“In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s haunting story collection, intricate family dramas . . . play out against the luminous, wide-open backdrop of New Mexico.” —Los Angeles Times
 
In his first foray into short fiction, award-winning poet and memoirist Jimmy Santiago Baca explores the territory where old-world traditions meet new-world ambitions, and characters try to make something of themselves,...

When his friend Jose has his adoption day party, Max brings him a special present.

Latino homicide detective Jimmy Vega must investigate the ethnically charged murder of a Hispanic woman found fifty miles north of New York City, as well as locate the baby pictured in a photograph found on the dead woman.

During a visit to the barber, Max gets his hair cut and combed.

"A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots, all in the wake of Hurricane María. It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers....

It takes all kinds to populate Northern New Mexico, and this book has every one: from gypsies and gamblers to ranchers and criminals. Noted author Nasario García introduces us to some of these people and the challenges they face. The title character, Adelfa, flirts with the glamour of casinos and finds herself addicted to gambling. Sam "Spam" Austin, an inmate serving a long sentence for murder, is paroled, attends medical school, and becomes a doctor....

Detective Jimmy Vega has his hands full when the disappearance of a teenage girl in upstate New York sets off a powder keg of accusations, bigotry and fear--with deadly results.

"One month short of her wedding day -- and her thirtieth birthday -- Nadia Palacio finds herself standing up to her infuriating, cheating fiancé for the first time in... well, ever. But that same courage doesn't translate to breaking the news to her Argentinian family. She's hyperventilating before facing them when she glimpses a magazine piece about a Latina woman celebrating herself -- with a second quinceañera, aka Sweet 15! And that gives Nadia...

A girl and her mother spend a day together gardening, making cookies, and visiting a neighbor. Includes Spanish words interspersed in the text.