CHICO OF THE ANDES

A story of Ecuador, and of a small mountain lad who learns that he is an unknown orphan, and who sets out to find the solution to the mystery of his birth. There is a vocational background here -- the weaving of fine Panamas -- and Chico seems to have inherited not only that gift, from the unknown parents, but a true Latin ability to make a good bargain. His puzzle is almost too easily solved -but the solution is capped when he decides to go back to his mountain home and to the old man who has been in loce parentis -- and who turns out to be his real grandfather. Rather an overplayed succession of coincidences make a forced story, but the feel of the country is well handled.