Featured book: Cibolero, by Kermit Lopez

 

About the Book

For years, Antonio Baca lived the wandering and restless life of a Cibolero, or buffalo hunter, following the great herds that roamed the endless Llano Estacado – the high plains of a region that would one day be New Mexico. After marrying and settling down, Baca has finally found a modicum of peace in the home he built for his growing family.

But Baca witnesses the transformation of Nuevo Mexico from an isolated colonial outpost of the Spanish empire to a province of the newly independent nation of Mexico and, finally, to a land conquered by the avaricious Americanos. Following the United States seizure of New Mexico, Antonio and his countrymen find themselves treated as foreigners and second-class citizens in their own land.

When his daughter, Elena, is kidnapped by a band of invading Texas Rangers after the American Civil War, Baca desperately tracks them across the llano of New Mexico and into Texas using his skills as a Cibolero. Terrified for his daughter's safety, he plunges into the world of the gringos, and discovers just how much the Americanos have changed his homeland. But as the days pass without any sign of Elena, Baca fears for her life – and his own.

Cibolero, the new novel by Kermit Lopez, is a tale of sorrow and terror, hope and triumph, set in 1800’s New Mexico. Antonio Baca, a former “Cibolero” or buffalo hunter, pursues his daughter’s kidnappers in Post-Civil War era New Mexico and Texas. Cibolero is a fictionalized account of the Hispanic experience before and after the conquest of the Southwest by the United States.

On one level, Cibolero is an action-oriented adventure tale as Antonio Baca sets out to rescue his daughter from an invading band of Texas Rangers using his skills as a Cibolero hunter. On another level, Cibolero deals with the following issues:

• Racism, ethnicity and society in the “old West”
• The historical ties of large parts of the present western United States to Mexico and Spain
 

Cibolero is a fictionalized account of a true but overlooked part of U.S. history.

About the author:

Kermit Lopez wrote Cibolero after researching his family ancestry, which spans four hundred years of New Mexico history. He received electrical engineering and law degrees from the University of New Mexico and lives with his wife, Nohemi, and children in Albuquerque.

What reviewers are saying about Cibolero...

“Mr. Lopez has succeeded in recreating a long-vanished time, when nomadic buffalo hunters (Ciboleros) roamed the high plains of New Mexico. The story is set against a backdrop of high historical drama, with the land changing rule from New Spain to Mexico and finally to the forced annexation by the US, bringing sweeping changes and violent conflicts…This novel employs memorable characters and drama to bring this time and culture to life.”
-- Barnes & Noble, Review

“The novel is refreshing…it offers a long neglected Hispano perspective of that colorful history of New Mexico. His characters are real people with hopes, dreams, aspirations, troubles and struggles of typical Hispanos of that era and not the negative stereotyped images created by biased Anglo writers…”
-- Maurilio E. Vigil, Professor Emeritus, New Mexico Highlands University

“Cibolero is a western adventure full of suspense, action and passion. Kermit Lopez has penned a story full of danger, good and bad men, and the love of a man for his family. About a tough country, and the strong men that conquered it. An exceptional look into the past, from a very different perspective…”
-- Ray Ward - NewBookReviews.org

“Cibolero proves that you Chicanos've come a long way, Bebé. Categorized on the back cover as a "Western"--rather than some "ethnic" labeling--it's got all the elements that once accompanied John Wayne on the screen. Cowboys, Indians, horses, shoot-em-ups, cross-prairie chases--the Western culture in detail by an author who knows his history, even researching his own family's history to lace into this novel.”
-- Rudy Chavez, La Bloga

“This book poignantly portrays the loss of power and identity suffered by the Spanish/Mexican colonists after the arrival of the Americans. Overall, it is a good read and a skillful job of storytelling by López, who brings the atmosphere of the times to life in his novel.”
-- La Herencia Magazine

“After reading this book you will never travel across eastern New Mexico without imagining those herds of buffalo roaming across the llano and having a whole new response to the landscape yourself. Cibolero is a great read for anyone looking for an intimate account of New Mexico history from a Hispanic point of view.”
-- Lisa Kindrick, Librarian, Reading New Mexico

“Lopez grabs you somewhere out in the middle of New Mexico and doesn't let you go until he has ripped aside the blinders, veils, and deposited you, eyes wide open, hundreds of miles away in western Texas. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in "other" histories, other slants on the American story, other views of New Mexico beyond the Santa Fe experience.”
-- E.G. Lopez, Author of “Sirena”
 

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