As ingredients are becoming more readily available to at-home cooks, there is a great demand for simple, delicious, and authentic recipes that bring Mexican and Southwestern food to our own tables.In their James Beard Book Award-winning cookbook, authors Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison combine the best of Mexican and Southwest cooking, bringing together this large region's Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo culinary roots into one big, exuberant book - The Border Cookbook. In over 300 recipes they explore the common elements and regional differences of border cooking. They offer classic and new recipes that typify cuisines known as Tex-Mex, New Mexican, Sonoran, Cal-Mex, traditional Mexican, Gulf cuisine, and Native American; and their easy-to-follow recipes are suitable for every meal, every day of the week.

    There, amid scrub palmettos and rattlesnakes, an enclave of Cubans, Spaniards, and Italians worked in the growing cigar industry in a neighborhood known as Ybor City. Casimiro Hernandez found work, saved his money, and in 1905 purchased a bar, where he started selling soup, sandwiches, and coffee.  Out of gratitude to his new country, he named his small café the Columbia, after the personification of America in the popular song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean."  Prophetically, he added this motto to his sign:  "The Gem of All Spanish Restaurants." This book is both a history of the elegant family restaurant, which now boasts six locations in Florida, and a cookbook of 178 recipes that make them famous.  It is also the biography of Adela, the heart of the Columbia, with commentary by Ferdie Pacheco, television's "fight doctor," Ybor City's famous raconteur, and Adela's neighbor as they grew up together in Ybor City. Casimiro became known for dishes that the Columbia still serves--Spanish bean soup, his lusty creation that combines sausage, garbanzo beans, and potatoes in a beef stock; arroz con pollo, a classic chicken and rice dish; an authentic Cuban sandwich; and the 1905 salad, dressed with the family's special blend of fresh garlic, oregano, wine vinegar, lemon juice, and Spanish olive oil. Pijuan, Casimiro's fabled chef from the kitchen of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, contributed numerous works of art, such as pompano papillot and steak capuchina. Adela and Ferdie now reveal the best of these recipes and offer many others, giving lovers of good food the opportunity to bring home the aroma, the seasonings, and the glamour of the Columbia, the gem of all Spanish restaurants. Adela Hernandez Gonzmart was born two blocks from the Columbia Restaurant.  After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music, she toured the United States and Cuba as a concert pianist.  After her marriage to violinist Cesar Gonzmart, she performed with such entertainers as Liberace, Ernesto Lecuona, and Amparo Hurb.  She was instrumental in forming the Tampa Symphony Orchestra and has received countless honors from organizations in the Tampa community: Outstanding Citizen of the Year awards from the Tampa Museum Society and the Optimist Club, Hispanic Woman of the Year from the Hispanic Heritage League, Paulo Longo Award from the Italian Club, and the Centro Asturiano Award for contributions to the Latin community, as well as awards from the community Red Cross, Salvation Army, Girl Scouts, and Arts Council and other awards for civic service.Ferdie Pacheco, who as a teenager worked in the Columbia Restaurant as a waiter, is the author of Ybor City Chronicles (UPF, 1994), Muhammad Ali: A View from the Corner, Fight Doctor, and Renegade Lightning. He served as Muhammad Ali's personal physician from 1963 to 1977.  He is also a painter,  exhibiting one-man shows in London, Paris, New York, and Miami (where he now lives), and a boxing color commentator on television.  He is married to Luisita Sevilla, who danced flamenco with Los Chavales de España until Ferdie booked her into his house "for a lifetime run."

    They are designed to introduce undergraduates to the rich but often neglected literary contributions of established and newer ethnic writers to American literature. Each text is organized chronologically by genre and represent a wide range of literature.

    The series aims to introduce undergraduates to the rich but often neglected literary contributions of established and newer ethnic writers to American literature. Each text is organized chronlogically by genre and represents a wide range of literature. An introduction provides an historical overview and a celebration of the diversity within each ethnic group. It also addresses the general literary concerns students are likely to encounter in their readings. A seperate thematic table of contents provides the tutor with more flexibility in the classroom. All four anthologies include three bibliographies which suggest novels for further reading; aid students in their research and recommend films that would enhance the studies. Ishmael Reed, the general editor, is founder of the American Book Awards.