“Mother rescued the three zebras that escaped from the London zoo”--so begins the first story in this whirlwind collection by C. M. Mayo. Though Mayo’s characters ricochet around the globe in search of diversion, money, enlightenment, cachet, and escape, she sets many of the stories in Sky Over El Nido in Mexico. This is not the gringo’s Mexico of margaritas, mariachis, and inscrutable house servants, but a fin-de-siècle world where a Mexican boy who guards tourists’ cars for small change wears a T-shirt that says “Six Flags Over Georgia.” Mayo’s strangely beautiful yet disturbing stories reveal characters who envision the solutions to their lives in a world where nothing is stable, nothing can be nailed down, and we are all suddenly, dizzyingly faced with sharing the same pitiless sky.

These stories offer layered, perceptive takes on what home means to us. The people we meet in these stories are often traveling to and from home--thinking about where they have come from, where they are headed, and how that journey will impact their futures. Although the stories approach homecoming and homesickness through varied moods and styles, they all come around to confronting a shared need: a place to call home.

ÒIn Mexico,Ó writes Ilan Stavans in the introduction to this provocative new collection on Mexican culture and politics, Ò [the essay] is embraced as passionately as a sport.Ó While the American essay may be personal and confessional or erudite and academic, it is presumed to be truthful. By contrast, the Mexican essay pushes the boundaries between fact and fiction as writers seek to make their opinions heardÑin literary journals, in newspapers, and even on cereal boxes. ÒWhat is real and what isnÕt in a Mexican essay, only God knows,Ó concludes Stavans. In Hurricanes and Carnivals, Lee Gutkind, a pioneer in the teaching of creative nonfiction, brings together fifteen essays by Mexican, Mexican American, and Latin American writers that push the boundaries of style and form, showing that navigating ÒtruthÓ is anything but clear-cut. Although creative nonfiction is widely thought to be an American art form, this collection proves otherwise. By blending fact and fiction, story and fantasy, history and mythology, these writers and others push the bounds of the essay to present a vision of Mexico rarely seen from this side of the border. Addressing topics that include immigration, politics, ecology, violence, family, and sexuality, they take literary license on a whirlwind adventure. C. M. Mayo shows us Mexico City as seen through the eyes of her pug, Picadou; Juan Villoro examines modern Mexico through the lens of demography; Homero Aridjis uses the plight of nesting sea turtles to document a slowly changing Mexican attitude toward natural resources; and Sam Quinones documents the decline of beauty-queen addiction in Mazatl‡n and tells us about the flower festivals where, according to lore, only two things matter: hurricanes and carnivals. For readers interested in a literary view of contemporary Mexico, as well as students of the creative nonfiction genre, this volume is essential

There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of narrative work published by Chicana and Latina authors in the past 5 to 10 years. Nonetheless, there has been little attempt to catalog this material. This reference provides convenient access to all forms of narrative written by Chicana and Latina authors from the early 1940s through 2002. In doing so, it helps users locate these works and surveys the growth of this vast body of literature. The volume cites more than 2,750 short stories, novels, novel excerpts, and autobiographies written by some 600 Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Nuyorican women authors. These citations are grouped in five indexes: an author/title index, title/author index, anthology index, novel index, and autobiography index. Short annotations are provided for the anthologies, novels, and autobiographies. Thus the user who knows the title of a work can discover the author, the other works the author has written, and the anthologies in which the author's shorter pieces have been reprinted, along with information about particular works.

Akielas has lost his magic and is now on a journey to recover it. Caim, the demigod, was captured by the Specters. The Specters need one more Cosmo Jewel to be at full power and use the energy of the eclipse to cast their spell upon the world. Hope seems lost and the tri-eclipse is near. However, with all the chaos that has happened, there is still light. A new mage is protecting the last remnant of the dragon gods. The Effeelions who live in the sky lend Akielas their forces. A new weapon is discovered to defeat his enemy. Time is running out and Akielas is quickly running out of options. The fairy king foretells of the world's doom. An old friend returns from beyond Necrovania to give him a helping hand. The final battle is here and the Specters must be defeated before the tri-eclipse strips the world of all its magic.

Provides information on Mexican history and culture, and shares advice on sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment