University of Texas Press is a vital institutional press for fiction and non-fiction books. With a variety of books that cater to the public, as well as to the researcher, they have remained important for wonderful translations of literature, as well as political manifestations, studies on food culture, Texas life, Latino/a life and more. Included in this list as some of my favorite authors: Juan Rulfo, Mario Vargas, Llosa, Elena Garro and more. They are a stalwart in politics and philosophy, both of yesterday and today. Here are important titles to highlight from them:

Courage, Resistance and Women in Ciudad Juarez by Kathleen Staudt and Zulma Y Mendez

This book is not just an overview or ethnography of the situation and responses to the horrifying issues in Ciudad Juarez, but is an engagement with how to draw light to this still occurring issue, also written about in The Femicide Machine by Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez. A problem that has drawn contention from many actors, from the government denying responsibility and blaming drug cartels to corporations who turned this area into a no-person's land full of lawlessness and factories for underpaying and overworking both women and men, Ciudad Juarez has continued from the '90s to draw harsh criticism for the inability of any official to deal with the deaths, rapes and abuse there. Staudt and Mendez take a more modern approach to their research, by using language that is relatable to a not-just academic reader, as well as focusing on the modern day, providing context for the activism, but not focusing on the history as their main topic.

What starts as a brief overview of the issues and the background of the area, leads us into a place that is filled with corruption, death and denial. This goes even as far as denying an astronomical number of deaths as anything but isolated incidents. In a similar manner, though there are many men that have died in Ciudad Juarez, official media and officials refuse to use the term femicide in application to the problems there, even though a large number of these deaths happen to women and most women have been found to be abused, physically and sexually, before death.

What I find particularly fascinating is the chapter and references to social media playing a role in this struggle, and as a reaction and potential solution to the problems of Ciudad Juarez. While Staudt and Mendez have an instance of media backfire, they display the effects of social media on campaigning for justice to be a beneficial role. People can create meetings and spread meeting minutes, even streams of speakers and meetings, so that people stay up-to-date whether they are activists in Texas or anywhere else in the world. In this way, there is connections and there is more pressure put on accountability. It might not be perfect, but in many smaller ways, social networks has helped to spread ideas and create victories, both personal and strategic.

After that, Staudt and Mendez have two chapters that cover transnational activism and solidarity. In Chapter 5 they go over the congressional race and influence by activists in Ciudad Juarez, they consider the Peoples' Tribunals that mirrored the Russell Tribunals to create an "opinion" to push forth, and they go over the politics and potentials that come from faith-based activism. Continuing on in Chapter 6 they cross borders, with activist and poet Jose Sicilia who has helped to lead one group across countries to bring awareness and change to Ciudad Juarez.

In closing out the book, the authors look towards how their research can be integrated into the movements and how these movements can continue to build upon what they are already doing to seek justice in Ciudad Juarez. They also look towards how these specific moments can be integrated into movements at large, for a potential for justice in all areas of the world, for demilitarization and gender equality abroad.

It is books like this which help to forge the gap by bridging research and activism, being able to trace and look at what works and where problems may lie. Staudt and Mendez clearly are in a position of being both activists and academics, and it is clear that this project means more to them than just a book, they are seeking to bring justice and an end to the slaughter in Ciudad Juarez, but also apply this to problems across the world.

Surrealist Women: An International Anthology edited by Penelope Rosemont

Whichever word can define "overwhelmed, yet in a positive way" should help to give the briefest overview of this amazing anthology put out by University of Texas Press, which deals with the many female leaders and participants of the surrealist movement which in this book starts to identify these artists in the 1920s and onward to the present. This book encapsulates those who produced lots of works, and those who had minor works.

With in-depth notes at the end of every chapter, which allows us to dig further into the discussion and research of women involved in surrealism, the book is a presentation of all the women who played or continue to play a defining role in the ever continuing art movement of surrealism. The women are all categorized by their era, and the main theme of the era, such as Chapter 6: Surrealism: A Challenge to the Twenty-First Century. Each chapter starts out with an introduction and overview of that time, to give a further analysis and backdrop of what the women presented in that chapter were working for, or against, if one can paint a picture in only black and white. Following up the introduction we are then given the women who were a part of that era with a short biography and their importance and relation to surrealism and art, and then followed by an example of their work, whether it is visual art or written art.

While potentially more of an asset for researchers, this book on Surrealism than a book for those with a casual interest, Surreal Women is written in a way that can be read by all, and being the first book, that I know of, to dedicate the entirety to females in, is a necessary book and a must read for those even with a slight interest in the surrealist movement.

Similar in scope, necessity and with a similar purpose as Surrealist Women, Black, Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora edited by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelley

Starting with the First Black Surrealists we get taken from Martinique through the Caribbean down to South America, on over to Africa and through to the United States. After this journey is traced, the editors look through the lens of surrealistic black power and black arts, and then into the present and future of Surrealism, through the guidance of such artists as Jayne Cortez, Tyree Guyton, Patrick Turner and many more.

