Product Description
Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times
... Read more

Product Description
The Mexico Reader is a vivid introduction to muchos Méxicos—the many Mexicos, or the many varied histories and cultures that comprise contemporary Mexico. Unparalleled in scope and written for the traveler, student, and expert alike, the collection offers a comprehensive guide to the history and culture of Mexico—including its difficult, uneven modernization; the ways the country has been profoundly shaped not only by Mexicans but also by those outside its borders; and the extraordinary economic, political, and ideological power of the Roman Catholic Church. The book looks at what underlies the chronic instability, violence, and economic turmoil that have characterized periods of Mexico’s history while it also celebrates the country’s rich cultural heritage.

A diverse collection of more than eighty selections, The Mexico Reader brings together poetry, folklore, fiction, polemics, photoessays, songs, political cartoons, memoirs, satire, and scholarly writing. Many pieces are by Mexicans, and a substantial number appear for the first time in English. Works by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes are included along with pieces about such well-known figures as the larger-than-life revolutionary leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata; there is also a comminiqué from a more recent rebel, Subcomandante Marcos. At the same time, the book highlights the perspectives of many others—indigenous peoples, women, politicians, patriots, artists, soldiers, rebels, priests, workers, peasants, foreign diplomats, and travelers.

The Mexico Reader explores what it means to be Mexican, tracing the history of Mexico from pre-Columbian times through the country’s epic revolution (1910–17) to the present day. The materials relating to the latter half of the twentieth century focus on the contradictions and costs of postrevolutionary modernization, the rise of civil society, and the dynamic cross-cultural zone marked by the two thousand-mile Mexico-U.S. border. The editors have divided the book into several sections organized roughly in chronological order and have provided brief historical contexts for each section. They have also furnished a lengthy list of resources about Mexico, including websites and suggestions for further reading.

Lively and insightful, The Mexico Reader will appeal to all interested in learning about Mexico—aficionados, travelers and scholars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fajitas for the mind
Mexico's history in bite size chunks, and with plent of meat. Cannot recommend this book too higly. Nearly 800 pages containing close to 100 essays and excerpts, all carefully chosen and very readable, cover Mexico's history from the bad old heart-ripping-out days through the machinations of modern politics. While this kind of book can so often be dry and mind-numbing, this collection is fresh and fascinating, partly because of the varying viewpoints and writing style of the many authors.

I have to give it a 5 star rating too
The Mexico Reader is a compilation of essays, where you hear/read the authors voices, not the 21st century's historians point of view.What I enjoyed most about this book was the historian's selection of essays dealing with the same time period.Quite often they would chose very compelling essays showing opposite ends of the political discussion.That I found refreshing!

The Mexico Reader
If I had known this book before I could have helped my students a lot better than I did. Why do I like this book so much? Because it is a very
wise selection of a very wide variety of texts about Mexican history and culture. It is a great anthology that will give its readers a very good picture of Mexican Culture. The authors chosen are excellent. If you are a student or a teacher of Mexican Culture, this is a book you should read. Moreover, for those of you that only want to reach the Medieval ideal: Mixing learning and enjoyment, this is also a book for you.
Dr. Rafael Furlong De la G. (PhD Litt.)

Outstanding collection
Different and refreshing approach to Mexican history. Insightful and informative selections from both well known and more obscure original sources. Sections are brief and on point. Excellent bedside book. Outstanding as a stand alone work and valuable as a reference to more complete treatment of subjects you find particularly interesting. Balanced and objective. Best work on Mexico I've read in quite some time.

Excellent documentary collection....
Anyone looking for documents for use in a history class, would be well advised to use this text. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Informative & helpful book
This book introduces a variety of Mexican cultural facets and also includes a brief history of the country. The only thing lacking is a list or glossary of common Mexican expressions or slang.

we use it as a textbook!
We teach a summer elective in Mexico for health professional students. Our 2 week in-country course focuses on learning the culture and language and health care systems of Mexico. This book is very useful because it gives a quick down and dirty synopsis of Mexican history (much longer and messier than U.S.history)that allows us, as teachers, to move into what we see as the aftermath, in the country today. It then moves onto the author's own experiences navigating the culture, with excellent tips, "to blend in" and understand what is going on around you. The details the author provides, such as going up to a stranger's house in the country, and asking "do you have any extra food today?" were true 20 years ago and are still true today. This provides the cultural context and informational detail we need, dealing with immigrants from these areas, in health care settings. It is not a guidebook. It is a hybrid...and very useful for those travelers who blaze their own paths, not the usual tourist tracks of Mexico.

