Dante's Ballad
Autor: Eduardo Gonzalez Viana
Número de Páginas: 316
ñRemember that weÍre in the U.S.,î Dante Celestino is told when his daughter Emmita runs away. Friends and neighbors warn him that in the United States itÍs not considered so unusual for a fifteen-year-old girl to run away. But Dante had counseled Emmita to date only Spanish-speaking Hispanic boys, and never anyone who joins gangs or deals drugs. Yet she ignores her fatherÍs advice andright in the middle of her quinceaÐeraruns away with a tattooed Latino who doesnÍt speak Spanish and rides a lowrider motorcycle. And to complicate matters, Dante is in the U.S. illegally, making it difficult to report the girlÍs disappearance to the police. So begins DanteÍs odyssey. Accompanied by a lame donkey named Virgilio and the voice of his dead wife, he sets out for Las Vegas, where EmmitaÍs boyfriendor abductor, as Dante considers himsupposedly lives. On a journey filled with the joy of music and the pain of flashbacks from his small-town life and marital bliss in Mexico, Dante encounters a series of eccentric characters: Josefino and Mariana, known to radio listeners as the Noble Couple, who change their listenersÍ luck in an instant; Juan Pablo, a young man who uses his ...