F. Perez Lopez's El Mexicano

Francisco Perez Lopez, Spanish by birth but raised in France, was a Republican volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. He began as a recruit at the age of twenty and emerged a platoon leader. He became a prisoner, a medic, a favorite among nuns, and then an escapee. Gary Soto's condensed but sensitive retelling is a gripping tale of human dignity and one man's unflagging commitment to justice.