VIVA CHICANO

by Frank Bonham ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 1970

And viva Frank Bonham (Durango Street, The Nitty Gritty, The Vagabonds). Joaquin (Keeny) Duran, seventeen, has been in and out of Juvenile Hall all his life; with a screaming loveless mother and a teeming housing project for a home, it's impossible to go straight--people won't let you. The time Keeny's baby brother chases a paper airplane right out the window they say Keeny pushed him: Keeny, who hasn't got a prayer, prays. . . and runs. The Chicago Street Sergeant and all the neighbors are sweating for his blood; only the Aztecs, a bunch of bad-break guys like himself, come through with help. Keeny hides out in the old abandoned police building, the last place the cops would look, alone except for tine cardboard dummy of 'Miliano Zapata he lifted from a theatre. It blows his mind when 'Miliano starts talking to him, but Keeny's parole officer--phoned now that things are hot--says it's Keeny's subconscious, and Keeny listens. He acts like he's doused the Kool-Aid with 'acid' at the PTA carnival where he gives himself up: he's hauled in and tried, the bottle (empty all along) labtests as aspirin, and Keeny demonstrates his kind of runaround--guilty till proven innocent. . . ditto in the case of his brother. There's more: an extraneous gang fight, the drug thing, the home thing, the J.D. thing; and, without gushing or griping or psychodramatics, the real thing--no matter who's made the bed, it's the kid who's got to sleep in it.

Pub Date: May 28, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION