ustxtxb_obs_2010_09_17_50_00029-00000_000.pdf

2.4rctacion r conicarort0 ,3 cct doalluarnoinscabcisi beats, tv ao. ;Sod ,1112 era ro:nadao quctip a lao7actiatt CHRONICLE OF THE NARVAEZ EXPEDITION 13v Alvar Ntinez Cabeza de Vaca PENGUIN CLASSICS 160 PAGES, $14 Book cover image COURTESY OF THE WITTLIFF COLLECTIONS, ALKEK LIBRARY, TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY-SAN MARCOS 9 READ selections from the book -1 at txlo.com/narvaez Vernon Fisher INTRODUCTION BY FRANCES COLPITT INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL AUPING FOREWORD BY NED RIFKIN With over 150 superb illustrations, this is the most current and comprehensive retrospective of the work of internationally acclaimed postmodern artist Vernon Fisher, whose bold and innovative multimedia work suggests stories with multiple meanings and indecipherable conclusions. M. GEORGIA HEGARTY DUNKERLY CONTEMPORARY ART SERIES H4 color plates $55.00 hardcover The Perfect Machine E” ; L E 1 1-1 1 In this picture hook that will appeal to children and adults alike, collage artist Lance Letscher recounts a quest to build the perfect machine and the surprising discovery about the wellsprings of creativity it inspires. 45 color plates, 15 vignettes, :;6 text uoikq.t,c ,, \(9.95 hardcovf4r Avant-Garde Art and Artists in Mexico Anita Brenner’s our nas of The Roaring Twenties EDITED BY SUSANNAH JOEL GLUSKER FOREWORD BY CARLOS MONSIVAIS With nearly 600 images by photographers and artists including Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Deigo Rivera, .Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jean Charlot, Rufmo Tamayo, Jose Guadalupe Posada, and Lola Alvarez Bravo, this journal by the author of Idols Behind Altars and The Wind That Swept Mexico constitutes a spectacular portrait of the “Mexican Renaissance.” THE WILLIAM AND BETTYE NOWLIN SERIES IN ART, HISTORY, AND CULTURE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 595 color and B&W photos $125.00 hardcover two volumes in a slipcase Sacred Modern Faith, Activism, and Aesthetics in the Mend Collection ili www.utexaspress.c This illuminating ethnography of the Menil Collection explores how the Collection embodies its founders’ desire to bind the sacred to the modern and how the Menils’ legacy is being perpetuated and contested beyond their lifetimes. 35 B&W photos $ 45.00 hardcover UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS Read more about these books online. 800.252.3206 LOST BOOKS OF TEXAS Naked in Galveston by Stayton Bonner LVAR Nu&t. Z CABEZA DE VACA’S Chronicle of the Narvciez Expedition the first written account of what is now Texashas enough bloodlet ting, cannibalism and equine deaths to fill a Cormac McCarthy novel. A Spanish conquistador looking to make his fortune, de Vaca departs for the New World in 1527 as part of the Narvaez expedition, a five-ship flo tilla carrying 600 men, including two Catholic priests. Disaster strikes quickly. The conquistadors encounter a hurricane in Cuba. The storm flings small boats atop trees and dashes men against rocks, leaving them dis figured beyond recognition. Sixty men and 20 horses Oyster-filled bays, buffalo-covered plains and searing deserts where men shed their skin “like snakes.” perish before Chapter 1 is through, causing de Vaca to state, “Such a terrifying thing has never been experienced.” Things continue downhill from there. Unprepared for Florida’s swamplandarmor tends to get a tad warmde Vaca’s crew is further diminished by disease, starvation and Indian attacks. The conquistador recounts tales of cannibalism and arrows piercing people’s necks in a matter-of-fact waydeath is so commonplace that survival becomes noteworthy. De Vaca is one of 15 Spaniards remaining when they arrive starved and naked on Galveston Island. He stays as a laborer among the natives for six years, gloomily noting the three types of ever-present mosquitoes. Deciding to try his luck elsewhere, de Vaca marches inland through present-day San Antonio, Austin, Midland and El Paso alongside three remaining survivorstwo young nobles and a Moroccan slave named Estevanico. Texas is described as having oyster-filled bays, buffalo-covered plains, and searing deserts where men shed their skins “like snakes.” Alternately beaten and welcomed by warring tribes, de Vaca and his men eventually come to be regarded as healers and wander unharmed across the Southwest until they encounter some countrymen along present-day Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, and sail for Spain. Chronicle remains an enigma. De Vaca wrote the account for Spain’s King Charles V in hope of gaining a royal commission. Scholars argue over the veracity of some of the conquistador’s claims. There are inconsistencies and passages believed to have been written for political motivesbut modern anthropologists find his story an invaluable description of pre-Anglo North American cultures like the Apalachees and Coahuiltecans. A 1555 edition of the Chronicle resides in San Marcos’ Wittliff Collections, alongside McCarthy’s literary archives, for those inclined to read how Texas has always been no country for old men. El Stayton Bonner is a research assistant at Outside magazine in Santa Fe.