After Phil Karber's last book, Vagabond Memoirs, he thumbed the pages of his Nat Geo World Atlas for what came next and decided to circle back to his unpublished material of a bus trip down the Pan American Highway through Mexico and Central America. Though eighteen years had passed since that memorable journey, the underlying themes-faith, politics, Indigenous poverty, anti-Americanism-struck him to be as relevant today as they were in 2007. The Spanish Conquest, inspired by "gold, glory, and God," the 1823 enactment of the Monroe Doctrine, and 20th century American hegemony are now embedded like atavistic memories in every jungle village and urban slum in the region. Gringos Traveling South of the Rio Grande forks and fuses like an epic novel, capturing the landscapes and cultures along the Pan American Highway.
