University Of New Mexico

On anyone's scale, a Skid Row wino has to be one of America's least powerful people. Next time you see one of those ragged figures sprawled on a sidewalk, consider the improbability of what Robert Sundance did in 1975: With an eighth-grade education and nearly 500 arrests on his rap sheet, he sued the city and county of Los Angeles to demand better treatment of street alcoholics by police and the courts. And won.

Marty Cotwright is living proof that hard work pays off. The Los Angeles City College power forward went from role player his freshman season in 1992-93 to one of the most highly recruited junior college players in the country this year. At 6-foot-9 and 230 pounds, Cotwright was sought after by some of the nation's top Division I universities. "Georgetown, Cal, Oklahoma, Wake Forest, Purdue and Tennessee wanted me," Cotwright said.

Some fine voices belonging to Mexican-American writers are being muted, consigned to a literary ghetto. Whether published by heroic small or commercial presses, writers labeled by their ethnicity are guaranteed a restricted audience of like identification. If carried at all by bookstores, they may be assigned a segregated shelf. Pushed aside by many English departments that disdain minority voices, a few will find a place in Chicano studies courses.

Philip Fradkin's essays form a scintillating mosaic of some of the remotest, most ravaged and most wondrous corners of North America. As the author explains in the preface, he was lucky to work for editors at the Los Angeles Times (1964-1975, as the paper's first environmental reporter) and Audubon magazine (1976-1981) who stayed out of his way and allowed him to practice what he calls "deep journalism" or "ecohistory."

In his first novel since 1979, Rudolfo Anaya--author of the classic Chicano novel "Bless Me, Ultima"--hopes to reveal more than the correct spelling of Albuquerque. He says he wants us to see New Mexico's largest city in a whole new light. But for anyone who's been to a large city with a significant Latino population, this contemporary story of family, politics, love and reaffirmation of identity in "Alburquerque" is one that we've seen before.

University of Houston Athletic Director Rudy Davalos has accepted a similar position with the University of New Mexico.