The editors start with The Legitimate Defense, a limited journal, that covers poetry and politics from a Martinique student in Paris, plus his friends/artists/comrades. In doing so, this sets the tone for the whole book, the different reactions, obviously from minority Surrealists, in the context of what they were fighting for, be it freedom of the political, literary—multi-faceted.

Throughout this book you are engaging with the surrealist project in all of its forms and actions, while finding the roles of individuals and groups within their countries/worldly context. In this sense, you are a part of the Sao Paulo Surrealist Group with Joao da Cruz e Souza or an outside to the Brazilian mainstream, generally dominated by the spirit of modernism, with Sosigenes Costa, you are part of the Degenerate Art movement in Egypt in 1938, which had Egyptian Surrealists standing in solidarity, and creativity, with artists and citizens being confiscated and banned by fascist regimes, obviously, though not limited to Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy.

The authors have a clear style and approach in this book, and an extensive and thorough knowledge that is contained herein. It is hard to think of what more this book could hold, though I am sure there are countless more names and examples of each artist. In this sense, I await the next book series that is anthologies from each country, or each scene. Even better, anthologies of current artists. This book is an important resource to have, period.

In the Eyes of God: A Study on the Culture of Suffering by Fernando Escalante Gonzalbo

This book is prefaced as more than a study of suffering and the different ways in which a culture, or society deals with the meaning, this book attempts to place suffering within a political context as well. Gonzalbo, a Mexican sociologist and intellectual, traces, through different manifestations and writings of others, the meaning of suffering and how that plays a role in our lives. Gonzalbo starts with Rousseau and ends with the Shoa in Western conscious.

Covering Rousseau, Freud, Voltaire, William James, varying religions, poetry, literature, and all of the popular discourse we can rely on to build a culture of suffering.

By showcasing these varied instances, reactions and decrees within religion, literature and so on, Gonzalbo is able to show the shift in ideas, such as Williams James's reaction towards the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 is much different than Voltaire's reactions almost 150 years previous in 1755. In doing so, emphasis on the national and human level go from suffering as god's will, to suffering as an injustice, to suffering as a circumstance of how we create hierarchies and justify them. Not to mention the scientific understanding of suffering that are created in an attempt to minimize what suffering is, or how people suffer.

Suffering is obviously a relevant topic towards any society, as it creates bonds, identities, justifications and even as Gonzalbo shows, a certain nationalism and pride for countries as a whole. In this way Gonzalbo does a great deed in researching the culture of suffering and providing a dialogue that looks into how we frame suffering and how governments and religion structure it so that it is a part of life. While obviously there is no ability to fully rid ourselves of suffering, do we accept it and the ascetic premise it brings, when we ourselves take on injustices, how can we frame suffering in our lives when conditioned in a world that constantly brings multi-varied responses. In this way, this book is both interesting and important, and in many ways something that should be continually discussed.

Verso once again releases a beautiful book this time focusing on the architectural answers to Latin America's different housing crisis. Verso is always exploring the different politics that make up the far left and in this way are no different, everything they release is well researched and, though sometimes heady, is filled with volumes of research and facts.

Radical Cities by Justin McGuirk

File under Architecture. File under Travel.

Justin McGuirk goes on a journey throughout Latin America to take a look at the different reactions, formally and informally, to the housing crisis and the people that suffer from government corruption, inaction, or plain inability to deal with massive housing inequality. Through the story we can see how McGuirk is trying to hone in on his own radical ideas, and formulate them in his own journey.

For most of his explorations, McGuirk is well aware of himself as an outsider, which plays off well in for him. He comes off as naive at some points, but overall puts himself where he needs to be in order to get a more detailed view of these structures, or an interview with the creators.

Experimental structures and trying to bypass government red tape is a big problem we run into in seeing the different structures that exist. In some cases, the formal, architect driven projects try to remain non-partisan in an effort to see their structures continue through the many different leaderships, whereas informal squats are tied to a party line. In some cases, autonomy from the system on the whole is what drives the project.

What we run into over and over is cities that go through constant changes, no matter the leadership, we get hollow proclamations, and empty structures that end up ratifying the original plan and details.

A lack of funding generally drives the architect's vision, and we are faced with different choices along the way. Cable Cars as helping to not trap settlements or favelas, half built houses that can be expanded upon, fully built exteriors with no interior, squats, open lots bought and a stunning exposure to the ramifications of gentrification and ownership along the way.

All in all, this book is a road story that is meant to shine the spotlight on innovative answers to the housing crisis, both by architects and non-architects alike. It is to show the various responses we give to government ineptitude. I would have enjoyed a longer book that could give more examples and more ability to gain a knowledge on the different architectural answers to the problems of Latin America.

We end in the neighboring cities separated by a wall, Tijuana and San Diego, which really shines through as a must read during this contentious period of border politics.