Reluctant Journey is about the life of Gibo Herrera, a young Hispanic, living in one of the villages of northern New Mexico at a time when life was new, nature was unspoiled, people were blissfully naive and the villages were beginning to come out of their isolation of two-hundred years. Gibo, a native of La Cueva, or the idyllic Embargo, grew up among storytellers, provocative newcomers, mystics and characters with a past. In his adolescence, Gibo took to listening to the village wise men and through them discovers the history of his people and his own Hispanic-Penitente past. Young Gibo also happens upon the "love of his life," a beautiful young girl from one of the neighboring villages. Yet, for the rest of his young adult life he embarks on a reluctant journey, leaving his mountain home, his girlfriend and his family. His work as a railroad telegrapher takes him to another world, with other people who also have their own stories to tell. Reluctant Journey is a story of wonder, of love and of yearning to return to a home and a past that was slowly drifting away. Gilbert Andres Archuleta