From the editor.

• Author: Kiernan, James Patrick

From a photographer who has revolutionized our understanding of an ancient people, to a widening and thriving family of market-wise weavers, this issue of Americas focuses on the preservation and persistence of cultures.

Caleb Bach talks with Justin Kerr, whose peripheral camera has captured the rich details of the lives of the ancient Maya as never before. And with the same exacting intent, folklorist Antonio Paredes-Candia has recorded and published nearly one hundred books on the popular and indigenous cultures of Bolivia. He chats with Mike Ceaser from his La Paz home and out on the street corner where the energetic octogenarian sells his own tomes.

Victor Englebert finds poetry in some peddlers extraordinaire, Ecuador's Otavalo Indians. Ubiquitous in the large cities of virtually all the countries of the Americas, from Argentina to Canada, these people have maintained their connections to home and to each other through their weaving--no matter how dispersed throughout the Americas they may be. Janelle Conaway...