The University of Arizona Press

In From the Skin, contributors demonstrate the real-world application of Indigenous theory to the work they do in their own communities and how this work is driven by urgency, responsibility, and justice—work that is from the skin.

Editors J. Jeffery Clark and Elise Boxer propose and develop the term practitioner-theorist to describe how the contributors theorize and practice knowledge within and between their nations and academia. The practitioner-theorists of this volume envision and labor toward decolonial futures where Indigenous peoples and nations exist on their own terms.

In the Arms of the Saguaros shows how, from the botanical explorers of the nineteenth century to the tourism boosters in our own time, saguaros and their images have fulfilled attention-getting needs and expectations. Through text and lavish images, author William L. Bird Jr. explores the saguaro’s growth into a western icon from the early days of the American railroad to the years bracketing World War II, when Sun Belt boosterism hit its zenith and proponents of tourism succeed in moving the saguaro to the center of the promotional frame.

While various books have investigated Native American reservations and homelands, Nihikéyah is from Diné individuals’ experiences, observations, and examinations. Lloyd L. Lee gathers poets, writers, and scholars who frame their thoughts on four key questions: What are the thoughts/perspectives on nihikéyah/Navajo homeland? What challenges does nihikéyah face in the coming generations, and what should all peoples know about nihikéyah? And how can nihikéyah build a strong and positive Navajo Nation for the rest of this century and beyond?

Where We Belong dispels the harmful myth that Native people are unfit stewards of their sacred places. In this comparative work, Daisy Ocampo brings together the stories of two peoples and places in North America, establishing Indigenous preservation practices as sustaining approaches to the caretaking of the land that embody ecological sustainability, spiritual landscapes, and community well-being.

Celebrating more than forty years of creative writing by Chicana author Margarita Cota-Cárdenas, La Plonqui includes critical essays, reflections, interviews, and previously unpublished writing by the author herself to document the lifelong craft and legacy of a pioneering writer in the field. Editors Jesús Rosales and Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez affirm Margarita Cota-Cárdenas’s significant role in shaping the field of Chicana literature and emphasize the importance of honoring a celebrated author who wrote a majority of her works in Spanish—one of the few Chicana writers to do so.

A comprehensive new work, Carbon Sovereignty offers a deep dive into the complex inner workings of energy shift in the Navajo Nation. Geographer Andrew Curley, a member of the Navajo Nation, examines the history of coal development within the Navajo Nation, including why some Diné supported coal and the consequences of doing so. He explains the Navajo Nation’s strategic choices to use the coal industry to support its sovereignty as a path forward in the face of ongoing colonialism.

Chicano-Chicana Americana is a cultural history of Mexican Americans in film, television, and theater. Through biographical sketches of performers such as Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado, Robert Beltran, and Lupe Ontiveros, this work asserts Mexican Americans’ proper place in the national narratives of our collective imaginary. Conveying a multicentered, polycultural America, Anthony Macías shows us intriguing performers in bit parts who steal the scene and redefine what it means to be American.