New Mexico cultural envoy Juan Estevan Arellano, to whom this work is dedicated, writes that querencia is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect it as our home.
This sentiment is echoed in the foreword by Rudolfo Anaya, in which he writes that querencia is love of home, love of place. This...