Barrio Bushido (Small Press Distribution (All Titles))
Bac Sierra�s brutally honest coming-of-age saga grabs from the opening pages, forcing us to confront graphic truths. The setting is the early 1990s in a Southern California barrio, where three Latino youths take on organized crime, following their primal instincts and adhering to bushido, the code of the samurai warrior. Driven by dreams of power, Lobo is the pack leader, and his credo is The lust for life is stronger than the despair of death. Lobo becomes the barrio enforcer for Kwai Chung, an illegal who is gradually climbing into the American old boy network. One of Loco�s homeboys is Toro, a Desert Storm marine who at the ripe old age of five . . . gave up on life. Santo completes the trio; he�s the fierce loyalist, who would do anything for his homeboys, including sacrificing his life. Bac Sierra�s brutal stream of consciousness envelopes the trio�s harsh experiences in myth and magic realism, and his story of these impromptu anarchists constitutes a mesmerizing and compelling tale of the unwritten, illogical code of the streets. --Deborah Donovan