Barrio Culture

A barrio is an inner-city area with a mostly Latino or Hispanic population. The setting for this novel is the barrio in Fresno, a place where crime and drug use and abuse are rampant. Children are fatherless, and mothers are incompetent. Gangs form easily and shoot at will. Young men rarely make it out of the barrio uninjured. People get shot at or stabbed constantly, and there is no safe place to hide. Simply walking down the street can be a matter of taking one's life into one's hands.

Eddie grew up in this culture and he hates it. He believes there is something better for him somewhere else, though he does not know when or how he will ever get there. In this barrio, everyone knows everyone else's name, and that's not exactly a good thing. Every time Eddie hears someone call his name, he is...