BARCA, MADAM CALDERON DE LA. Life in Mexico, 1843; reprinted by Dutton about 1930. Among books on Mexican life to be ranked first both in readability and revealing qualities.
BELL, HORACE. On the Old West Coast, New York, 1930. A golden treasury of anecdotes. OP.
BENTLEY, HAROLD W. A Dictionary of Spanish Terms in English, New York, 1932. In a special way this book reveals the Spanish-Mexican influence on life in the Southwest; it also guides to books in English that reflect this influence. OP.
BISHOP, MORRIS. The Odyssey of Cabeza de Vaca, New York, 1933. Better written than Cabeza de Vaca's own narrative. OP.
BLANCO, ANTONIO FIERRO DE. The Journey of the Flame, Boston, 1933. Bully and flavorsome; the Californias. OP.
BOLTON, HERBERT E. Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1916. The cream of explorer narratives, well edited. Coronado on the Turquoise Trail (originally published in New York, 1949, under the title Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains; now issued by University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque). By his own work and by directing other scholars, Dr. Bolton has surpassed all other American historians of his time in output on Spanish-American history. Coronado is the climax of his many volumes. Its fault is being too worshipful of everything Spanish and too uncritical. A little essay on Coronado in Haniel Long's Pinon Country goes a good way to put this belegended figure into proper perspective.
BRENNER, ANITA. Idols Behind Altars, 1929. OP. The pagan worship that endures among Mexican Indians. The Wind that Swept Mexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942, 1943, OP. Your Mexican Holiday, revised 1947. No writer on modern Mexico has a clearer eye or clearer intellect than Anita Brenner; she maintains good humor in her realism and never lapses into phony romance.
CABEZA DE VACA'S Narrative. Any translation procurable. One is included in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, edited by F. W. Hodge and T. H. Lewis, now published by Barnes & Noble, New York.
The most dramatic and important aftermath of Cabeza de Vaca's twisted walk across the continent was Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Cibola. Coronado's precursor was Fray Marcos de Niza. The Journey of Fray Marcos de Niza, by Cleve Hallenbeck, with illustrations and decorations by Jose Cisneros, is one of the most beautiful books in format published in America. It was designed and printed by Carl Hertzog of El Paso, printer without peer between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and is issued by Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.
CASTANEDA'S narrative of Coronado's expedition. Winship's translation is preferred. It is included in Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, cited above.