A combination of button accordion and bajo sexto, conjunto originated in the Texas-Mexico borderlands as a popular dance music and became a powerful form of regional identity. Today, listeners and musicians around the world have embraced the genre and the work of conjunto masters like Flaco Jiménez and Mingo Saldívar. Erin E. Bauer follows conjunto from its local origins through three processes of globalization--migration via media, hybridization, and appropriation--that boosted the music’s reach. As Bauer shows, conjunto’s encounter with globalizing forces raises fundamental questions. What is conjunto stylistically and socioculturally? Does context change how we categorize it? Do we consider the music to be conjunto based on its musical characteristics or due to its performance by Jiménez and other regional players? How do similar local genres like Tejano and norteño relate to ideas of categorization? A rare look at a fascinating musical phenomenon, Flaco’s Legacy reveals how conjunto came to encompass new people, places, and styles.

THE STORY: Maggie is a newly single, junk-food-binging shoplifter looking to change her life and her self-hating ways. Paul is her passionately convicted, formerly four-hundred-pound compulsive-overeating sponsor in a twelve-step program for recove

Never Hesitate By: Arthur V. Johnson Ant and Ty-ty are two cousins who are bonded by blood and have a very close relationship, like brothers. Ant was raised in a two-parent home in the Irish Channel, which is considered a mid-class section in Uptown New Orleans. Ty-ty, on the other hand, lost his father to the most evil Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana. Ty-ty was left to be raised by his mother and the streets. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans. Ant and Ty-ty never knew the water could wash the cousins all the way into New York, but they will soon learn how rotten some apples can get. Will the two southern cousins overcome all obstacles that they face?

A riveting true story of a mother who fought back against the drug cartels in Mexico, pursuing her own brand of justice to avenge the kidnapping and murder of her daughter—from a global investigative correspondent for The New York Times “Azam Ahmed has written a page-turning mystery but also a stunning, color-saturated portrait of the collapse of formal justice in one Mexican town.”—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Directorate S A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library Fear Is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodríguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorized and controlled what was once Miriam’s quiet hometown of San Fernando, Mexico, almost one hundred miles from the U.S. border. Having dyed her hair red as a disguise, Miriam watches, waits, and then orchestrates the arrest of this man, exacting her own version of justice. Woven into this deeply researched, moving account is the story of how cartels built their power in Mexico, escalated the use of violence, and kidnapped and murdered tens of thousands. Karen was just one of the many people who disappeared, and Miriam, a brilliant, strategic, and fearless woman, begged for help from the authorities and paid ransom money she could not afford in hopes of saving her daughter. When that failed, she decided that “fear is just a word,” and began a crusade to track down Karen’s killers and to help other victimized families in their search for justice. What do people do when their country and the peaceful town where they have grown up become unrecognizable, suddenly places of violence and fear? Azam Ahmed takes us into the grieving of a country and a family to tell the mesmerizing story of a brave and brilliant woman determined to find out what happened to her daughter, and to see that the criminals who murdered her were punished. Fear Is Just a Word is an unforgettable and moving portrait of a woman, a town, and a country, and of what can happen when violent forces leave people to seek justice on their own.

Max Baca is one of the foremost artists of Tex-Mex music, the infectious dance music sweeping through the Texas-Mexico borderlands since the 1940s. His Grammy-winning group, Los Texmaniacs, and his extensive work with the accordionist Flaco Jiménez established the Albuquerque-born and San Antonio-based bajo sexto player/bandleader as a spokesperson for a too-often-maligned culture. The list of artists who have contributed to Los Texmaniacs' albums include Alejandro Escovedo, Joe Ely, Rick Trevino, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Lyle Lovett. Max Baca was born to play music. By his eighth birthday, he was already playing in his father's band. Polkas, redovas, corridos, boleros, chotises, huapangos, and waltzes are in his blood. Baca's music grew out of the harsh life of the borderland, and the duality of borderland music--its keening beauty--remains a recurring theme in everything he does.

Delgado's expos sheds light on Texas gangs, the Texas prison system, the corrupt authority figures charged with running the Texas prison system, and the government figures determined to protect it.

During the years of Mexican President Calderone, drug cartels fought pitched battles against other cartels, the police, the army, and the good citizens of Mexico. Kidnappings, murder, threats, and intimidation by drug cartels impinged on every facet of Mexican life. This story of the de la Vega family in Culiacan, the state capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, tells of their struggles with the death of their beloved sister and the courageous brothers who become a force exacting revenge on the Pacific cartel. The family ancestors moved away from Southern California during the 1840's as the influx of white settlers changed the culture and created certain discriminations against Mexican-Americans. The family legend is the de la Vegas sold out and relocated to Culiacan, Mexico where they quickly established prominence socially and financially. In Culiacan, the whispers are frequently heard of their great wealth and of being descendents of the great Zorro. Eduardo de la Vega, known for his dedication to his community and his patients as a noted benefactor and surgeon, and Teodoro de la Vega, a Jesuit priest, beloved by all who know him, vow to protect their city from the cartel. The de la Vegas act with extraordinary stealth, boldly striking at the cartel. Eduardo de la Vega leads a secret life of retribution abetted by his adopted brother, the business wizard, Flaco' Salas. This is a tale of adventure, action love, honor, and strength of family despite constant danger and threat.