Journeys to the Maya Lowlands of Chiapas on a quest for the author's Indio heritage and a vision of the multicultured identity emerging in America. This book attempts to shed the trappings and privileges of his life in California in order to reduce his distance from the dispersed and shrinking Mayan population.

Acknowledgments American Prelude(s) To America with Love The Third Conversation Part I: Gathering a Mayan Repertoire 1. Tuxtla Oil Float 2. Juarez Gypsies 3. K'ayum on the Door 4. Rain Forest Donation Box 5. Eating Tortillas 160 Kilometers North of Guatemala 6. Gathering a Mayan Repertoire 7. Fray Bartolome de Las Casas: Landscape with Graffiti 8. Tourist Stop by the Christopher Columbus Depot 9. Zen House Facing Tzontevitz (Sacred Mountain of the Chamula) 10. From the Mountain Face 11. Na Bolom: Histories and Fragmentos 12. Admire the Maid into Revolution 13. The Native Position 14. Indian Corridos for Justice 15. Red Rebozos for Rigoberta Menchu 16. Late Shadow at the Monastery Part II: Welcome to El Prospero 17. The Desolations of Ocosingo 18. La Ruta Maya 19. Tumbo (Meditations en Route) 20. The Man with a Machete 21. Visitations 22. Nothing Is Taken That Is Not Given: Ode to the Traveling Men 23. In a Field of Arrows 24. Half Concrete, Half Caoba 25. Dream Prowl 26. Last Song of the White Turtle 27. Kassandra and the Descrambler 28. El Emperador 29. Nuk of la Tiendita 30. Lake Waters of the White Jaguar 31. Young Husbands 32. Culos in la Piedra 33. El Hombre de la Selva 34. The Coming of the Black Ocean Liner 35. PEMEX Boulevard 36. Bor with Hand Signs 37. Antonio, Seventy Years Old 38. Malaria, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis 39. Mojarrita 40. La Ultima Visita (Farewell to the T'o'ohil) 41. Jungle Bolero Part III: Jaguar Hotel 42. Jaguar Hotel Part IV: Anahuak Vortex 43. Anahuak Vortex (Mexico City, 1995) Part V: Mayan Drifter 44. Letter to K'ayum Ma'ax (via Palenque) Glossary Selected Readings

"In this account of his return to his homeland of Chiapas, Mexico, Herrera has created something more than a memoir. It is, by his own account, a combination of literary project, spiritual quest and cultural investigation... Herrera's work is wistful, but it also has depth. This conflicted and rewarding read will undoubtedly become a classic of Chicano literature." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Inspired by Maya's resilience, Herrera envisions the disappearance of borders and evokes a fluid American self that needs no fixed identity or location. Mayan Drifter is a literary tour de force, a kind of safari into the soul and fate of a remarkable people, a monument to what has gone, and a template for what might yet come to pass." --The Midwest Book Review "This is a book written from the heart. Through powerful prose, Mayan Drifter lays bare the skeletal essence of a hemispheric history in which the Lacandon Maya and jungle become metaphor for the onslaught confronting the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Cast in the moving travelogue of personal memory and the ethnographic, the people of Tijuana's shanties, California's migrant paths and cities, Mexico City sidewalks, and colonial Mexican centers all form part of the mosaic. Juan Felipe's journey is a true transmigration into the essence of a conceptual and geopolitical borderland and its current dilemmas. This is a passionate and complex tale set in modern times. Full of imagery and color, at times joyful and hilarious, and at others tearfully sad, Mayan Drifter speaks to us all. Juan Felipe Herrera offers us a book to read, and reread, to think with and ponder; in Mayan Drifter we hear the voices of humanity that speak out powerfully in eloquent prose." --Roberto Alvarez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University