Rodrigo Haro

Gangero Rodrigo Haro

Gangero is a novel by first time novelist Rodrigo Haro. It revolves around Danny, his childhood, adolescence, and escape from Inferno, the South Side of Chicago, all narrated by his sister. Danny grows up in South Chicago around gangs, violence, and drug abuse. He also falls in love and finds a way to get along with his mother who is suffering from trauma. Danny finds a way to college in Springfield, moves to Ohio, and comes back to Chicago to graduate college and attend graduate school. He has a mental breakdown at the age of thirty, and keeps living with his sister and mother, along with the rest of his family. He writes and struggles to find a way to make ends meat. He experiences the underemployment and unemployment enduring in his generation, Millennials. His sister also goes through her own trauma and pain. Gangero also narrates the story of Danny's mother, her migration to the U. S., her struggles to assimilate, and raise her four kids as a single mother slowly disintegrating into poverty and violence. But Inferno, South Chicago on the Southeast Side of the city, is also a neighborhood full of people fighting for their future and fighting for their lives and families. Gangero is a story about Danny's family, their Hispanic and Mexican heritage, their endurance, strength, and hope in the face of unknown circumstances and distant futures.