Social and Cultural Mexico
I read this after reading the US State Travel Dept. Info Sheet which tends to be overly conservative and makes places sound like demilitarized zones. This guide put a little reality back into it. The author gives somecultural tips mainly for the gringo (US citizen) to help mostly in socialsituations. Especially useful, were the tips on how to recognize a goodMexican restaurant, how to address people in social situations, and otherMexicanisms such as various commonly used slang. The author also describesregional differences and urban/rural differences you may come across. Ifeel this is a good guide to get a feel for the people and the placeespecially for the casual visitor going to the non-tourist areas of Mexicoso you don't act like such a gringo. Not really a book to keep as along-term reference to Mexico, I'd try to borrow it before buying it. Theauthor does give minor Mexican differences in pronouncing Spanish, but Ithink he assumes most readers have a basis for Spanish, or will have aphrase book for this.

What a Shock
Not recommended.The biggest shock was the author's pedantry.The first third of the book is an obscure treatment of history which assumes too much knowledge on the part of the reader.The book needs a glossary with thepronunciation of unusual spanish words, names, and places.I found myselfconstantly stumbling over them.

Fascinating anecdotes, but needs an editor
This entry in the Culture Shock! series provides a wealth of information about Mexico, but the author's presentation is rambling and disorganized.Of course, one could take this as a metaphor for Mexico:things appear to be chaotic, but generally they can be made to work.Tips for doing business in Mexico and handling social occasions are generally well-presented.The section on personal safety, in which the author relates his attempts to stay overnight in the worst sections of two Mexican cities to tempt fate, is instructive (he emerges unscathed) but does leave me wishing the jacket carried a photo of this fearless adventurer.(See the review of Culture Shock! Japan for general info on the series.) ... Read more

Product Description
"Culture of Empire is an intersection of intellectual history with Chicano history, labor history, and Mexican history. It is a historically rich and well-organized study that promises to confirm the author's profile as one of the preeminent scholars of Chicano history and transborder studies."--Zaragosa Vargas, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Santa BarbaraA history of the Chicano community cannot be complete without taking into account the United States' domination of the Mexican economy beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writes Gilbert G. González. For that economic conquest inspired U.S. writers to create a "culture of empire" that legitimated American dominance by portraying Mexicans and Mexican immigrants as childlike "peons" in need of foreign tutelage, incapable of modernizing without Americanizing, that is, submitting to the control of U.S. capital. So powerful was and is the culture of empire that its messages about Mexicans shaped U.S. public policy, particularly in education, throughout the twentieth century and even into the twenty-first. In this stimulating history, Gilbert G. González traces the development of the culture of empire and its effects on U.S. attitudes and policies toward Mexican immigrants. Following a discussion of the United States' economic conquest of the Mexican economy, González examines several hundred pieces of writing by American missionaries, diplomats, business people, journalists, academics, travelers, and others who together created the stereotype of the Mexican peon and the perception of a "Mexican problem." He then fully and insightfully discusses how this misinformation has shaped decades of U.S. public policy toward Mexican immigrants and the Chicano (now Latino) community, especially in terms of the way university training of school superintendents, teachers, and counselors drew on this literature in forming the educational practices that have long been applied to the Mexican immigrant community. ... Read more

Product Description
Winner of the 2005 Society for American Archaeology Book Award.This authoritative book explores every aspect of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, from Paleo-Indian times to the sixteenth century. It provides overviews of the best-known regional cultures, such as those of the Olmecs, Maya, Zapotecs, and Aztecs, as well as balanced coverage of Mesoamerica as a whole.

The book covers every major site, from La Venta and Monte Albán to Teotihuacan, Palenque, and Tenochtitlan. It includes detailed discussion of major cultural themes, such as the ball game, and is lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and maps. It has now been thoroughly updated to include new interpretations and recent discoveries.
459 illustrations, 80 in color ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great!
Great book, no markings that I've seen. Should have been under super awesome condition. :D

The Complete ancient Mexico reader
With one look at this book its easy to say it was written in a textbook fashion for high school or maybe introductory college, one might assume the depth of the information discussed is only an overview or an introduction. This is deceiving.The second edition of this wonderful book is packed with clear and crisp illustrations, 426 to be exact, and covers central American culture from Mesoamerica to Motecuzoma in detail. At nearly 600 pages this is a behemoth read with tiny side notes and explanations woven into the tightly knit text that fits neatly into 5 separate sections. I would recommend this book for anyone into central American studies and would think it makes a great course textbook for upper college instructors. ... Read more

Product Description
The text provides an ethnographic analysis of the social and cultural aspects of installing and managing a piped drinking water system in La Purificacion Tepetitla, a community located in the densely populated and semiarid region of the Valley of Mexico. The account shows how politics and culture shape community initiatives to develop adequate and equitable drinking water supplies in the Valley of Mexico's changing ecology. The research is based on 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, carried out from 1993 to 2000. The book applies the culture concept to drinking water issues and furthers students' understanding of human diversity in terms of economics, ecological adaptation, politics, kinship, gender, ethnicity, health beliefs and practices, and religion and ritual. ... Read more

Product Description
Migration is a way of life for many individuals and even families in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some who leave their rural communities go only as far as the state capital, while others migrate to other parts of Mexico and to the United States. Most send money back to their communities, and many return to their homes after a few years. Migration offers Oaxacans economic opportunities that are not always available locally--but it also creates burdens for those who stay behind. This book explores the complex constellation of factors that cause rural Oaxacans to migrate, the historical and contemporary patterns of their migration, the effects of migration on families and communities, and the economic, cultural, and social reasons why many Oaxacans choose not to migrate. Jeffrey Cohen draws on fieldwork and survey data from twelve communities in the central valleys of Oaxaca to give an encompassing view of the factors that drive migration and determine its outcomes. He demonstrates conclusively that, while migration is an effective way to make a living, no single model can explain the patterns of migration in southern Mexico. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Mexico comprises 32 diverse states, and this reference is the first to succinctly profile each. Each chapter devoted to one of the states provides a contemporary snapshot of the most important information to know about the state, with essay sections on its characteristics, flora and fauna, cultural groups and languages, history, economy,social customs, arts, noteworthy places, and cuisine with representative recipes. Familiar and noteworthy names in Mexican culture are highlighted in the applicable sections. The format is perfect for students studying Spanish and travelers and general readers wanting a different angle from that provided in guidebooks and more authoritativeness than they can offer.Readers learn about thepulsing metropolis of Mexico City to the jungle isolation found in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Considering the huge political, social, and economic focus on Mexico and the number of Mexican immigrants in the United Status today, Americans need to know more about Mexico and the homeland of these new immigrants. Make this one of the sources you recommend to your patrons to get a quick yet substantial feel for the states and their people. A map and photo accompany each chapter, and the volume contains a chronology, glossary, and selected bibliography.

Product Description
From the workplace to the Mall, Americans and Mexicans come together as co-workers, students, friends, and neighbors. For any American who encounters some of the millions of Mexicans residing in the U.S—as well as travelers to Mexico, retirees contemplating a move, businesspeople looking to build U.S.-Mexico collaboratives—MEXICANS & AMERICANS: Cracking the Cultural Code gets to the very heart of our cultural differences and demonstrates what it takes to build a cultural fluency essential to success, on both sides of the border. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Must Read for Anyone Planning to Move to Mexico
Something that I have to be careful of when I write about my experience as an American expat in Mexico is not to come across in my prose as an expat expert. I think I tend to do this, but be assured, it is unintentional. It is easy for any nonfiction writer to get into trouble with this.

