Customer Reviews

Brides and Sinners in El Chuco (Camino del Sol)

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"El Chuco" does not mean "the disgusting one," though whoever wrote that has a disgusting opinion about El Paso, Texas, that has nothing to do with the border town or the people who live there. That is one of those that says more about what is in a reviewer's mind that what is in an author's. "El Chuco" comes from the shortened word for "Pachuco," which is a name for what Chicanos in gangs were called in the 50s, and it's a Chicano slang nickname for the city. Nothing else, doesn't even translate as "disgusting" for people who speak Spanish or include words in a Spanish dictionary. It's very offensive.

Granados' collection is one of the best written which is set there. It is honest, funny, and poignant.

Christiine Granados' debut short story collection entitled "Brides and Sinners in El Chuco" certainy pushes the edge in a number of different ways. Granados is not afraid to explore a dark underworld of taboos, whether it be spousal abuse in "Comfort" or child molestation in "My Girlfriend Bobbi". The stories for the most part are quite successful at capturing the reader's attention right from the start. Granados's writing style is very raw and easy to connect with on various levels. I particuarly enjoyed Granados's distinct style of setting. The mood of the bordertown of El Paso seems to mesh very well with the dark type of material that Granados seems to work best with, although I still felt as if the haunting events depicted in some of the stories could be taking place anywhere, which is why the reader is likely to identify so well with her writing. Overall, it was an enjoyable collection of short stories, and a promsing debut for a young writer like Granados.

A fine collection of stories! Recommended to me by a friend who knows my love for Chicano, Latino, and Latin American stories, Brides and Sinners in El Chuco is refreshing and fearless. These are stories that are not going to sell well at a new Hispanic mall where bland and pretty are almost the same. These stories are raw, funny, and tragic. Real, in other words, by someone who knows El Paso not as someone who grew up on the West Side. Granados reminds me of a female Rivera and Gilb, with an edge like Castillo but a lot more fun to read. More!

The Texas border town of El Paso, nostalgically referred to as "El Chuco" by residents who have lived there for generations, straddles two countries, cultures and outlooks on life distinctly different at first glance, but eerily similar in the stories of its inhabitants.

Members of two worlds, yet assimilated to none, the "Brides and Sinners of El Chuco," Christine Granados' debut collection of short stories, reveal their tales of dysfunctional relationships, unrealized dreams and the emotionally harsh realities of life.

In these fourteen stories, Granados introduces us to households of working-class men, fragile but resilient women, and children who, witnessing pain and suffering under the roof of a home that should offer sanctuary, dream dreams of better tomorrows while living in the confusion of today.

Written in the raw bilingual Tex-Mex language that echoes through the homes of Latino and Hispanics families in South Texas, Granados gives us glimpses into intricate lives that seem normal to its characters.

In "Love Web" Dora, an overweight female employee, serves as an unofficial secretary to the office's Don Juan--James Morris--taking calls from his lovers and assigning them to a level in a hierarchy system based on the numbers of calls they make to the office on a daily basis, the tones of their voice, and their "nasal whine of desperation."

Determined to conquer the conqueror, Dora devices a plan to seduce the object of her adoration if only for an office tryst. Through cunning maneuvers, she overcomes girlfriends in James' web, catty female co-workers, and her own lack of physical beauty, and manages to orchestrate an evening alone with James, albeit in the office.

The sexual conquest by Dora is over almost as soon as it begins. Giving up her virginity to the office Romeo was everything and nothing she thought it would be. Almost immediately, she fades back into the recesses of James' mind, and the next day begins just like yesterday.

Granados' other stories are snippets of memories in the times of our lives. Maybe we don't experience everything the characters in her 14 stories do, but we have suffered through some of it, know of family members and friends who have made similar choices--good and bad--and hold onto the hope that things will be better for the next generation.

If you're looking for a "feel good" collection containing fictional accounts of barrio life that centers on nostalgia and the achievement of the American Dream, this isn't the book for you. Instead, "Brides and Sinners in El Chuco" delivers a jarring account of everyday life that you don't see on television or read about in the newspaper, but you know it's true because you have lived it, and your resilience, like those of the people of El Chuco, carries you into tomorrow.

