Gringo Lessons: Twenty Years of Terror in Taos

Gringo Lessons: Twenty Years of Terror in Taos is a tale of modern adventure about a young man who experienced the local culture from 1966 to 1987. There he met the community: skiers La Gente los vato locos Chicano activists and their Spanish contemporaries the artists drug dealers fellow soldiers tempting sirens the occasional movie star and a host of con artists. Finally the fool abandoned Taos and returned to university only to return and publish Horse Fly a monthly journal about politics and art for another decade which he promises to chronicle in a sequel: Taos Redux: The Horse Fly Years.Bill Whaley the author of Gringo Lessons: Twenty Years of Terror in Taos has pursued adventure as an entrepreneur and journalist in El Norte for almost fifty years. Recently he edited Paul OConnors prize-winning photography book Taos Portraits. Bill teaches courses in literature philosophy and writing for the University of New Mexicos Upper Division Bachelor and Graduate program in Taos. He published a monthly journal about art and culture Horse Fly from 1999 to 2009. For his devotion to the local cultura and other stimulating challenges the so-called Bad Gringo has endured financial failure and suffered the slings and errors of political and prosecutorial misconduct while being memorialized as a figure in a Day of the Dead tableau. If his application to a witness protection plan is accepted he promises to write a sequel called Taos Redux: The Horse Fly Years a terrifying comedy of political revenge and retaliation about a pesky insect called La Mosca.