My friend Homero Aridjis has just published “News of the Earth,” a compendium of his remarkable articles over the years, as well as a children’s book on monarch butterflies.
And here his piece on the devastating earthquake that struck Mexico City in 2017. a blog Homero was asked to write for the London Review of Books.
Information on his new books below:
Mandel Vilar Press is publishing two recently translated books by Homero Aridjis, internationally known writer, poet and environmentalist: Maria The Monarch and News of the Earth. Both books are being published this fall in late October and early December.
Maria The Monarch is a story for young readers (ages 8–14) about saving the Monarch butterflies from extinction written by the man most responsible for getting the Mexican government to set aside protective federal lands for the Monarch. This beautifully illustrated children’s book is an adventure story about two courageous young cousins, Erendira and Corina. With the help of their community as well as Maria the Monarch, who speaks to them in their dreams, they save the lives of millions of monarch butterflies threatened by illegal logging and traffickers of wild animals. In the process they help preserve the natural and cultural wealth of their homeland.
An informational supplement for parents, “The Monarch: A Tireless Traveler,” describes the butterfly and its life cycle, geographic distribution, and migration patterns, along with threats to its survival and efforts to protect this delicate and lovely creature, including the establishment of Monarch sanctuaries in Mexico.
News of the Earth by Homero Aridjis is a unique contribution to understanding why we must preserve our global environment, providing valuable lessons learned by someone on the front lines defending the Earth for decades. Here are a few pre-publication blurbs on Homero’s accomplishments:
“This collection of his articles of over more than thirty years of fighting to preserve our natural wonders will be an inspiration to future generations. Aridjis is an international icon for his environmental activism. —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of Crimes Against Nature
“Homero is one of the planet’s great environmental heroes.”—Jacob Scherr, Director, Global Strategy & Advocacy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C.
“No one in Mexico has made a more important contribution to protecting that country’s environment, an effort that has had ripple effects throughout the world,” –Lester Brown, the US environmentalist and founder of both the Worldwatch and Earth Policy institutes.
News of the Earth can be read as a chronicle of the history of environmental activism in Mexico, but its scope reaches beyond Mexico, as so many of the issues featured are shared with the United States and Canada, its North American partners in NAFTA, and the world…. It is an invaluable contribution to understanding why we must preserve our global environment. —Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WildCoast, author of Saving the Gray Whale: People, Politics, and Conservation in Baja California