Wednesday, September 30th sees the return of HISPANIC PANIC! to Nowhere, 8PM. This lineup of readers will include me, Erasmo Guerra, Maegan La Mala Ortiz, Brandon Lacy Campos, Robert Vázquez-Pacheco and cubana punk extraordinaire Cristy Road. This will be the sucker-punch to kick off Hispanic/Latino Heritage month. As for info on my other October readings, you can go to my website: http://www.firekingpress.com/ These will all be fun and FREE!
From the Barrio to the Board Room, (Writers of the Round Table Press, 2008)
by Robert Renteria, as told to Corey Blake
Everyone’s heard the stale saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” and I must admit that when I first picked up this book (on loan from Being Latino’s Lance Rios) I wasn’t sure I would like it as much as I did—I in fact came to love it. This is not a critique on the stylish book design, as it is a commentary on the type of books I generally read and often review—cultural non-fiction and original fiction. From the Barrio to the Board Room is a tightly-wound and edited memoir, told by a man with praiseworthy compassion and ambition. As a Latino man who lost his own father to chronic drug addiction and was raised by an encouraging and strong mother, Renteria’s story was haunting for me to take in—I often closed my eyes and shook my head at my own remembrances. Kudos for a story filled with moving tragedy and triumph!
At a time when Latinos are breaking through so many cultural barriers, this book could not have surfaced at a better time. Latinos, and working-class men in this book’s context, are commonly disabled through a lack of strong male mentors and positive, goal-oriented thinking and this is often compensated with “jailbird” bravado. Renteria’s story begins with his childhood in the impoverished East Los Angeles barrios, where at an early age he connects with other young men in his demographic through wild living, drugs, alcohol, and gangster culture. Like many of us who are more fortunate than others, Renteria had at least one forward-thinking male mentor, his grandfather Rogerio, who encouraged him to leave the slums of LA to find himself and make himself a better man—to dodge the fate the ghetto was waiting to dole out to him.
Following time spent in the US Army, Renteria focused on impeccable work ethic and honesty and won his first big break that saw him climb the corporate ladder. But he also witnessed the racism inherent to white, privileged male corporate culture—he was refused growth opportunity because of his Latino identity (though it was never said directly). Using this as inspiration, he set out to found his own empire. From the Barrio to the Board Room is a rags-to-riches story and beyond. It’s also about injecting compassion into corruption, to forge a new corporate culture of honesty and integrity, as any hardworking Latino would set out to do. This is a must-read for any young person who needs to read firsthand the wisdom of the book’s umbrella statement, “Don’t let where you came from dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you become.”
Alone in the Crowd (Henry Holt, 2009)
By Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
Alone in the Crowd caught my eye for two reasons: one, I rarely read mysteries anymore, and two, it’s written by the acclaimed Brazilian academic behind the Inspector Espinosa series of which I occasionally hear about. I wanted to find out if writers are breaking molds in this most predictable of fiction genres. I was impressed! Garcia-Roza succeeds almost effortlessly in involving the inspector’s (narrator’s) past with that of the killer in the most unusual of ways—I won’t spoil it for you of course, but I’ll admit that I was caught off-guard and that I probably read the last ten pages in under a minute, so bad did I want to know what would happen. Inspector Espinosa gets hot on the trail of a suspected homicide—in which an elderly woman is run over by a city bus in Copacabana, Rio, and is suspected of being pushed in front of it.
A suspect, an antisocial bank clerk, Hugo Breno , is quickly singled out and investigated. The problem is, is that he knows this too and is super-elusive and as disciplined as a Navy Seal. Inspector Espinosa is simultaneously undergoing adjustments in his open-relationship with a bisexual woman, Irene. A love-triangle of sorts develops when her beautiful friend Vânia tries to seduce him—yet fails (can’t say why). When Espinosa realizes that Hugo Breno is part of his own dark and uncertain past, the mystery begins to unravel. Although Espinosa knows that Breno is the killer—he has no evidence. That is, until the inspector’s own trauma-induced blacking-out of childhood memories undoes itself and the past rushes back to meet the present, where the inspector almost loses his life.
So quickly, before you leave me…
I was nominated by the Latinos in Social Media for Best NY Latino blogger! Isn’t that great…as I love what I do regardless. The winners will be announced this Thursday, so if you could be a star and go to this link and vote for me I will love you forever, even though we’re mortal. They’re giving away a new Toshiba laptop as the prize and I could use it…like REALLY use it! Please vote for me here: http://latism.org/latism-ny/ny-awards/
xoxo Charlie
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