Table of Contents

• Prologue
• Part 1. Río del Norte
  • Paul Horgan, from Great River
  • Tony Hillerman, from New Mexico, Rio Grande and Other Essays
  • Bill Logan, "The Old Meat Hunter"
  • John Nichols, from The Milagro Beanfield War
• Part 2. Desert Bloom
  • Josiah Gregg, from Commerce of the Prairies
  • Robert Boswell, from American Owned Love
  • William Langewiesche, from Cutting for Sign
  • Charles Bowden, from Down by the River
  • Dagoberto Gilb, from The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña
  • Cecilia Ballí, "Ciudad de la Muerte"
• Part 3. La Junta
  • John Graves, "Big River"
  • John Reed, from Insurgent Mexico
  • Don Henry Ford, Jr., from Contrabando
  • Robert Draper, "Soldiers of Misfortune"
  • Aristeo Brito, from The Devil in Texas
• Part 4. Big Bend
  • Robert T. Hill, from "Running the Cañons of the Rio Grande"
  • Woody Guthrie, from Seeds of Man
  • Molly Ivins, "Mayor of Lajitas Not the Goat He Used to Be"
  • John Spong, "Sand Trap"
• Part 5. Crossings
  • Stephen Harrigan, "Highway One," from Comanche Midnight
  • Dick J. Reavis, "Gateway to Texas"
  • Larry McMurtry, from Lonesome Dove
  • Elmer Kelton, from The Time It Never Rained
  • Tom Miller, "Confessions of a Parrot Trooper," from On the Border
  • Jan Reid, "Busting Out of Mexico," from Close Calls
  • John Davidson, from The Long Road North
  • María Eugenia Guerra, "Nothing to Declare"
  • Elena Poniatowska, from Guerrero Viejo
• Part 6. La Frontera
  • Rolando Hinojosa, from "A Sense of Place"
  • Robert Mendoza, "A Piece of Land"
  • James Carlos Blake, from In the Rogue Blood
  • Irene Beltrán Hernández, from Across the Great River
  • Américo Paredes, from George Washington Gómez
  • Gary Cartwright, "Border Towns," from Confessions of a Washed-Up Sportswriter
  • Oscar Casares, "Domingo," from Brownsville
  • Gloria Anzaldúa, from Borderlands
• Epilogue
• Biographical Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Illustration Credits

Promotional Information

Explores the ecology, history, culture, and politicization of the river

About the Author

Jan Reid (1945–2020) has written for Texas Monthly, Esquire, GQ, Slate, Men’s Journal, Garden & Gun, the New York Times, and many other publications. His books include The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, The Bullet Meant for Me, Let the People In, Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm, and two award-winning novels, Deerinwater and Comanche Sundown. He lived in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

Rio Grande is a fine representation of the human histories and lives that are entwined with this great river.
*Southwest BookViews*

In Rio Grande, Reid has assembled an intoxicating mix of prose, conveying the enchantment, struggle, and mystery of the river.
*New Mexico Historical Review*