I took a writer's workshop a few years ago where this warning was discussed. Whenever you write nonfiction, readers tend to regard you as an expert in the subject about which you write. It is mostly unavoidable since you, the writer, are not responsible for how someone interprets what you write. You cannot dictate your reader's perception of the prose you put on the page. No matter what you write, there is going to be someone, somewhere, who somehow takes it the wrong way. Such is the adventure of writing.

Lately, I've been investigating works on culture by specialists who I would interpret as indeed being experts in Mexican culture. I have had a great time looking at those who have gone before me. They have done decades of practical and academic investigation into the Mexican worldview that steadily flows through the culture of these wonderful people. I've been humbled, instructed, and corrected in what I've read, particularly by a book called, Mexicans & Americans Cracking the Cultural Code, written by cultural analyst Ned Crouch.

In some of the cultural bumps in my expat road I've been driving here in Mexico, I've run into things that have been, to use a hyperbole, mindboggling. However, Mr. Crouch, who is indeed academically and experientially qualified in Mexican culture, has given me criteria in his fine book with which to exist at peace with some of these cultural mysteries.

One particular thing that I learned is that you could become fluent in Spanish and never begin to crack the cultural code of Mexico. What is needed is Spanish fluency, which leads to Cultural fluency.

You've got to have both.

Americans from Hispanic heritage and who speak Spanish find it difficult to get along in Mexico's culture because they operate here with an American Cultural Worldview. You have to become not only bilingual but also bicultural to be a success here.

I recommend getting a copy of this book. If you are going to do business in Mexico, study in Mexico, teach ESL in Mexico, work in Mexico doing anything, or even if you plan on making this country your retirement home, you need to read this book.

Though it is slanted towards readers who plan on conducting business in Mexico, everything from the first word to the last is applicable for anyone who will be spending time in Mexico.



Doug Bower
THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO

He doesn't have a clue!
Well written book--BUT... He's a member of the elite writing for the elite. Having worked with wetbacks on the same job, I've found Mexicans to be no different than the sons of european immigrants working in our Pennsylvania Factories & mines. People are people. And our European immigrant sons and grandsons are as superstitious & family orientated as any Mexican!

Mexican workers laugh at management "suits" like the author the same as we American workers laugh at them. We know who run the factories and who decides how they are run day to day--and it isn't the guys sitting in the air conditioned offices. Bet you that in Mexico the 2nd shift works hard so 3rd shift can loaf/sleep just like in the states.

If you are concerned about the "Our Borders" issue.
What a sad comment it is that so many Americans, well-fed, self-righteous,and "Christian", have ganged up to make life even tougher for Mexican immigrants.

Read this knowledgeable description of the people south of us to understand their feelings toward the US. Ned Crouch knows Mexicans! and uses his experiences with Mexicans to explain their loving, well meant, somtimes stiffbacked, sometimes childlike behavior.

I leave the book grateful that these cheerful mostly hard striving people are our neighbors

A must for those doing business in Mexico
Thanks to Ned Crouch we now have a guide for understanding the differences between the American Business man and our Mexican friends and partners.This should be required reading for any company who is doing business in Mexico and are serious about developing lasting relationships.

Very good Book
As in every book, not everything you read is absolutely true, but it is a very good appproach to understand US and México cultures. ... Read more

Product Description
This nuanced book considers the role of religion and religiosity in modern Mexico, breaking new ground with an emphasis on popular religion and its relationship to politics. The contributors highlight the multifaceted role of religion, illuminating the ways that religion and religious devotion have persisted and changed since Mexican independence. Focusing on individual stories and vignettes and on local elements of religion, the contributors show that despite efforts to secularize society, religion continues to be a strong component of Mexican culture. Portraying the complexity of religiosity in Mexico in the context of an increasingly secular state, this book will be invaluable for all those interested in Latin American history and religion. ... Read more

Product Description
This multicultural activity book celebrates the myriad cultures of Mexico and Central America and their shared ancient Aztec and Mayan roots. For each country, a brief introduction is provided that includes illustrated maps and facts about population and geography. More than 40 projects and three dramatic play scripts explore the interconnectedness of these countries and help children experience aspects of daily life throughout the region including school, work, home, art and poetry, food and agriculture, and special holidays. Activities include embroidering Mayan designs, painting in the Salvadoran style, creating an ofrenda for the Day of the Dead, crafting political puppets, cooking chocobananas, and making piñatas. Engaging sidebars throughout the book provide children with an introduction to the Spanish language. Also included are tips for teachers who want to use the activities in the classroom, complete with more specific age ranges and suggested modifications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very politicized

