The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

And so began - though few knew it at the time - the Milagro beanfield war. Carefully, if impulsively (and also illegally), he tapped into the main irrigation channel. From the Back Cover Joe Mondragon, thirty-six with not much to show for it, a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, slammed his battered pickup to a stop, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into the arid patch of ground. The tale of Milagros rising is wildly comic and lovingly tender, a vivid portrayal of a town that, half-stumbling and partly prodded, gropes its way toward its own stubborn salvation. And downstate in the capital, the Anglo water barons and power brokers huddle in urgent conference, intent on destroying that symbol before it destroys their multimillion-dollar land-development schemes. Gradually, the small farmers and sheepmen begin to rally to Joes beanfield as the symbol of their lost rights and their lost lands. But like everything else in the dirt-poor town of Milagro, it would be a patchwork war, fought more by tactical retreats than by battlefield victories. And so began-though few knew it at the time-the Milagro beanfield war.

Carefully (and also illegally), he tapped into the main irrigation channel. The New York Times Book Review) Joe Mondragon, a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, slammed his battered pickup to a stop, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into the arid patch of ground. Book Synopsis The Milagro Beanfield War is the first book in John Nicholss New Mexico Trilogy (Gentle, funny, transcendent. Then, illegally, he taps into the main irrigation channel-and so begins Nicholss classic tale of the little guy against the big guy. About the Book Joe Mondragon, 36, is a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble who slams his battered pickup to a stop, tugs on his gumboots, and marches into an arid patch of ground.

The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols