South America

I Was Cuba: Treasures from the Ramiro Fernandez Collection

While most think of Cuba as a mythical island of rum, rumba, and revolution, period photographs reveal a more complex place. I Was Cuba is an original look at Cuban history as seen through the Ramiro Fernandez Collection arguably the world's leading archive of Cuban photos and ephemera. I Was Cuba showcases rare, vernacular images from the nineteenth century through the revolutionary period, exploring the everyday and the eccentric. With texts from famed Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (Before Night Falls), this captivating volume is an intimate view into a bygone era of glamour, political upheaval, and astounding visual culture.

Machu Picchu

A truly unique and beautiful gift book on Machu Picchu, the famed Inca site in Peru high in the Andes, combining the work of the great poet Neruda and author Allende with splendid photos of this ancient, sacred site. The book is a bilingual edition: a sparkling new English translation of Nerudas poem by noted translator Stephen Kessler runs side by side with the original Spanish.

Cuban Elegance

At a time when more and more travelers are discovering Cuba, which has been locked away from the outside world for more than 40 years, this lavishly illustrated, absorbing volume offers a completely different view of the island from the one seen by most visitors. This book presents not the picturesque Cuba of Castro's era with its derelict buildings and peeling paint, but the opulent world of the Spanish Creole aristocracy of the colonial period, which has continued to influence Cuban taste and cultural life on a more modest scale even to this day.

Emphasizing the palatial homes and elegant furnishings of the island's enormously rich sugar, cotton, and tobacco barons, Cuban Elegance relates the social, cultural, architectural, and interior design history of Cuba, and of the Caribbean region in general. With an engaging text and gorgeous photographs taken especially for this sumptuous volume, Cuban Elegance offers a fresh, surprising perspective on an intriguing country.

Pantanal: South America's Wetland Jewel

A spectacular tour of the world's largest wetland.

The Pantanal covers 81,000 square miles in the middle of South America, extending over parts of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.

About half the size of California and 20 times the size of the Everglades, the Pantanal flood plain is the largest wetland network on Earth.

Pantanal reveals the abundant wildlife and beauty of this remarkable eco-system, home to some of the most spectacular concentrations of flora and fauna on the planet.

The text explains the Pantanal's ecology, its people, plants and animals, presented in five chapters:

• The Pantaneiro: People of the Pantanal
• Wetlands
• Grasslands
• Forests of the Pantanal
• Caiman: the comeback crocodile.

The book also examines the impact of deforestation, overfishing and overhunting in the Pantanal and the efforts by conservationists to protect this magnificent region for future generations.

Pantanal is a superbly photographed tour of one of the most memorable regions on the planet.

Brazil (Exploring Countries of the Wor)

This addition to White Star's series transports readers to the famous beaches, rain forests, and vibrant cities of Brazil. Hundreds of full-color photographs provide a whirlwind tour of this complex country, a country whose legacy extends far beyond its world-famous Carnival, soccer, and Samba. Supplemented by an entertaining text, the images in this volume bring to life the unique cultural and environmental heritage of the country, and explore the exciting changes taking place, including preservation of the Amazon jungle and restoration of ancient monuments and architecture.

Revelations: Latin American Wisdom for Every Day (Offerings for Humanity)

A cradle of Nobel Prize winners and a font of ancient wisdom, Latin America provides a wealth of sublime source material for the husband-and-wife creative team of Danielle and Olivier Föllmi. In the latest installment in their Offerings for Humanity series, the authors draw nuggets of written wisdom from the Andean plains to the Mexican desert. Set against the stunning visual backdrop of 365 photographs, taken all across the continent by Olivier, these quotations come from both world-renowned Latin American writers (including Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, and Carlos Fuentes) and traditional Indian spiritual teachings, demonstrating the subtle interweaving of ancestral belief and contemporary thought in one of the world’s most intellectually fertile regions.

Like their previous explorations of Buddhist, Indian, and African wisdom, this new volume will surprise, enlighten, and nourish the soul.

Through The Eyes Of The Condor: An Aerial Vision of Latin America

Step aboard a private plane for a breathtaking tour of the immense and varied wilderness of Latin America—lush lands and scenic waterways nearly impossible to experience any other way. Your guide to this remarkable vision is Robert B. Haas, award-winning environmentalist and one of the world's foremost artists in aerial photography.

To create this elegant portfolio, Haas covered 14 countries and an astonishing 80 percent of the land mass of Latin America. In magnificent color and exquisite composition, he captures the majesty of the Amazon, the fickleness of rare wildlife in Patagonia, and the incredible topography of untouched lands. Photographs are presented in large double-page panoramas, inviting the viewer to appreciate their abstract qualities and become absorbed in rich details. The aerial perspective gives a generous view of the land below: While large-scale environmental effects may be seen, man's blemishes are mostly diminished when viewed against the vastness of the land. A full-page map highlights countries and specific places photographed.

An introduction by Marie Arana—author of American Chica and Cellophane—prefaces the book. The photographs and commentary are organized thematically: landscapes, humans and their impact, wildlife, abstracts, ancient sites. Poignant essays penned by Haas while living in Latin America expand on themes important to understanding the region: culture, economy, development, tourism, and more.

The White Rock

With the backdrop of the ever-intriguing Andes mountains, The White Rock, Hugh Thomson’s intoxicating history of the Inca people and their heartland, is a thrilling mix of information and adventure. The author, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and explorer, expertly weaves accounts of his own discoveries and brushes with danger with the history of those who preceded him—including the explorer Hiram Bingham, who discovered Machu Picchu; the twentieth century South American photographer, Martín Chambi; the poet Pablo Neruda; and the Spanish conquistadores who destroyed the Inca civilization—and the eccentric characters he meets on his travels.

Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution

The photographs of Las Soldaderas and Elena Poniatowska's remarkable commentary rescue the women of the Mexican Revolution from the dust and oblivion of history. These are the Adelitas and Valentinas celebrated in famous corridos mexicanos, but whose destiny was much more profound and tragic than the idealistic words of ballads. The photographs remind Poniatowska of the trail of women warriors that begins with the Spanish conquest and continues to Mexico's violent revolution. These women are valiant, furious, loyal, maternal, and hardworking; they wear a mask that is part immaculate virgin, part mother and wife, and part savage warrior; and they are joined together in the cruel hymn of blood and death from which they built their own history of the Revolution.

The photographs are culled from the vast Casasola Collection in the Fototeca Nacional of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico.

Guatemala Rainbow

Guatemala is one of the few places on earth where traditional textile arts from ancient cultures survive: Mayan spinners and weavers still produce the traditional motifs developed by their ancestors, but modern dyes add brilliant, luminous color to their textiles. This book presents 150 superb photographs by Gianni Vecchiato, providing a magnificent view of the textiles people, and daily life of Guatemala. It is truly a feast for the eye and spirit.