Running from the Fire is the true story of a young man growing up caught between two very different cultures. His parents are immigrant parents from Eastern Europe who land in the largest Mexican American community in the US. The only way the young man knows how to survive the mean streets of East LA is by becoming a Vato Loco (a low-rider cholo), and, of course, his parents have no idea what he’s doing or has become.
The story chronicles the many challenges and the changes he must go through in order to survive being targeted as a little, skinny, Jewish kid with glasses into an affable, street wise, playful, albeit confused individual.
The book begins with the boy doing his best trying to relate to two worlds using his own merits only to be challenged by the differences between his two separate realities. He struggles with many difficult situations and thinks he’s doing okay until his teenage girlfriend is murdered. Then his next girlfriend becomes pregnant. The baby is put up for adoption, he’s drafted into the army (describing exactly what basic training is really like) and he finds himself in the Central Highlands of Vietnam as a medic.
He ultimately survives these experiences only to find himself adjusting to the many social changes going on as he returns to America.
Running from the Fire takes the reader, through human circumstance and humor, going from one situation to another and seeing exactly what it is like finding her/himself in a mixture of extraordinary social conditions.
The story chronicles the many challenges and the changes he must go through in order to survive being targeted as a little, skinny, Jewish kid with glasses into an affable, street wise, playful, albeit confused individual.
The book begins with the boy doing his best trying to relate to two worlds using his own merits only to be challenged by the differences between his two separate realities. He struggles with many difficult situations and thinks he’s doing okay until his teenage girlfriend is murdered. Then his next girlfriend becomes pregnant. The baby is put up for adoption, he’s drafted into the army (describing exactly what basic training is really like) and he finds himself in the Central Highlands of Vietnam as a medic.
He ultimately survives these experiences only to find himself adjusting to the many social changes going on as he returns to America.
Running from the Fire takes the reader, through human circumstance and humor, going from one situation to another and seeing exactly what it is like finding her/himself in a mixture of extraordinary social conditions.
