Jose A. Rivera – författare

Conflicts between Hispanic farmers and developers made for compelling reading in 'The Milagro Beanfield War', the famous novel of life in a northern New Mexico village in which tradition triumphs over modernity. But as cities grow and industries expand, are acequias, or community irrigation ditches, a wise and efficient use of water in the arid Southwest? Jos Rivera presents the contemporary case for the value of acequias and the communities they nurture in the river valleys of southern Colorado and New Mexico. Recognising that 'water is the lifeblood of the community', Rivera delineates an acequia culture based on a reciprocal relationship between irrigation and community. The acequia experience grows out of a conservation ethic and a tradition of sharing that should be recognised and preserved in an age of increasing competition for scarce water resources.

In 1900 Celedonio Mondragón and several other San Luis valley residents formed the Sociedad Protección Mútua de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU) to help prevent the usurpation of Hispanic land ownership and to combat discrimination against wage laborers. The SPMDTU rapidly grew into a tristate organization with sixty-five local concilios (lodges) in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Hispanic mutual aid societies proliferated at the turn of the twentieth century, providing such services as religious aid, burial funding, low-cost insurance, and fraternal support. The SPMDTU consolidated relief and support services and became a powerful force in helping families survive the transformations wrought by the influx of Anglos, the federal government, and new technologies. In the early twentieth century, the federal government became the primary welfare service provider for rural communities, but the SPMDTU has survived in the Southwest, continuing its traditions of fellowship and support.Beginning with the social and economic conditions that gave rise to La Sociedad and culminating with its centennial anniversary in 2000, José Rivera examines the SPMDTU as a case study of collective action in the context of a pluralistic American society, rapid social change, and the dynamics of mobilization for cultural survival. Rivera's study explores the core values that have bonded SPMDTU members across generations and have sustained the organization for more than a century and addresses the question of whether or not La Sociedad will survive in the twenty-first century.

Water for the People features twenty-five essays by world-renowned acequia scholars and community members that highlight acequia culture, use, and history in New Mexico, northern Mexico, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Spain, the Middle East, Nepal, and the Philippines, situating New Mexico's acequia heritage and its inherent sustainable design within a global framework. The lush landscapes of the upper Río Grande watershed created by acequias dating from as far back as the late sixteenth century continue to irrigate their communities today despite threats of prolonged drought, urbanization, private water markets, extreme water scarcity, and climate change. Water for the People celebrates acequia practices and traditions worldwide and shows how these ancient irrigation systems continue to provide arid regions with a model for water governance, sustainable food systems, and community traditions that reaffirm a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the land year after year.

Cilia, Ciliated Epithelium, and Ciliary Activity reviews the state of knowledge of the activity of cilia and of the role these structures play in maintaining the normal physiology of the body, especially in the respiratory and genital systems. It relates the diversity of manifestations shown by cilia and ciliated epithelium in health and disease, and the effect of the physicochemical agents studied which influence the life and death of these structures. The volume is organized into five sections. Section A provides a general discussion on the history of studies on the ciliated epithelium; the distribution and morphology of cilia; development, regeneration and transformation of ciliated cells; and culture of cilia and ciliated epithelium. Section B deals with ciliary activity while Section C examines the effects of physical and chemical agents on cilia. Section D takes up the function of cilia. Section E contains a list of references of the literature on these topics from the historical beginning of studies in the field to the time of writing. This volume is intended to be a ready-made reference source for workers in the fields of biological sciences and medicine.