First Generation

Like Sicily in the 1920s, East L.A. in the 1960s is defined by desperation, destitution, revenge, and fatalism. Growing up in the barrio, the narrator becomes both participant and victim in the carnage. Gun in hand, on the brink of murder, he struggles to decipher the secret behind a horrific scar.

The truth could set him free — if he has the courage to give up everything he knows, including his last hope for connecting with his war-damaged father, his bone-deep need for revenge, and his dream of reuniting with Teresita, his first love. First Generation is the story of a young man’s struggle to survive and of a family’s journey to becoming American.