Reviews

This impressionistic travel diary portrays the uneducated but spirited modern descendants of the ancient Mayas, Incas and Aztecs, a potentially volatile peasant group suppressed by the European-descended Ladino majority in Latin America. ``Wright fuses adventure, politics, archeology and history in a riveting read,'' said PW. (Apr.)

Wright takes us along to ancient and modern sites inhabited by Mayan Indians in Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico and concludes that the Maya are not facing extinction from the onslaught of ``civilization'' into their areas, but, on the contrary are surviving as they always have, by grafting new ways onto an ancient base. Spanish conquistadors found cities in America which far surpassed anything in Europe--with tall buildings and an accurate calendar. While the book offers a fine overview of Mayan civilization, it is not for the faint-hearted: It is quite scholarly. Readers interested in the calendar and the Mayan time reference will find this book valuable. For large and special collections.-- Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville