In December 1998, San Antonio Express-News reporter Philip True vanished during a solo backcountry trek in western Mexico, home of the reclusive Huichol Indians and the Chapalagana, the Twisted Serpent Canyon, a 150-mile long gash that twists and plunges through the heart of the Sierra Madre. Five days later his editor, Robert Rivard, was part of a small search party that, nearly miraculously, tracked a trail of feathers that had leaked from True's sleeping bag to find his body.

San Antonio is in the national spotlight as one of the fastest growing and most dynamic emerging major cities in America. Yet local lore has it that every Texan has two hometowns-his own and San Antonio. The Alamo City's charm, colorful surroundings, and diverse cultures combine to make it one of the most interesting places in Texas and the nation. In San Antonio Uncovered, Mark Rybczyk examines some of the city's internationally known legends and lore (including ...

A cascade of recent reports has described unprecedented growth in every category measured—population, employment, new business starts, manufacturing indices, traffic counts, in-migration, school attendance, and airport enplanements—highlighting the dynamism of the two “anchor cities” of Central Texas: Austin and San Antonio. In The Austin–San Antonio Megaregion: Opportunity and Challenge in the Lone Star State, authors Henry Cisneros, Robert Rivard, and David Hendricks reflect on ...

The Kronkosky Foundation Story provides a broad review of the twenty-five-year history of the Albert and Bessie Mae Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. Albert and Bessie Mae Kronkosky were committed to creating a legacy of “profound good” through charitable giving across four Texas counties that were dear to their hearts. The private foundation, formed in 1995 with a mission focused on health and human services (especially for children and the elderly), arts, and cul...

Quick Hits for Creativity in the Classroom introduces faculty, administrators, and staff to creative techniques that can be incorporated into the classroom at undergraduate and graduate levels. These techniques from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences can enhance learning and support professional development experiences for students and faculty alike.While faculty are experts in their disciplines, many are not formally trained in effective or evidence-based...

**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING TRAVEL MEMOIRWhat happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu?**In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the t...

"I have many scars. Some of them are physical, but many more are scars on my soul. A bomb sent to kill me while I was in a maximum security prison has made me blind, yet now I see the world more clearly than I have ever seen it before. I have lived an incredible adventure. I watched as my brother, Pablo Escobar, became the most successful criminal in history, but also a hero to many of the people of Colombia. My brother was loved and he was feared. Hundreds of thousands of people marched i...

"Malcolm Beith risked life and limb to tell the inside story of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera, Mexico's notorious drug capo." —George W. Grayson, author of Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?The dense hills of Sinaloa, Mexico, were home to the most powerful drug lord since Pablo Escobar: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Guzman was among the world's ten most wanted men and also appeared on Forbes magazine's 2009 billionaire lis...

This edition of our Historical Cities series explores the city and county of Los Angeles, including the surrounding environs of Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Long Beach, San Pedro, and Pasadena. Over 230 historical sites and landmarks are provided with historical background and GPS coordinates. Reference maps provide simple navigation aids.

In this unprecedented and chilling monologue, a repentant Mexican hitman tells the unvarnished truth about the war on drugs on the American. El Sicario is the hidden face of America's war on drugs. He is a contract killer who functioned as a commandante in the Chihuahuan State police, who was trained in the US by the FBI, and who for twenty years kidnapped, tortured and murdered people for the drug industry at the behest of Mexican drug cartels. He is a hit man who came off the killing fie...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM PABLO ESCOBAR’S SONUntil now, we believed that everything had been said about the rise and fall of the most infamous drug lord of all time, Pablo Escobar – from books to film to the cult series ‘Narcos’. But these versions have always been told from the outside, only capturing half the truth, and never from the intimacy of his own home. Now, more than two decades after the full-fledged manhunt finally caught up with Escobar, his so...

The San Antonio edition of Historical Cities explores the multi-national past of this south Texas city. Fifty-one historic sites and landmarks in the city's downtown and surrounding area are explored. A concise history is also provided. Reference maps for the downtown and San Antonio's environs are included, along with GPS coordinates for all listed historic sites.