Book Review "The Las Puertas Tales" by David Dexter Correa

"The Las Puertas Tales (Los Cuentos de Las Puertas)" is a compilation of four fictional stories "based on real places and real people." "The stories are derived from true events" that author David Dexter Correa experienced during the time he taught at a mostly Chicano High School in New Mexico.

The stories are richly painted on the backdrop of the fictional town, Las Puertas, New Mexico, which sits "one hundred miles of empty highway [from] Colorado. One hundred miles to Santa Fe. One hundred fifty miles to Albuquerque."

"The hard times of the last few decades of the 20th century had taken its toll," Correa wrote. "The area was no longer prosperous or even adequate as in the past [when it was part of North Mexico and subsequently a hub on the Santa Fe Trail]. The county was one of the poorest in the nation."

The first tale, Gordo, (The Fat Boy), is about a young man who descends into a life of crime at a young age. Due to his imposing physique and intractability, he was used to having the upper hand in any situation. Indeed, he seemed to take over the scene in Albuquerque where he was "the loner, feared and respected by the gangs who found it earlier and more profitable to work with him. He did well and so did they."

This tale is a page turner reminiscent of a Tony Hillerman New Mexican small town thriller. Correa's characters, sparingly painted, hit the bull's eye, add color and drive the story forward.

The central character of The Boxing Game was formed out of Correa's observations of his high school students. Juan Carlos Abeyta, Jr., was introduced to boxing as a child by his parents who enjoyed watching the sport and begins to train in high school.

And where there was boxing, there was the syndicate. Even in Las Puertas.

"The syndicate liked it because it was the kind of highway town where no one stopped, except for gas or to spend the night on their way to someplace else...No questions asked. Law enforcement was light."

The reader watches Juan Carlos win his first fight with dreams of the Golden Gloves and going to the Olympics. As his wins pile up he gets noticed by the syndicate in town. Yet the syndicate is also noticed by the sheriff who has already begun surveilling the goings-on that include gun running and human trafficking. Then Juan Carlos, Sr., is pulled into the widening ripples when he rents a warehouse, unknowingly, to the traffickers.

With characters who continue from the first tale, the readers are immediately drawn in. And as before, they drive the plot to a satisfying resolution of the twists.

In The Strangers, the reader continues to follow Sheriff Joe and Gabby, his "assistant housekeeper and backbone of the station," along with his deputies.

This story follows Rachel, Mother Sun, born of an "amalgamation of various wealthy hippies and new age refugees who came to New Mexico for a boost to their spiritual needs." She returns to her parents' ranch with followers in tow who rain chaos on their poor ranch manager, who has been left in the lurch after her parents' deaths.

When Rachel brings in outside workers with the help of her cult to transform the ranch into a spiritual oasis, the locals aren't having any of it.

"Modern New Mexico was still a tough place for the average citizen to do anything but make ends meet....Outsiders would encounter confrontations if they were ignorant of the reality of life in a land where necessity outweighed sensitivity."

After an uprising, Rachel is re-directed by an apparently random encounter with a mystical old man for a surprising result.

The final tale, The Land of Enchantment, springs from the backdrop of a religious order descended from Spanish missionaries, a faction called Hermanos Penitentes (Penitent Brothers). Dating back to the sixteenth century, "The society primarily consists of men who, to atone for their sins, perform rituals that include self-flagellation, self-mutilation and other practices of pain and suffering to identify with the sufferings of Jesus. By doing this they feel they have paid their penance and are purged of their sins."

Although abolished in 1850 by the Archbishop of Santa Fe, the Penitentes secretly continued. The group or fraternity in Las Puertas, one of the oldest, is headed by the "Hermano Major," (Big Brother), Gaspar de la Madalena, who lives on the edge of the county in the Pecos Wilderness.

The sheriff knows Madalena, and knows that he was the most powerful man in the county next to himself. So they have an agreement that Joe will stay away from the Penitentes gatherings.

Enter Mike O'Farrell, a Yankee painter who is looking to paint the spiritual landscape of New Mexico. Mike is a real painter who is a friend of Correa's.

Mike is taken up by Gaspar under the guise of having him paint, but who wants to make him a true "hermano." Chained to a wall, Mike endures a painful initiation until Joe and his deputy re-enter the story. Again there are twists and then resolution.

This is a book that is not easy to put down. Full of latino urban slang, it is the dialog that forms the reality and the characters to push the story forward and keep the reader wanting to turn the pages.

An easy afternoon read. Well worth the time.