It's been a long time in the making, but my short story
"Cabrón" was published today in
Tin House in their
Flash Fridays set. I don't wanna give the ending away in case you haven't read it yet, but this is the story of a mythical criminal in Chicago known as "El Cabrón," a term that's extremely polyvalent in Latino culture, meaning, among other things, "bastard," "son of a bitch," "lowlife," "whiz," "cuckold," but also "pal," "dude," "buddy" and "man." It's in that complex and contradictory context of antagonism, deprecation but also appreciation + respect, that the video game-loving, action figure-collecting narrator tells his story about el cabrón. I wrote this piece back in 2007 when I was living in Humboldt Park, right after I'd finished my MFA. So if you get a second, check out my short story
here + tell me what you think.
