The Blood of the Serpent

Unlike the United States, Mexico took shape suddenly and abruptly.
Earlier civilizations systematically were destroyed and newcomers took
over. There was no systematic formation of boundaries and possessions.
While the first English pilgrims clung perilously to a few acres of
Massachusetts forest, Mexico already had laws, churches, mines, shipbuilding,
riots and a compelling mestizo conscience.
This narration takes readers through Mexico City at night and in the
daytime, through its suburbs rich and poor, into its ceremonies -
Christian and pre-Christian - and on journeys with reformers, rebels,
manipulators, workers. It unravels "The Imaginary State of Petroleo"
(which is more real than you might think), explores the orchards and
landed estates of northeastern Mexico and the deserts where ancient
cave paintings mark the existence of lost cultures and where drug dealers
have established hidden landing strips.
From rural villages in the northwest through Tijuana and the melee
that is life on the U.S.-Mexican border,

Robert Joe Stout has written major articles about Mexico for The Christian Science Monitor, Notre Dame Magazine, and American Educator. His fiction has been published in The South Dakota Review, Kansas Quarterly, Southern Humanities Review and various anthologies. Portions of this book have appeared in Aim, Catholic Digest, Commonweal, Focus, Kit-Kat Review, Mexico West, Rosebud, Toward Freedom and other magazines.