Today Colorado's San Luis Valley is a scenic, small community of farmers and artists, but before it became part of the USA in 1848, it was part of a large Spanish land grant and home to many pioneer families with roots in Mexico. Catholicism dominated the area, and East Coast non-Catholics saw this 'Roman' influence as unacceptable.

On the frontline of the subsequent struggles were missionaries and teachers like Anna Marie Ross, an instigator of public schools open to all. Standing up for literacy, she was often at odds with her supervisors, the Catholic clergy in the valley, and the Spanish model that only the well-off went to school. Reid Ross’s The War for Souls in the San Luis Valley tells the story of her tenacity and foresight as she held firm to her principle that education came first, and reclaiming lost souls would follow. Ross will join us at Maria’s Bookshop for a lively book talk followed by a Q&A and signing.