I'm an elementary school Spanish teacher, and this book looked wonderful to me at first glance. Yes, there are lots of cute crafts and recipes, and lots of info about geography, history, and culture. However, there's definitely a whiff of PC here, and an anti-American, anti-European,
pro-illegal immigration slant. Lots of material about strikes, unions,
sweatshops, the evils of big business, etc. Yes, the history of Latin America is very complex, and colonization was not a pretty thing, but this book's leftist/socialist slant is excessive. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is suitable for ages 9 to 14 years. This updated book celebrates Mexico's heroes, past and present, and explores the values and the traditions of Mexicans at home, school, and work. A new easy-to-follow timeline has been added to show Mexico's history from the Olmecs to the 21st century. ... Read more

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"This book looks at the Sierra Mazateca and its inhabitants in a fresh, engaging, intelligent, and interesting way. . . . It will be useful to readers in various fields who are interested in ethnicity, identity, history, and/or ethnography."--Brian Stross, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at AustinSince the 1950s, the Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca, Mexico, has drawn a strange assortment of visitors and pilgrims--schoolteachers and government workers, North American and European spelunkers exploring the region's vast cave system, and counterculturalists from hippies (John Lennon and other celebrities supposedly among them) to New Age seekers, all chasing a firsthand experience of transcendence and otherness through the ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms "in context" with a Mazatec shaman. Over time, this steady incursion of the outside world has significantly influenced the Mazatec sense of identity, giving rise to an ongoing discourse about what it means to be "us" and "them." In this highly original ethnography, Benjamin Feinberg investigates how different understandings of Mazatec identity and culture emerge through talk that circulates within and among various groups, including Mazatec-speaking businessmen, curers, peasants, intellectuals, anthropologists, bureaucrats, cavers, and mushroom-seeking tourists. Specifically, he traces how these groups express their sense of culture and identity through narratives about three nearby yet strange discursive "worlds"--the "magic world" of psychedelic mushrooms and shamanic practices, the underground world of caves and its associated folklore of supernatural beings and magical wealth, and the world of the past or the past/present relationship. Feinberg's research refutes the notion of a static Mazatec identity now changed by contact with the outside world, showing instead that identity forms at the intersection of multiple transnational discourses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The Devil's Book of Culture
I've been interested in the Sierra Mazateca for years-- after spending time there, I read the handful of books written about it, yet felt that there was much more to be said.I was thrilled to discover that last year, someone finally wrote a well-researched ethnography about it.Feinberg's book is packed with fascinating observations and reflections on the way people in the Sierra Mazateca understand and talk about their lives, history, and "culture."I would recommend this book to anyone with a background in anthropology or a similar field who is interested in cultural identity negotiation and "indigenous-ness," Oaxaca, sacred mushrooms, and folklore about devils and caves.

catch a second class bus from the terminal near the market
I know for a fact that Ben Feinberg has watched over one hundred hours of "I Dream of Jeanie."

But if that's not enough to convince you to buy his book, you might consider the actual subject matter. How do people in small places not overcome by the hegemony of time and space most people reading this website live with conceive of time and space? Feinberg looks at this, dealing with different categories of time and such from the perspective of the Sierra Mazteca. How do you get to Oaxaca de Juarez from Juatla? Where is the United States, and who are these weird tourists?

Read the book for the answers to these questions and more.

Dresses make me feel pretty!
His analysis is brilliant.If you are unsatisfied after reading through once, then I suggest you purchase another copy and read it over again.

