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Right from his first book, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento shows his immense literary quality as well as an enormous statesman foresight.

Facundo is a text about geography, sociology, politics, and history –all blended together– as well as the clear preview of the government program of who was to become the president of Argentina 15 years later.

Sarmiento wrote Facundo in 1845. The Argentine republic at that time was just 35 years old (since its emancipation, in 1810), of which the last 12 had been under the rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas, the Buenos Aires governor self appointed "Restorer of the law", title that barely concealed the autocratic essence of his government.

The confrontation of two opposed conceptions about political power: uneducated autocratic rule versus cultivated institutionalized government, is the basis of this work, first conceived as a political pamphlet and finally grown into masterpiece heights due to the overflowing Sarmiento talent.

The statesman sets the tone, with no concessions to romanticise what he considers faults in a society with aspirations to reach civilized status. Thus, in opposition to Charles Darwin and many British subjects who traversed the pampas at the time, Sarmiento finds no positive aspects in the "gauchos". His sharp descriptions of the tracker, the horse tamer, the maverick, etc., show more precision than sympathy.

Against that background, Sarmiento unwinds the Facundo Quiroga biography. In his writing Facundo becomes the archetype of the mean, brave, cruel, uneducated, dominant, outstanding horseman, regarded with high esteem by and among the rural masses, but with little or null positive use to a civilized conception.

The list of savage deeds by Quiroga and his "Montoneros" hordes: bullying, threats, and sacking of whole cities in La Rioja, San Luis, San Juan, Mendoza, Córdoba and Tucumán is endless as the "caudillo" sets forth towards Buenos Aires.

The quarrel between "Unitary" and "Federals" had destroyed any trace of governmental authority. Rosas was the sole figure of command, though just in rural areas, so the city dwellers –"Porteños"– regarded him as a solution to the lack of control. The astute Rosas accepted the challenge, though under the condition of being granted the sum of public power. In spite of the objections by some citizens Rosas got appointed "Restaurador de las leyes", and soon showed a cruel side through the actions of the "Mazorca" (corn cobb society) which terrified the oposition by assasination, rape and sacking. Strangely enough no expropiations were performed at that time: Rosas was a firm believer in private property!

Defeated Quiroga, and later on assasinated in a place in Cordoba called Barranca Yaco, Rosas inherits the "caudillo" interior fiefdom exerting in fact real power over the 14 provinces that composed the Argentine Republic at that time until 1852 when he was defeated and toppled by General Justo J. de Urquiza in the Caseros battle.

"For Sarmiento, barbarism was the native tribes and gaucho plains; and cities, the civilization. The gaucho has been replaced by colonial farmers and blue collar workers, barbarism now is not just in the fields but also in the big city mobs, and the demagogue plays the role of the ancient caudillo, who also was a demagogue. The disjunctive has not changed. Sub especie aeternatitis, Facundo is still the best argentine story", wrote José Luis Borges in his preface to the 1975 edition.

Today, 158 years after Facundo was written, and almost 30 years since the Borges reflections, Argentina still fights entangled between the forces that sustain intitutional power versus those who privilege the personal rule of the powerful.

Este libro muestra una cara de los Estados Unidos que muchos no conocen o que temen conocer. Estados Unidos es mucho más que la Casa Blanca, Disneylandia y la NASA. Estados Unidos tiene a millones de personas viviendo en las sombras, con el temor constante a ser descubiertos y deportados. Sin embargo, estos inmigrantes ayudan enormemente a que funcione la sociedad norteamericana.

Escrito en un lenguaje sencillo y directo, Jorge Ramos—el conductor titular del Noticiero Univision y autor de varios libros—nos presenta en breves pero poderosos relatos, las vidas de la gente que no sale en la televisión, en los periódicos ni en las revistas, pero que es fundamental para la economía y la cultura estadounidense.

Ramos, un mexicano radicado hace más de dos décadas en Estados Unidos y con una maestría en Relaciones Internacionales, es uno de los periodistas más reconocidos e influyentes de Norteamérica. En esta versión actualizada, con los últimos datos sobre el eterno debate migratorio, Ramos muestra el constante dilema de Estados Unidos: que a pesar de ser un país de inmigrantes, muchas veces no sabe qué hacer ni cómo tratar a los recién llegados.

Este es un libro fundamental para entender a fondo la verdadera naturaleza de la única superpotencia mundial. Aquí vemos lo que otros no quieren ver. Es la otra cara de América.

Like Margaret Wild’s marvelous book Old Pig, A Perfect Season for Dreaming unfolds the sweet possibilities in relationships between the very old and the very young.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz­—novelist, poet, essayist and writer of children’s books—is at the forefront of the emerging Latino literatures. He has received the Wallace Stegner Fellowship and the Lannan Fellowship and an American Book Award. He teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso, and considers himself a fronterizo, a person of the border.

Esau Andrade Valencia, born in Mexico, comes from a family of folk artists. Although still young, he is increasingly recognized as a master artist in the tradition of the great painters such as Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, in whose footsteps he follows. Esau's paintings are included in the collection of The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach as well as in the Downey Museum of Art in California.

Umberto Eco nos comenta la Historia de la Belleza, en un libro profusamente ilustrado, desde la noche de los tiempos hasta nuestros días.

¿Qué es la belleza? ¿cómo nació ese concepto? ¿cómo ha evolucionado a lo largo de los siglos? ¿quiénes fueron sus inventores?. A estas y otras muchas preguntas contesta Umberto Eco con su habitual erudición, pero también en un tono didáctico y ameno, asequible a todos los lectores. El libro, además, va acompañado de extraordinarias ilustraciones que dan luz a las palabras de Eco: reproducciones de pinturas y esculturas, el testimonio de la evolución de la belleza a través de los siglos. Eco escribe además según las teorías comparatistas y sugiere concomitancias entre los grandes maestros de distintas épocas, así Piero dell Francesca con Paul Klee. Este libro, de formato especial, es una verdadera joya, un texto imprescindible en cualquier biblioteca.