Muy Macho

From the Homeboy to the Latin Lover, America cherishes a host of images about Latino men, yet all are based on the belief in macho men, virile and brash, full of violence and testosterone. With the gender correctness of the 90s challenging all men to embrace a new masculinity, how do Latino men of today--grounded in the "macho" tradition -- define this new identity? From today's best-known, as well as emerging, Latino writers, poet and editor Ray Gonzalez has gathered personal essays written especially forMuy Machoon machismo and masculinity. The result is a rich and exciting collection of men talking about themselves, about other men, about their wives and lovers, about their fathers and their sons. In "Me Macho, You Jane," Dagoberto Gilb contrasts how he perceives himself with how others, particularly women, interpret his behavior, while in "Whores," Luis Alberto Urrea chronicles a rite of passage for many Latino men. Most insightful and moving are essays like "The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son" by poet Martin Espada, which portray the fragile love between fathers and sons and the process by which men learn from and teach each other how to be men. Muy Machocontains photographs of all contributors, while Gonzalez illuminates the cultural context of Latino masculinity in his introduction. Emotionally honest and powerfully written, the voices ofMuy Machobreak the "cult of silence" between Latino men which prevents our culture from understanding the true nature of machismo.

Ray Gonzalez is an award-winning poet, essayist, and editor born in El Paso, Texas. He is the author of the memoir Memory Fever: A Journey Beyond El Paso del Norte, and four books of poetry, including The Heat of Arrivals, The Hawk Temple of Tierra Grande, Turtle Pictures, and The Religion of Hands. He currently teaches creative writing and poetry at the University of Minnesota.