FAQ's about Rickie Trujillo

Where did the idea for Rickie Trujillo come from?

NB: I was in my fourth or fifth year of teaching when the events that form the basis for this story occurred within blocks of the school.
One thing about the actual events puzzled me: the boy seemed to have the talent to be able to escape the neighborhood where he was born and bred. Why didn’t he (or couldn’t he) focus on that and get out?
Another thing that struck me as sadly ironic was that the rookie cop was from the same circumstances as the boy, was a good person and a good cop. It was doubly unfortunate that a person who might have helped young people, boys like Rickie, negotiate a path through the teenage years and out of this impoverished neighborhood, was the target of this random act. For a brief moment, he was an example of the success Rickie might have enjoyed, and then he was gone.

Did you teach boys like Rickie?

Yes, quite a few. And girls as well. The boy who inspired me to create Rickie was not my student, but he attended the junior high school and the high school where I taught.

What were they like, those kids?

For the most part, even the troublemakers and fighters, taggers and gang members were not malicious. Rickie’s blow-up with his math teacher, Mr. Maltrey, was rare. These things happened between students and teachers only if one or both of them took an unreasonably hard line, or if they let their emotions get the best of them.
Kids like Rickie were what they call in Spanish, traviesos or traviesas, mischief-makers, not bad kids. Most of the time they could be reasoned with. Not always, but most of the time.
Personally, I never felt threatened by the students, even though some of them sometimes were dangerous out on the streets. They lived in a very poor and neglected neighborhood; many, like Rickie, came from broken homes and with virtually no one available to provide guidance for them.

Didn’t anyone see what was going on with Rickie? Couldn’t they have stepped in to help?

People did. Teachers. Counselors. Staff people. Schools had special programs like
DARE for younger kids to convince them to stay off drugs and IMPACT, a program for
secondary school students to take part in group counseling to relieve the stresses of home
life and school life and life out on the street. But, remember, the adults who ran the
counseling groups, for instance, were, for the most part, teachers with limited training in
group counseling and limited time -- really only their conference period (their period
without assigned students) -- during which to do the counseling. They were dedicated
and gave their time because they recognized that the need among students was great,
almost overwhelming. And then, of course, there were teachers who simply cared about
their students and would devote time during the school day or before and after school to
giving extra help, tutoring or just being a willing listener. But there were never enough
people to fill the pressing need.

What do you hope readers will take away from reading the book?

Well, I’m not trying to moralize here. It is a work of imagination, a sort of meditation for me on the effect that poverty in all of its facets has on those people who are caught up in it. And poverty is a sort of net that makes escape very difficult. At one point near the end, Rickie is fearful of going up to Ventura because he is afraid that he carries a kind of contagion which spreads poverty and destroys otherwise good neighborhoods.
I wanted to get into the characters’ heads to try to understand their dreams and fears and needs, not to judge them but just understand them. I don’t have any solutions for readers, but maybe a pathway to greater understanding.