{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Ep. 15 The Thirsty Llano Estacado","description":"Ryan\u2019s guests this episode are Dr. Timothy M. Foster, former WT prof and currently a Spanish teacher in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Dr. John Beusterien, Professor of Spanish at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Tim and John come on the podcast to discuss their article, \u201cThe Thirsty Llano Estacado: The Manuel Ma\u00e9s Ballad Corpus,\u201d published in 2022 in The Great Plains Quarterly. This piece includes a thorough appendix of transcriptions, translations, and recordings \u2014 several of which can be heard in this episode \u2014 of the Nuevomexicano ballad of Manuel Ma\u00e9s, a real-life, twenty-one-year-old cibolero (buffalo hunter) who was killed while hunting in 1873 and buried somewhere in the Llano Estacado of Texas. Tim and John argue that examining the ballad\u2019s environmental vision can shed light on the contemporary problem of water scarcity, awakening \u201cthe spirit of water as a force of renewal and, in so doing, raise consciousness toward ecologically sound and sustainable water practice.\u201d After a brief introduction in Spanish, the interview covers topics like Priscilla Ybarra\u2019s concept of Chicana\/o \u201cgoodlife writing\u201d and the challenge it represents to Anglo-American environmentalist movements rooted in settler colonialism; the role of groups like the comancheros, pastores, and ciboleros in the pre-Anglo history of the Llano; and the Ma\u00e9s song\u2019s status as indita, corrido, and ballad, three complexly interrelated genres. We also discuss the thematic role of canyons, rivers, and water-collection points, and how the song functions as a kind of tombstone, not only for Ma\u00e9s but also for the Panhandle playa where he was likely buried, a lake that \u201cis almost certainly plowed under, built over, or trenched for irrigation, unable to fulfill either its cultural or ecological function.\u201d The Great Plains Quarterly Cover Image: The Killing of Manuel Ma\u00e9s, courtesy of the artist, Ronald Kil. ","author_name":"Humanities on the High Plains","author_url":"http:\/\/www.humanitiesonthehighplains.com","html":"