And Now Miguel is set during the early 1950s on a Hispanic American sheep ranch near Taos, New Mexico. Two nearby places illustrate the vast difference between the old way of life and the new in the southwestern United States: the village of Los Cordovas, a small Catholic community that celebrates a fiesta in honor of its patron saint, San Ysidro, and the city of Los Alamos, where the federal government has recently built an atomic energy laboratory.

The Chavez family rents land for its flocks on a mesquite-covered mesa near the Rio Grande Canyon. The Pueblo River runs through this land, providing excellent trout fishing. From their home, the Chavez family can see the peaks of the Mountains of Sangre de Cristo, part of the Carson National Forest. These mountains, where the men of his family take the sheep to graze each summer, fascinate Miguel. The novel...