CALLE 10
Fiction
160 pages
Paper, $12.95
1-56279-090-0
World
“Danny Romero’s portrait of a spiritually nomadic life, a vato just trying to get by, is nothing less than authentic. Chicano literature has been waiting for such an unblinking testimony.”
— Gary Soto
“Danny Romero’s work is real, not sweetened by rhetoric or any sort of lie. This makes his work memorable and gives it the power to move us.”
— Leonard Michaels
“The style of Calle 10 is the gritty naturalism of Farrel, Wright, Himes, Algren, Selby, and Mowry, but the voice is Danny Romero’s. His unique character Zero sees the American experience through fresh eyes. As someone who has been reading and publishing Romero’s work for nearly a decade, I’m not surprised by the power and depth of Mr. Romero’s first novel.”
— Ishmael Reed
Calle 10 is the rich and beautifully rendered story of Zero, a young Chicano living on Tenth Street — Calle 10 — amidst the poverty and violence of Ciudad Jimenez, under the dark cloud of an oil refinery across the bay from San Francisco. This tough, gritty novel uncompromisingly brings us into the street violence, economic despair, and drug-induced stupors of Zero’s world, but the intelligence, honesty, humor, and compassion in Romero’s voice also convey Zero’s strength and wisdom. Vivid, engaging, and true, Calle 10 gives us an unprecedented look at the world of the young urban Latino.
