July 1940: as Britain stood alone, the Army exhausted and defeated by the Wehrmacht and the Roval Navy, stretched worldwide, only the English Channel and the RAF remained between Britain and the expected German invasion. But the Luftwaffe's ill-prepared and last-minute assault on the RAF was met by a carefully planned system of fighter intervention, the defensive strategy devised by Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Fighter Command. Dowding fought and won Britain's most vital victory, ...

September 1940: defeated in the Battle of Britain, despite their superior numbers and better equipped aircraft, the Luftwaffe launched a new campaign of attack, their target this time the civilian population. For eight months, with hardly a night's break, Luftwaffe bombers pounded industrial cities and seaports in a concentrated attempt to smash Britain's war economy and destroy civilian morale. It was the first time a civilian population had been subject to mass attack, night after night,...

The folklore of Spanish America is full of exciting accounts of a wandering, shrieking, tormented spirit called La Llorona, the "Wailing Woman." Her eerie spine-chilling cry was said to be an omen of death. This is the first serious account of the frightening tale that has fascinated people for generations. Ray John de Aragón, an expert on Spanish folklore, traditions and myths, traveled throughout the villages and byways of New Mexico searching out the roots of this very popular Spanish p...

"Surprisingly lively . . . An absorbing tale about the land shenanigans that took place in New Mexico after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848." — Albuquerque JournalAt the end of the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed previous Spanish and Mexican land grants, as well as rights for Native Americans to their ancestral homelands. However, organized property theft began soon after. People were methodically dispossessed of the...

Establishing New Mexico as a U.S. territory was anything but bloodless. The Mexican-American War brought ferocious battles, brutal sieges, guerrilla warfare and scorched earth tactics. More than three hundred Mexican and American forces were killed or wounded in a single battle near Santa Fe. During the Taos Revolt, Governor Charles Bent was scalped and murdered in his home, and American forces fired cannons into a church where Pueblos and Mexicans sought refuge. Soldiers destroyed entire ...

New Mexico is a land of shadow and mystery. From the old coal mines near Raton and the isolation of Isleta Pueblo to the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and beyond, ghouls and spirits lie in wait. Witches transform into vampire bats, werewolves howl and the undead rise with the light of the moon. La Llorona walks the banks of rivers and roads, her legendary and mournful cries terrifying any who cross her path. They are stories passed down by the fearless Comancheros, devoted Franci...

This is the first major study by a Hispano from New Mexico with intergenerational ties to the Penitentes--the deeply religious group called Hermanos de la Luz, Brothers of the Light. It also ties the santero folk art of New Mexico, the Penitente Brotherhood, and the Penitente religious hymns, alabados, together. De Aragón asserts that one cannot truly function without all three and herein lies the devotional beauty that has been passed down for generations in Spanish folk tradition.

New Mexico's night sky generated speculation about alien visitation for centuries before the Roswell Incident of 1947. But the luminous spheres known as Bolas de Lumbre weren't the only evidence of unnatural phenomena in play. Locals have grown accustomed to stacking an unending list of questions against a disquieting tally of strange objects, unexplained sightings and unsolved mysteries that perplex scientists and confound skeptics alike. The original inhabitants of the land confidently c...

Santa Fe boasts an incredibly rich multicultural history, and the gorgeous Pueblo architecture conceals a chilling past. Indian spirits haunt the city and the nearby Sangre de Cristo Mountain range. La Llorona, the Wailing Woman, cries along the banks of the Santa Fe River. The unnerving ghost of Julia Staab wanders endlessly through the hallways of the La Posada Hotel. And strange noises and unexplained movements stir in the PERA Building basement. Join local historian and author Ray John...

Pull on the uncanny threads from the legendary tapestry of New Mexico's Native American heritage.Ancient Indian history and present Native American cultures are woven together in the Land of Enchantment. The threads of these tales stretch back to Mimbres burial grounds and prehistoric trade routes. Stories and traditions tie the land to its people, in spite of the cycles of slaughter and theft that have threatened to pluck them apart. Descend into the kivas of Chac...

After John Ray’s experiences related in his 2018 Twenty-Five Years in Kashmir, comes this more general reflection on an eventful life. The author watched the Battle of Britain from a Surrey field as a twelve-year-old and during his schooldays cycled the length and breadth of England when unpoisoned hedgerows were still full of flowers. This was his homeland.Student years at St Andrews inspired a love of mountains, then came a ‘surprising National Service’ beside the Russian zone in Austria...

Taking a stand for equality in the Land of EnchantmentVeterans returning to New Mexico after World War II found a home altered by more than just the explosion of the first atomic bomb. Former ranchers were forced to eke out a living in zinc mines, leading to protests of conditions that were memorialized in the movie Salt of the Earth, which both the film industry and the government tried to suppress. As the civil rights movement swept across the country in the 1960s, New M...