Macho! - by Victor Villasenor (Paperback)

About the Book

The story of a young man's illegal entry into the United States from the state of Michoacâan, Mexico, and his life working in the vegetable fields of California.

Book Synopsis

From a pioneer of modern U.S. Hispanic literature, and the New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Loco Love and Rain of Gold, comes a gripping, coming-of-age tale that exposes the intensity and sheer will of one brave young immigrant who crosses the Mexican border.

Roberto Garcia is only seventeen, but he already has big dreams of making his fortune, building a family, and gaining the respect of his community. With ambition to burn and a passion to prove his manhood, Roberto takes the dangerous journey north, crossing the Mexican border to pick fruit in the "golden fields" of California. It is said that a good man can make more money there in a week than in an entire year in the mountains of Michoacán, his home. With dreams that overshadow harsh realities, Roberto is unprepared for the jammed boxcars and bolted trucks that carry undervalued migrant workers through the searing desert to long days of harsh labor.

Raw, powerful, poetic, and heartbreaking, Macho! brings to life the brutality of migrant labor, Cesar Chavez's efforts to unionize workers, and a vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience through the eyes of a brave young man who bids goodbye to everything he knows to follow his dreams.

Review Quotes

"Macho! is poetic in its devotion to realistic detail and classic sparseness of style."
--Los Angeles Times

"It rings true. [Villasenor's] sentences and his characters have the smell of rich earth and honest sweat about them."
--The San Francisco Examiner