic revival in Oaxaca, Mexico, where new forms of singing and writing in the local Mazatec indigenous language are producing powerful, transformative political effects. Paja Faudree argues for the inclusion of singing as a necessary component in the polarized debates about indigenous orality and literacy, and she considers how the coupling of literacy and song has allowed people from the region to create texts of enduring social resonance. She examines how local young people are learning to read and write in Mazatec as a result of the region's new Day of the Dead song contest. Faudree also studies how tourist interest in local psychedelic mushrooms has led to their commodification, producing both opportunities and challenges for songwriters and others who represent Mazatec culture. She situates these revival movements within the contexts of Mexico and Latin America, as well as the broad, hemisphere-wide movement to create indigenous literatures. Singing for the Dead provides a new way to think about the politics of ethnicity, the success of social movements, and the limits of national belonging.

While top-down policies and declarations have yet to establish equal status and opportunities for speakers of all languages in practice, activists and advocates at local levels are playing an increasingly significant role in the creation of new social imaginaries and practices in multilingual contexts. This volume describes how social actors across multiple domains contribute to the elusive goal of linguistic equality or justice through their language activism practices. Through an ethnographic account of Indigenous Isthmus Zapotec language activism in Oaxaca, Mexico, this study illuminates the (sometimes conflicting) imaginaries of what positive social change is and how it should be achieved, and the repertoire of strategies through which these imaginaries are being pursued. Ethnographic and action research conducted from 2013-2018 in the multilingual Isthmus of Tehuantepec brings to light the experiences of educators, students, writers, scholars and diverse cultural activists whose aspirations and strategies of social change are significant in shaping the future language ecology. Their repertoire of strategies may inform and encourage language activists, scholars, and educators working for change in other contexts of linguistic diversity and inequality.