Fred Valdez – författare

Much of what we currently know about the ancient Maya concerns the activities of the elites who ruled the societies and left records of their deeds carved on the monumental buildings and sculptures that remain as silent testimony to their power and status. But what do we know of the common folk who labored to build the temple complexes and palaces and grew the food that fed all of Maya society? This pathfinding book marshals a wide array of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence to offer the fullest understanding to date of the lifeways of ancient Maya commoners. Senior and emerging scholars contribute case studies that examine such aspects of commoner life as settlement patterns, household organization, and subsistence practices. Their reports cover most of the Maya area and the entire time span from Preclassic to Postclassic. This broad range of data helps resolve Maya commoners from a faceless mass into individual actors who successfully adapted to their social environment and who also held primary responsibility for producing the food and many other goods on which the whole Maya society depended.

A fast moving novel of faith, love, war and romance that brings tolife young Francisco Cordova. A Texas born Mexican American,(Tejanos asthey were referred to) Francisco was born and raised on the large Trullyhorse ranch and farm. As were his parents and grandparents before him,working and training horses for the rodeo. Part of young Franciscosjob, other than to grow up learning to ride and train horses,was tolook after young Rose Trully, the only child of Judge John Trully, theowner of the ranch and his familys employer. As teenagers, he and Rosehad to suppress their love for each other fearing there parents wouldseparate them. The outbreak of or war in 1941 changed everyones life.Rose went off to Harvard to study law as her father had and Franciscoenlisted in the Army Air Corp serving as a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber.His plane was seriously damaged in aerial combat over German occupiedFrance where he bailed out. Unconscious and wounded he was rescued bya beautiful young woman in the French Resistance only to learn he hadlost his memory, thus beginning two and a half years of war,romance, andadventure.