Cosas
Love and friendship, art and craft, language and culture are the subjects of this look back at one woman’s experiences in Mexico over a period of twenty years.
What first propels Linda Grant Niemann south are the migrants she encounters in her job as a railroad brakeman in the Southwest. She decides to learn Spanish, and in Mexico she soon meets some surprising kindred spirits. An admirer of craft and expertise, Niemann seeks out individual artists who make exquisite things—Otomi papermakers, the families who produce the famous ceramics of Mata Ortiz, the man in Michoacán who knows how to fashion full-size jaguar thrones in bent cane.
Some of her searches lead her to tiny villages and to artists who seldom get to meet their own fans. Niemann wonders if she is experiencing an ordinary shopaholic’s obsession or if this is something more. The something more reveals itself as the connection of one artist to another.
Linda Grant Niemann is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University. Her most recent book is Railroad Noir: The American West at the End of the Twentieth Century. She lives in Marietta, Georgia.
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. A Tale of Two Mexicos
Chapter Two. Where I’m From
Chapter Three. Copper Canyon
Chapter Four. Learning Spanish
Chapter Five. A Time of Desperation
Chapter Six. The Magic Mountain
Chapter Seven. The Spirit of the Tomato
Chapter Eight. The Day of the Dead
Chapter Nine. Hermanas, Sisters
Chapter Ten. Real de Catorce
Chapter Eleven. Cave of the Olla
Chapter Twelve. The Strength of the Maya Woman
Chapter Thirteen. Farewell
Chapter Fourteen. The Fun Train to Chiapas
Chapter Fifteen. Travels with Betty
Chapter Sixteen. An Ear and a Tail
Chapter Seventeen. Shopping
Chapter Eighteen. Danzón
Chapter Nineteen. Tesmole
Chapter Twenty. Sabor, Flavor
Chapter Twenty-one. El Pedimento de Amialtepec
Chapter Twenty-two. Land of the Sun
Chapter Twenty-three. Welcome Home, Son of Pakal
Glossary of Spanish Words and Phrases