In this book, Christine Granados reveals the Chicano culture, a culture commonly known as the descendants of Mexican American people. These stories are like little pieces of puzzle of the life of the people of El Paso, living in this city of El Chuco. In Love Web, the writer shows adventures of sexual conquest such as the sexual conquest of Casanova James Morris as well as the disposition of Dora's virginity thrown away when she gives in to James and walked away like nothing happened.
Granados shows a pattern of behavior where women are obsessed with men and men are all sinners. In Brides, Rochelle was obsessed in finding a man to marry. In Love Web, Dora is obsessed with James "Casanova" a man who has a lot of women and James Casanova was a sinner because he had sex with many women. In A Scenic Night, Sandra and the bartender went outside to have sex and in Pecado, Celestino had an affair with sister in-law Honorina.
Granados has set her talent and core in telling these stories. She seeks to reveal a new voice of Chicano costumes when she throws bilingual word such as, "pendeja, compa, colocha" colloquial expressions unique of this Chicano people in Man of the House.
Granados is a gifted writer who managed to put together the life of these people in a big city that is already falling apart. She describes the lives of dysfunctional families, unaccomplished dreams and the emotions of true life that whisper you after you have finished reading the book. It feels like a unique experience after you finish each story. For instance, the life of the young girl in the Man of the House who is forced to accept her mother's new boyfriend knowing that he will leave at any moment like the others did because she know her mother cannot hold to any man.
It fascinates how Granados attributes particular personalities to each character. Man, women and children are always expressing their feeling and emotions the way they want and feel. I love the idea that she does not sugarcoat her characters. She talks about unpleasant aspects their lives as their feelings which gives them real identity and make them feel real. This is a book that you throw away and feel that the characters are alive. They through a whisper at you and you sense you want to go back read it again.

In this gritty yet often comical debut collection, Christine Granados offers sharp, honest portraits of the people who cobble together decidedly unglamorous lives in El Paso known as "El Chuco" by its Mexican American inhabitants. Granados sets the tone with the first story, "The Bride," where the narrator recounts her older sister's dream to have a wedding like the ones pictured in glossy bride magazines:

"Rochelle was obsessed. Because all these ridiculous magazines never listed mariachis or dollar dances, she decided her wedding was going to have a string quartet, no bajo, horns, or anything, no dollar dance, and it was going to be in October. . . . I wasn't going to tell her there is no `elegance' to autumn in El Paso."

Despite such planning and dreaming, Rochelle's "perfect" wedding gives way to tarnished, unplanned reality that she unblinkingly accepts.

Granados's women sometime prefer familiar abuse over healthy, mutually fulfilling relationships. In "Comfort," Courtney has a history of dating men who beat and degrade her. But when her new boyfriend, Eliseo, fails to follow this pattern, she grows bored: "Respect. Something every girl wanted but didn't really need. What Courtney wanted was passion." She decides to push Eliseo to the breaking point, make him lose control, by needling him and challenging his manhood. Similarly, in "Love Web," a receptionist falls for the office's womanizer and willingly accepts sexual degradation just to be part of his life. These two women believe they are control of their private lives, and in many respects they are no matter how misguided they may seem. Granados allows her audience to understand how they got to this place without preaching about the importance of self-respect. In other words, she trusts the intelligence of her readers to come to their own conclusions.

Not all of Granados's women suffer at the hands of men. In "Small Time," a mother forces her daughter to learn how to scam department stores by "returning" stolen merchandise. And in "Inner View," a young woman cannot escape the inept and unintentionally humorous meddling of her family as she tries to interview for a well-paying paralegal position. But in neither of these stories does Granados implore us to pity these women because, in the end, they do not pity themselves.

Granados is a gifted writer who refuses to sugarcoat the lives of her characters. These stories are potent little portraits of brides and sinners who struggle through ordinary lives propelled by nothing more than a vague hope for something better. Granados is a writer to watch. [This review first appeared in La Bloga.]