Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2006 Issue
Mexican and Latin Works from Plaza Books
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Here is another person who knew how it felt to be unwelcome, but not so unwelcome that anyone shot her. Melinda Rankin was a Presbyterian missionary. Her work, published in 1875, is Twenty Years Among the Mexicans, a Narrative of Missionary Labor. Ms. Rankin first promoted her beliefs in Texas, but she was strongly pro-Union, not a popular sentiment among Texans, who even threw Sam Houston out of office at the time of the Civil War for such sympathies. She went to New Orleans to work among free Blacks for a while, and after the war, moved to Monterrey, Mexico, to start that country's first Protestant mission. This did not make her very popular either, as she was not welcome by the local clergy in this heavily Catholic country. Ms. Rankin retells her adventures in this autobiography. Item 43. $150.
Item 3b is the story of a Mexican-American outlaw, Vicente Silva. Silva led a couple of gangs in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which used mafia style tactics to terrorize the local population. Assault, arson, and the like were Silva's implements of exacting tribute from his neighbors. Operating as a legitimate saloonkeeper by day, Silva was a fearsome personality in Las Vegas from his arrival in 1875 until the early 1890s. His luck finally began to turn when he requested a trio of crooked lawmen lynch a gang member who evidently committed some misdeed. They complied. When Silva heard that his brother-in-law was going to turn him in, the three lawmen again complied with his order to perform a killing. However, when Silva's wife began asking questions about her brother, the outlaw offed her too, and hired the lawmen to dig her grave. Concerned that Silva was now acting a bit too crazy, they dug her grave, but when Silva arrived with the body, they killed him too, and put both in the grave. Item 3b is a 1947 reprint and translation of the rare, original Las Vegas imprint, titled Vicente Silva and his 40 Bandits. $275.
Plaza Books may be found online at www.plazabooks.com. Their phone number is 707-546-3544.
