TROPICAL FRONTIER

The frontier Mr. Record celebrates is a small territory in southeastern Mexico called Xucuapan where some three hundred families live. Apparently accepted as a landsman, the author records appreciatively the peaceful and more productive to macho-machete doings of his neighbors. Like many frontiers with the jungle and sprawling river a demanding presence nearby, there is a certain amount of indigenous violence--robbery and sudden murder--and Mr. Record follows the many attempts, amateur and pro, at peacekeeping through anecdote and personal experience. There are quite fascinating treks through the jungle (surprisingly light, with muted colors); a log of maize-growing, primitive but effective in methods; and fishing expeditions. The vagaries of the wild animals and fish--the deadly fer de lance, jaguars, peccaries and large birds; dry and wet seasons; the many ills that cattle are heir to flavor the narrative which mainly has to do with the mores of a frontier which is becoming rapidly domesticated.