The Music of Jimmy Ojotriste

Arturo Hernandez-Sametier's third book moves away from gang life for a beautiful story of fate and first love among a young group of Mexican street musicians. Jimmy Ojotriste is a disabled guitarist with a glass eye created by an aging Tijuana artist. The eye is beautiful, sad and sometimes powerful. His trio makes a living on the streets of the East Los Angeles, easily the best on the street and eyeing the larger city. They thought they had come to terms with the cancer and disability that would eventually end their trio. But this summer three magical women enter their lives. Three young couples immerse themselves in music and dance, love and brujeria to stave off the approaching betrayal. Review from Goodreads: "Lovely novel about young mariachis finding their place in the world, soaked in a vibrant sense of place and time. Somehow captures that feeling of being twenty and seeing the world spread before you in a way I've rarely seen portrayed well." Review from the back cover: "Wrapped in the sights and sounds of 1970s Los Angeles, vibrant and nostalgic, Hernandez explores the complex intersections of race, love, poverty and coming of age…and through it all we are serenaded by his lyrical descriptions of the life and music of the mariachi."