Note: This is hardly an exhaustive list. What I have listed here combines a few of the "classic" ethnographies of the 1960s and 1970s, some of my own favorites from the 1970s through 1990s, and some of the most recent ethnographies (1998-2002), many of which I have not even seen yet. They are listed alphabetically by author; if I have time, I will arrange them by topic later on. All of these books are catalogued in the UM library, but I have not placed them on reserve and therefore cannot guarantee that you will find any given title on the shelf.
Note 2: When you write about one of these books, you may call it a "book," or an "ethnography," or if you want to get jargony about it, a "monograph." But it is NOT a "novel" -- novels are works of fiction...
Alonso, Ana María. Thread of Blood: Colonialism, Revolution, and Gender on Mexico's Northern Frontier. Arizona, 1995.
Campbell, Howard. Mexican Memoir: A Personal Account of Anthropology and Radical Politics in Oaxaca. Bergin & Garvey, 2001.
Cancian, Frank. Economics and Prestige in a Maya Community: The Religious Cargo System in Zinacantan. Stanford, 1965.
Castañeda, Quetzil. In the Museum of Maya Culture: Touring Chichén Itzá. Minnesota, 1995.
Chiñas, Beverly. The Isthmus Zapotecs: Women's Roles in Cultural Context. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.
Clarke, Colin G. Class, Ethnicity, and Community in Southern Mexico: Oaxaca's Peasantries. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Cohen, Jeffrey. Cooperation and Community: Economy and Society in Oaxaca. University of Texas Press, 1999.
Conover, Ted. Coyotes: A Journey through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens. Vintage, 1987.
Coyle, Philip E. From Flowers to Ash: Nayari History, Politics, and Violence. University of Arizona Press, 2001.
De la Peña, Guillermo. A Legacy of Promises: Agriculture, Politics, and Ritual in the Morelos Highlands of Mexico. University of Texas, 1981.
Dennis, Philip A. Intervillage Conflict in Oaxaca. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Dow, James W. and Alan R. Sandstrom. Holy Saints and Fiery Preachers: The Anthropology of Protestantism in Mexico and Central America. Praeger, 2001. (collection of essays.)
Eber, Christine Engla. Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow. University of Texas Press, 2000.
Fernández-Kelly, María Patricia. For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier. SUNY Press, 1983.
Finkler, Kaja. Spiritualist Healers in Mexico: Successes and Failures of Alternative Therapeutics. New York: Praeger, 1985.
Fletcher, Peri L. La Casa de Mis Sueños: Dreams of Home in a Transnational Mexican Community. Westview Press, 1999.
Friedlander, Judith. Being Indian in Hueyapan: A Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.
Friedrich, Paul. Agrarian Revolt in a Mexican Village. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Friedrich, Paul. The Princes of Naranja: An Essay in Anthrohistorical Method. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
García Canclini, Néstor. Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Garciagodoy, Juanita. Digging the Days of the Dead: A Reading of Mexico's Dias De Muertos. University Press of Colorado, 1998.
González, Roberto J. Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca. University of Texas Press, 2001.
Gossen, Gary. Chamulas in the World of the Sun: Time and Space in a Maya Oral Tradition. Harvard University Press, 1974.
Gossen, Gary. Telling Maya Tales: Tzotzil Identities in Modern Mexico. Routledge, 1999.
Greenburg, James. Blood Ties: Life and Violence in Rural Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.
Greenburg, James. Santiago's Sword: Chatino Peasant Religion and Economics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
Grimes, Kimberly M. Crossing Borders: Changing Social Identities in Southern Mexico. University of Arizona Press, 1998.
Hernández Castillo, R. Aída. Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico. Texas, 2001.
Herrera-Sobek, María. The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis. Indiana University, 1990
Higgins, Michael James, and Tanya L. Coen. Streets, Bedrooms and Patios: The Ordinariness of Diversity in Urban Oaxaca: Ethnographic Portraits of the Urban Poor, Transvestites, Discapacitados, and Other Popular Cultures. University of Texas Press, 2000.
Hill, Jane, and Kenneth C. Hill. Speaking Mexicano: Dynamics of Language in Central Mexico. Arizona, 1986.
Ingham, John M. Mary, Michael, and Lucifer: Folk Catholicism in Central Mexico. University of Texas, 1986.
Kearney, Michael. The Winds of Ixtepeji: World Views and Society in a Zapotec Town. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.
Levinson, Bradley A. We Are All Equal: Student Culture and Identity at a Mexican Secondary School, 1988-1998. Duke University Press, 2001.
Lewis, Oscar. A Death in the Sánchez Family. Random House, 1969.
Lewis, Oscar. Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty. Basic Books, 1959.
Lewis, Oscar. The Children of Sánchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family. Vintage, 1961.
Logan, Kathleen. Haciendo Pueblo: The Development of a Guadalajara Suburb. University of Alabama, 1984.
Lomnitz-Adler, Claudio. Exits from the Labyrinth: Culture and Ideology in the Mexican National Space. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Martínez, Rubén.Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Merrill, William. Rarámuri Souls: Knowledge and Social Process in Northern Mexico. Smithsonian Press, 1988.
Myerhoff, Barbara. Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians. Cornell, 1974.
Nash, June. In the Eyes of the Ancestors: Belief and Behavior in a Mayan Community. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970.
Nash, June. Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. Routledge, 2001.
Nugent, Daniel. Spent Cartridges of Revolution: An Anthropological History of Namiquipa, Chihuahua. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Nutini, Hugo. Todos Santos in Ruraal Tlaxcala: A Syncretic, Expressive, and Symbolic Analysis of the Cult of the Dead. Princeton, 1988.
Otero, Gerardo. Farewell to The Peasantry? Political Class Formation in Rural Mexico. Westview Press, 1999.
Paredes, Américo, ed. and trans. Folktales of Mexico. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Romanucci-Ross, Lola. Conflict, Violence, and Morality in a Mexican Village. University of Chicago, 1986.
Rovira, Guiomar. Women of Maize: Indigenous Women and the Zapatista Rebellion. Translated by Anna Keene. London: Latin American Bureau, 2000.
Rubin, Jeffrey. Decentering the Regime: Ethnicity, Radicalism and Democracy in Juchitán, Mexico. Duke: 1997.
Slade, Doren. Making the World Safe for Existence: Celebration of the Saints among the Sierra Nahuat of Chignaulta, Mexico. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Stephen, Lynn. Zapata lives! Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico. University of California Press, 2002.
Stephen, Lynn. Zapotec Women. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Sullivan, Paul. Unfinished Conversations: Mayas and Foreigners Between Two Wars. Knopf, 1989.
Vila, Pablo. Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Frontier. University of Texas Press, 2000. (On El Paso/Cd. Juarez)
Vogt, Evon. Fieldwork among the Maya: Reflections on the Harvard Chiapas Project. University of New Mexico, 1994.
Vogt, Evon. Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals. Harvard, 1976.
Vogt, Evon. The Zinacantecos of Mexico: A Modern Maya Way of Life. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
Warman, Arturo. We Come to Object: The Peasants of Morelos and the National State. Johns Hopkins, 1980.
Yetman, David. Scattered Round Stones: A Mayo Village in Sonora, Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Zolov, Eric. Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture. University of California Press, 1999.