“From this gallery of visionaries, rogues, dissidents, authors, and naturalists, a new American mythos begins to emerge.”—Thomas Hallock, author of Happy Neighborhood: Essays and Poems

“Gary Paul Nabhan places the desert at the center of the ongoing struggle against colonialism, racism, and capitalism.”—Catherine Keyser, author of Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions

“Gary Paul Nabhan places the desert at the center of the ongoing struggle against colonialism, racism, and capitalism.”—Catherine Keyser, author of Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions

“Against the American Grain could not be more timely: it performs the complementary tasks of reminding us that the good fight is a lot less lonely when contemplated alongside the resistances of recent history, and that the true exception in the American identity lies in its running against the grain of all the -isms.”—Rubén Martínez, author of Desert America: A Journey through Our Most Divided Landscape

“Gary Nabhan has always been, and remains, one of the premier voices writing about the Southwest and Mexico border life. His nature work has been priceless. But what brings me to his newest masterpiece is the remarkable depth of his writing about my great aunt, the Saint of Cabora. He has tracked down fresh historical information on Teresa Urrea and her times. And his personal testimony of her mysterious presence in his own life—a spiritual visitation to heal boyhood wounds—is simply beautiful.”—Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter and Queen of America

“In Against the American Grain, Gary Paul Nabhan crosses boundaries, cultures, and centuries to celebrate the legacies of changemakers in the Southwestern borderlands, bringing their stories of defiance in from the margins of society and history.”—Curt Meine, author of The Driftless Reader