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Finding good books in English is difficult in the best of times, but it becomes a major headache when a pandemic has you under siege.

Finding good books in English is difficult in the best of times, but it becomes a major headache when a pandemic has you under siege.

A new book titled “Ancient West Mexico in the Mesoamerican Ecumene” –  written in excellent English – presents the first study of the archaeology of the whole of West Mexico, from the earliest to the latest cultural periods, by a single author. It is also unique in that it is far more than a simple compendium of excavations and artifacts.

Jalisco’s famed Río Caliente boils to the surface in the Primavera Forest and flows into La Vega Dam. It then flows back out as the Ameca River and meanders all the way to Puerto Vallarta (230 kilometers away), entering the Pacific Ocean at a place called Boca de Tomates, or “The Mouth of the River, Where the Tomatillos Grow.” (The tomatillo, by the way, is a green-purple member of the tomato family and important for making green salsa in Mexico.)

My friend Jorge Monroy, one of Mexico’s best-known watercolorists, grew up in the town of Ejutla, located about 100 kilometers southwest of Guadalajara. “In the area,” he told me, “there’s a small mountain called El Narigón, The Big Nose, on top of which they have found a great many beautiful rocks.

Teenager Juan Manuel Salazar lives in the town of Ocoyoacac in the State of México, not far from the famed Nevado de Toluca, the country’s fourth highest volcano. When his 15th birthday approached, his parents asked him what he’d like for a present.