The Republic of East L.A.: Stories [Hardcover]

Luis J. Rodriguez (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0066212634 | ISBN-13: 978-0066212630 | Publication Date: April 2, 2002 | Edition: First Edition

From the award-winning author of "Always Running comes a brilliant collection of short stories about life in East Los Angeles. It is a life brimming with hope and vitality, the depiction of which reaffirms Luis J. Rodriguez as not only one of America's keenest urbanists but as a writer with a perfect blendof humanist empathy and poetic soul.Behind this famed enclave's notorious gang violence its well-documented and stereotyped poverty rates, and the supposed desperation of those who live in East L.A. without any hope of escape, lies one resounding element: real people, with real strength, in very real predicaments.Whether hilariously capturing the voice of a philosophizing limo driver in his late twenties whose dream is to make the most of his rap-metal garage band in "My Ride, My Revolution," or the monologue-styled rant of a "tes-ti-fy-ing! tent revivalist named Ysela in "Oiga," Rodriguez squeezes humor from the lives of people who are not ready to sacrifice their dreams due to circumstance. In so doing, he allows readers to enter into the hidden and hope-filled chambers of an individual's spirit, only to artfully balance this with the more serious intonations of life's grimmer realities.In "Finger Dance," Rodriguez pays tribute to the slow death of a violent and harsh father who, in his last days, is rendered physically and mentally helpless. In "Pigeons," we are shown a world where Mexican-Americans ironically and hypocritically distrust Mexicans, while in "Sometimes You Dance with a Watermelon," we meet a mother who finds momentary relief from her life with a good mambo, a hot sun, and a juicy piece of fruit.In these stories, Luis J. Rodriguez gives eloquent voice to theneighborhood where he spent many years as a resident, a father, an organizer, and, finally, a writer: a neighborhood that offers more to the world than its appearance allows. "The Republic of East L.A. is unforgettable fiction from a true talent.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Luis J. Rodriguez's The Republic of East L.A. showcases the lives of drifters, gangbangers, the homeless, and other hard-luck residents. The characters in these stories often commit crimes or suffer hardships without taking responsibility for their actions, or the author leaves the consequences unexplored (after a murder at the end of one story, the characters simply drive off). What we are left with are people to whom at the outset we sense bad things will happen, and they usually do. There are touching stories in here, however, where people endure the blight of urban poverty, making the most of it and/or escaping through fantasies of a better life. Rodriguez sums up East L.A. in "Boom, Bot, Boom":

There are hundreds of midnight images: black-uniformed officers with taped nightsticks, scrawled bus stops, spasms of gunfire, crowded jail cells, whirling helicopter blades, sidewalk Romeos and red-toed Juliets.... But for Raul and Stick, there was only this--a sad, silly, and sometimes deadening symmetry called suburbia. And they thrived on it.

Rodriguez covers fertile ground, but does so in a rather bland and predictable manner. Perhaps the author is right that the people of East L.A. simply endure what comes their way, but without giving us more engagement between the subjects and their action, The Republic of East L.A. seems inhabited less by people than by characters. --Michael Ferch

From Publishers Weekly

Poet, essayist and editor Rodriguez (Always Running: La Vida Loca; Gang Days in L.A.) assembles 12 gritty, hard-hitting snapshots taken from the lives of careworn characters struggling to survive amid crime, poverty and racism in the barrio of East Los Angeles. "My Ride, My Resolution" features Cruz Blancarte, a tough but likable limousine driver who witnesses firsthand the heartlessness of the city's rich and famous. When he's allowed to keep the limo overnight, Cruz seizes the opportunity to take sexy neighborhood girl Bernarda out on a date, but with disastrous results. Many stories play on themes of freedom and emotional release, interrelated for better or worse. In "Boom, Bot, Boom" an afternoon of barhopping turns two friends both newly unemployed and miserable into outlaws, while the poignant "Finger Dance" features a heavyhearted son who, after a lifetime of feeling unwanted, searches his dying father's face "for signs of love." Life falls apart quickly for steelworker Enrique in "Mechanics" when he gets laid off and his wife of 12 years moves out, taking the kids with her, yet he experiences a "pervasive serenity" despite his misfortune. Though there are few uplifting moments such as the one in "Sometimes You Dance with a Watermelon," which finds a grandmother attempting to rumba with the giant fruit on her head the collection as a whole attains a spirited, resilient rhythm.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rayo; First Edition edition (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066212634
• ISBN-13: 978-0066212630
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Ride Through East L.A., September 10, 2002

By 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson "Author 'This is the P... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Republic of East L.A.: Stories (Hardcover)

The Republic of East L.A. is collection of stories set in a part of Los Angeles that even natives have not seen, do not know. Rodriguez has an eye for his culture and a sometimes imperfect way of telling a story that only adds credibility to the subjects he writes about.

That these stories have a rough edge, that they are not always perfectly told, is not important because they are poignantly told. Mostly they cross the barrio barrier for all to enjoy. Occasionally they don't. If you are interested in culture, speak Spanish or are familiar with Hispanic/American way of life, you will have no trouble. If you aren't, you will still find some of these stories worth a bit of a struggle. Especially "Pigeons." This tale about new Mexican immigrant prejudices against second generation Mexicans and vice versa is worth the entire ride through "East L.A."

