Word: chihuahua
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is a study in the anatomy of courage. The specimens first dehydrated, then dissected by the author are U.S. cavalrymen of the 1916 punitive expedition against Pancho Villa. The setting is the arid hills of Chihuahua, and the enmity of the alien country itself becomes clear in the first sentences: "The land is carrion land ... A man wishes for a sound. It is a country of no answers...
...surly band through the parched badlands. Food and water run short, a chance band of Villistas pins down the party with rifle fire, and Thorn, rather than risk one of his heroes, hands over their horses. The men call it cowardice. The plot becomes as thorny as a Chihuahua cactus until, with the last shreds of his officer's prestige. Thorn flogs the men and the woman toward Cordura. By the time the wanderers, addled by the sun and gut-racked by the alkaline water, reach the hideous end of their journey, Novelist Swarthout has sketched a powerful case...
...Barn. Until the 1930s, the stock figure of the veterinarian in U.S. life was the horse doctor who operated, with a heavy harness to restrain his unanesthetized victim, in any handy barn. He would handle anything from a Chihuahua to a Percheron, prescribed more worm medicine than any other treatment. Today's vets usually have a couple of years of college, a four-year V.M. course, and must pass a state licensing examination. Their number has nearly doubled (to 19,257) in 20 years. Though a great majority (perhaps 85%) still work mostly on livestock-swine, sheep, cattle, horses...
...Peace. The quiet folk won out. Finally, oats, corn and beans were made to grow, and the government ended the Villistas' raids. Today, the colony supports 15,000 Mennonites who live in 54 campos, small communities of 40 or 50 families. In some ways the Chihuahua settlers are less determinedly orthodox than the Amish of Pennsylvania. The men wear ordinary straw hats, overalls and work shoes, and the women wear colored homespun (only the older women cling to the black dress). Buttons and zippers are not considered works of the Devil, nails are used in construction, and there...
Promised Lands. The trouble stems from the Mennonites' prolific growth (girls marry at puberty, bear ten or twelve children). The 15,000 settlers have overrun their original 200,000 acres and an additional 100,000 more bought a few years ago. Alarmed, the Chihuahua government and the Mexican landowners have refused to sell more land. Mexico's federal government has threatened to renege on Obregón's pledge, has tried to force the Mennonites to accept the Mexican social-security system and electrification. Reluctantly, the Mennonites decided that it might be time to move. Teams...