Miller, Tom

Washington DC. 2000. National Geographic Society. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket . 079227959x. 250 pages. hardcover. Cover illustration by John Craig. keywords: Travel America Southwest. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Embracing Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of California,Colorado, Texas, and northern Mexico, the Southwest remains something of an undiscovered country-a land imprinted with the hardy spirit of recent pioneers, a Hispanic tradition stretching back more than 400 years, and a Native American culture that spans many hundreds more. Tom Miller, who moved to this unique region in the late 1960s, vividly evokes his Southwestern home with the keen eye and sharp wit. Leaving the tourist trail of mock-adobe condos and souvenir Kachina dolls far behind, this wide- ranging chronicle reveals an extraordinary-and authentic-corner of the world. Miller's Southwest is a far cry from the studio of Georgia O'Keeffe. It's a place where black-velvet paintings are ‘handcrafted' on Tijuana assembly lines, the residents of dusty desert towns stage cockfights to pass the time, and northbound migrants and drug smugglers play games of cat-and-mouse, and life and death-with the border patrol in parched arroyos. Miller takes us to a mountaintop fire tower to meet eco-militant Edward Abbey, whose incandescent writing sparked a new generation of environmental activists. He also witnesses ecotage in a midnight raid on a desert housing development, explores the turbulent history of mining-town labor struggles, and flirts with Sonia Braga during the filming of ‘Milagro Beanfield War.' Hewing to his creed that there is no substitute for original research, Miller hunts down the origins and variants of the delicious chimichanga. As Miller wanders from a Texas auction where he nearly buys Jack Ruby's kitchen sink to the desert site where a saguaro cactus killed its gun-toting tormentor, it becomes clear that no other guide to the Southwest combines his moral vision and ability to have fun. inventory #28483 ISBN: 079227959x.