Encounter with an Angry God: Recollections of My Life with John Peabody Harrington by Carobeth Laird (review)

188 WesternAmerican Literature Pat Mora’s first book of essays exhibits a broad intelligence about the contemporary culture wars, the ideal of the American university, and our complex global economic system which renders her both oppressed and op­ pressor. Best known as a Chicana poet (Chants, 1984, Borders, 1986, Communion, 1991), these essays reveal Mora’swork as administrator and museum director at University of Texas, El Paso. Mora describes herself as “a child of the border,” who lives through “multiple spaces.” But in Mora’s hands “la frontera” nudges the Chicana theory (Literary Left) in new directions. Nepantla means “place in the middle”in Nahuatl, and Mora’s “middle”refuses an easy conflation ofU. S. minorities with Third World subjects and challenges U. S. Latinos to formulate a “civic morality.”As a committed participant, Mora questions some of the most entrenched political assumptions within Chicano/a Studies. Two essays hold the book’s political philosophy together: “Endangered Species,” and “Universities, A Mirage?” The first argues that preservation of ignored histories and cultures contributes to racial pride and a sense of civic belonging. Latinos must be “full participants] in the nation’s public life,” and the category of citizenship must “affirm, not deny, [ethnic] identity.” The second, “Universities, A Mirage?”shows Mora’sstruggle to define the mission of American universities. “What responsibility do universities have to the histori­ cally underrepresented?” she asks. Mora believes universities must be a “com­ munity of searchers,” who “lead . . . society to question itself.” Mora sees the university as a place to shape American citizenship and she rescues the notion of “citizenship”as one worth the consideration of progressives. The remaining essays fall into two groups: the first, a series on Latin American countries, shows that, in an international context, Mora is a First World subject, and unwitting beneficiary of global relations that exploit Third World economies. The second series, ruminations on writing and art, demon­ strates Mora’s broad sense of culture and literary influence, and are ever aware that though she is a “minority,” she is a university intellectual, and exercises privileges that most Spanish-speaking Americans do not. Mora may ruffle feath­ ers of those less intellectually and politically honest. I wish more of us were willing to do so. KRISTA COMER Brown University Encounter with an Angry God: Recollections ofMy Life withJohn Peabody Harrington. By Carobeth Laird. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993. 190 pages, $11.00.) Carobeth Laird’s account of her life with John Peabody Harrington is not the traditional approach to the illusive quest for western history. Starting with Reviews 189 her first encounter with the linguist-ethnographer, she takes the reader into her private life with the legendary scholar, telling of their life as she remembered it. There is no attempt to romanticize her role as his wife and co-worker. She chronicles the events with a clarity that perhaps only comes with the passage of time. HAZEL McKIM Central Valley, California We Aspired: The Last Innocent Americans. By Pete Sinclair. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1993. 232 pages, $16.95.) “We chose our route according to the angle of the moon, moving in a pool of moonlight as if God held a lantern for us.” WeAspired: TheLastInnocentAmericansis the On theRoadof mountaineering literature. It is an autobiographical tale of adventure and initiation. Beginning with the historical first ascent of McKinley’s (Denali’s) southwest rib, Sinclair interweaves his story with the stories of friends and landscapes that range from Alaska to Mexico, from Wyoming to New York City. Mountaineers have been accused ofwriting mainly to promote themselves or as a means offinancing expeditions, and they sometimes tend to boast about their personal achievements. Sinclair is, if anything, self-effacing and humor­ ous, even humble. The descriptions of climbs and rescues are honest accounts of life and the loss of life, accounts of fear and sympathy, ofjoy and fulfillment. He discusses his fears—not only about mountaineering, but about life in gen­ eral—with honesty. Sinclair also discusses wrestling with relationships, with his place in society, and with his responsibility as a human being. Sinclair’s words are the words of an adventurer, a poet, an observer, and a...