Calle 10
By Danny Romero
156 pages, Fiction
ISBN 978-1-56279-090-5
Romero’s 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.
Originally from Los Angeles, Danny Romero is now a professor at Sacramento City College, having previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Camden College in New Jersey, and Temple University in Philadelphia.