La Vida Nortena [antikvár]

Foreword "Somos la raza amarga" (We are a bitter race), say Sonorans half-joldngly about themselves. Or of their homeland, "Sonora: where civilization ends and carne a-sada [grilled skirt steak] begins." And thanks be to God that it is so! The Mexican state that borders Arizona on the south is home to people whose ethos has been deeply etched by geography and history. From La Serrana, the towering mountain ranges and narrow elevated valleys of the Western Sierra Madre that dominate its eastern half, to the desert plains of the west that fall away to the Sea of Cortés, Sonora is a land whose past has been characterized by isolation. From prehistoric times to the present, many of its native inhabitants have been forced to rely on themselves—on their families and immediate communities—rather than on a faceless national or global economy for their daily needs. When cash is in short supply, barter and sharing take its place. When there are no cars or trucks, then carts, wagons, horses, burros, mules, bicycles, and even feet will do.