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Atlas of Human Hearts, August 25, 2002

By 

Charlie Dickinson (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Republic of East L.A.: Stories (Hardcover)

With The Republic of East L.A., Luis Rodriguez slyly suggests our largest barrio might be a separate country. The critically praised author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., Rodriguez writes less about geography in the City of Angels and more about an atlas of human hearts.

Twelve stories, twelve voices, The Republic of East L.A. surpasses the typical story collection with a unity of geography, culture, and artistic compassion. What Rodriguez achieves--if at a more modest level--invites comparison with James Joyce's Dubliners. Both have a felt history of community and honest portraits of characters caught in moral struggle.

Rodriguez's protagonists are satisfyingly complex. In the lead story, "My Ride, My Revolution," Cruz Blancarte, twenty-something (but closing in on thirty) plays in a rap-and-rock garage band. He inherits a yearning for political revolution from his chicana activist mom. He hustles a girlfriend, Bernarda, two inches taller than his five-six. And he drives a limo for a living, shuttling the chasms between the barrio and tonier sections of L.A. No Hispanic stereotyping here.

With a journalist's eye, Rodriguez enriches his stories with historical texture that reaches across decades and generations. Does that short-pants cholo beside the lowrider Chevy not echo the tattooed grandfather who had a pachuco past in the 1950s? Why did James A. Garfield High School lose its accreditation in the 1970s and then rocket to Stand and Deliver fame in the 1980s? Have we forgotten that in 1970 armed L.A. County Sheriff deputies in East L.A. attacked a crowd protesting the Vietnam War, leaving several dead, including Chicano journalist Ruben Salazar?

But story by story, Rodriguez's narrative focus is tighter than barrio history. Character struggle often plays out against the frame of la familia. "Shadows" is possibly the grimmest portrait. Rudy spirals downward into alcoholism, metaphorically melting into the sidewalk as a "shadow" person--so often did he pass out there. Rudy's suffering is not his alone. It's shared by la familia too: an abandoned wife, an abandoned child, and a father who stops caring about his son. Despite individual setbacks, la familia emerges in these stories as the common engine of survival, driven by an unstoppable work ethic.

"La Operacion" is an ambitious narrative of two parallel stories about the dream compelling so many Mexicans to cross our southern border. Working immigrant populations in the United States invariably send money back home to family and relatives. Thus, one story is set in East L.A.; one story is set in a small beneficiary village in the scenic Copper Canyon country of Mexico. After the glimpse of everyone winning in the "parallel economies" of both barrio and village, tragedy strikes in both places. La Migra, not unexpectedly, literally bulldozes the dream of the immigrants in East L.A. But surprisingly, the villagers' dream collapses too: The heavy hand of tourist development reaches out, destroying culture, a lifeway, and whatever else the dollars from up north had secured.

All twelve stories deserve comment, but the final story demands comment. "Sometimes You Dance With a Watermelon," is that rare event: pure storyteller magic. Told with economy and deft strokes, we get to know Rosalba, a grandmother who's still living a difficult life in her fortieth year. We see the arc of her life from leaving an obscure Mexican village to questioning now whether the sacrifices to be in Estados Unidos were worth it. Someday, some way, she wants to go back to her village. And yet as the matriarch of her own familia, she has few choices. Like Camus's Sisyphus, she can only keep moving.

Rosalba and her nine-year-old granddaughter Chila walk down to Grand Central Market in the heart of L.A. There Rosalba buys a watermelon, which Chila can't carry. Then Rodriguez kicks the story up another level, for something akin to Joycean epiphany. Rosalba balances the watermelon on her head as she learned in the village, and festive music in the air, she dances. To not spoil this literary treat for you, no more should be said. Read the story. Better yet, read all of The Republic of East L.A.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Republic, July 19, 2003

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Republic of East L.A.: Stories (Hardcover)

Luis J. Rodriguez once again has painted a vibrant and complex picture of those who work, live, love and die in "The Republic of East L.A." Rodriguez's prose is straight-forward yet poetic as he tells us about the varied struggles of cholos/as, a budding journalist, a limousine driver, immigrants, working people, all sorts of gente. My favorite story is "Sometimes You Dance with a Watermelon," where forty-year-old Rosalba (an immigrant living in poverty and already a grandmother) needs to escape her crowded home to get a momentary bit of joy. She rouses her favorite granddaughter, Chila, and they drive to Grand Central Market where they buy a watermelon. Rosalba balances it on her head and starts to walk swaying "back and forth to a salsa beat thundering out of an appliance store." She and Chila get caught up in this joyous dance:

"Rosalba had not looked that happy in a long time as she danced along the bustling streets of the central city in her loose-fitting skirt and sandals. She danced in the shadow of a multi-storied Victorian -- dancing for one contemptuous husband and for another who was dead. She danced for a daughter who didn't love herself enough to truly have the love of another man. She danced for her grandchildren, especially that fireball Chila. She danced for her people, wherever they were scattered, and for this country she would never quite comprehend. She danced, her hair matted with sweat, while remembering a simpler life on an even simpler rancho in Nayarit."

This is a powerful, beautiful collection.

NOTE: This review refers to the paperback edition.