I really like kittens!
I know for a fact that Ben Feinberg has eaten Armour(tm) Potted Meat Food Product. ... Read more

Product Description

The Spectacular City, Mexico, and Colonial Hispanic Literary Culture tracks the three spectacular forces of New World literary culture--cities, festivals, and wonder--from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, from the Old World to the New, and from Mexico to Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. It treats a multitude of imperialist and anti-imperialist texts in depth, including poetry, drama, protofiction, historiography, and journalism. While several of the landmark authors studied, including Hernán Cortés and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, are familiar, others have received remarkably little critical attention. Similarly, in spotlighting creole writers, Merrim reveals an intertextual tradition in Mexico that spans two centuries. Because the spectacular city reaches its peak in the seventeenth century, Merrim's book also theorizes and details the spirited work of the New World Baroque. The result is the rich examination of a trajectory that leads from the Renaissance ordered city to the energetic revolts of the spectacular city and the New World Baroque.

Product Description
This book is suitable for ages 9 to 14 years. Brilliant new photos highlight Mexico's deserts, plains, rainforests, and mountains in this newly revised edition. ... Read more

Product Description

Mexico is a country rich in culture and beauty. Your young students willexplore this colorful and diverse land through activities andinformation intended to spark their imaginations. Your students will beguided through the activities in this book by Maria, a young Mexicangirl. They will learn about her home and family, favorite meals, games,and activities. Many different cross-curricular activities and projectsare included, enabling you to incorporate Mexico into every aspect ofyour classroom.

Product Description
A stunningly beautiful backdrop where cultures meet, meld, and thrive, the U.S.DMexico borderlands is one of the most dynamic regions in the Americas. On the Border explores little-known corners of this fascinating area of the world in a rich collection of essays. Beginning with an exploration of mining and the rise of Tijuana, the book examines a number of aspects of the region's social and cultural history, including urban growth and housing, the mysterious underworld of border-town nightlife, a film noir treatment of the Peteet family suicides, borderlands cuisine, the life of squatters, and popular religion. As stimulating as it is lively, On the Border will spark a new appreciation for the range of social and cultural experiences in the borderlands. ... Read more

Product Description
These essays celebrate Mexico City as a centre of cultural creativity, diversity and dynamism, trace its history from the founding of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan to the present day, and explore how the varied experiences of its inhabitants have been represented in poetry, film, and photography.

Looking at the pre-Columbian city, colonial city and modern city, contributors show how Mexico City has grown organically, largely developed by waves of immigrants with new ideas and aspirations. While they have often envisioned the city in new ways, they have been unable to escape totally its historical past, and indeed at times have positively embraced it to serve contemporary political ends. As the city has grown, what it symbolizes to its inhabitants and how they experience the city has become fragmented by social class and ethnicity. There is not one Mexico City, but many.

Drawing from the fields of archaeology, history, political sociology, literature, cinema and photography, this volume provides a unique insight into the history and culture of Mexico City. ... Read more

Product Description

Since ancient times, the most important foods in the Mexican diet have been corn, beans, squash, tomatillos, and chile peppers. The role of these ingredients in Mexican food culture through the centuries is the basis of this volume. In addition, students and general readers will discover the panorama of food traditions in the context of European contact in the sixteenth century—when the Spaniards introduced new foodstuffs, adding variety to the diet—and the profound changes that have occurred in Mexican food culture since the 1950s. Recent improvements in technology, communications, and transportation, changing women's roles, and migration from country to city and to and from the United States have had a much greater impact.

Their basic, traditional diet served the Mexican people well, providing them with wholesome nutrition and sufficient energy to live, work, and reproduce, as well as to maintain good health. Chapter 1 traces the origins of the Mexican diet and overviews food history from pre-Hispanic times to recent developments. The principal foods of Mexican cuisine and their origins are explained in the second chapter. Mexican women have always been responsible for everyday cooking, including the intensive preparation of grinding corn, peppers, and spices by hand, and a chapter is devoted to this work and a discussion of how traditional ways are supplemented today with modern conveniences and kitchen aids such as blenders and food processors. Surveys of class and regional differences in typical meals and cuisines present insight into the daily lives of a wide variety of Mexicans. The Mexican way of life is also illuminated in chapters on eating out, whether at the omnipresent street stalls or at fondas, and special occasions, including the main fiestas and rites of passage. A final chapter on diet and health discusses current health concerns, particularly malnutrition, anemia, diabetes, and obesity.