La promesa and other stories

the long version

"Welcome to the other San Miguel, a fictional town in New Mexico. It's the sort of town that has survived a burning rosary, the face of Jesus appearing on a wall, a sixteen-foot rattler, Mosco Zamora's repeated promises to stop drinking ("No drinking, Absolutamente"), a new doctor who brings a woman back from the dead, a tow-truck driver who wins the demolition derby every Saturday night, Maria Martinez's world-famous macaroons, the worst roads in the state, and the fractured dreams of a boy who was sent to Vietnam.". "This collection of short stories by Leroy V. Quintana follows Mosco Zamora, a World War II veteran, and Johnny Barros, a Vietnam veteran, through haphazard collisions of fantasy and reality in small-town New Mexico and beyond. Quintana's eloquence as a poet infuses his narration of stories drawn from both his own life and the tales spun by his father-in-law, a native of Silver City, New Mexico."--BOOK JACKET.