What a Barrio Life, Ese! Ay, que Padre es la vida!

By Felix Figueroa

Published by Floricanto Press, this book is an assemblage of characters embedded in humorous stories rooted in barrio life and culture. The author's father, F lix G. Figueroa, and his brother-in-law Edward Garc a shared many of these stories with the author when he was a young boy. The narrative has been masterfully interwoven with real personal accounts; Mexican-American folklore, culture and tradition; and lots of dichos. It tells the story of one familia-the Porfirio Parcelona family-comprised of a womanizing, beer drinking, always scheming father; an overbearing, extremely religious Catholic mother; a large number of brothers and a hopelessly romantic, overly large older sister. On one occasion, the youngest child in the family, Panchito, is accidentally hurt by his overweight sister, causing the determined father to help his twenty-year old daughter find a boyfriend so she can fall in love, get married and move out of their tiny, cramped, two bedroom casita. He begins by going to church to pray, but winds up getting thrown out by the stern priest because he is drunk when he attends la misa and causes trouble with one of the parishioners; he next goes to la cantina, but gets thrown out of the bar for offending the Gringo bartender; on his way home he walks through the town cemetery and falls into a recently dug grave where he falls asleep and dreams about an encounter with the devil.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1511887680
• ISBN13: 9781511887687
• Release Date: April 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"