Hijo Del Barrio: Son of the Barrio - Hardcover

Twenty year old John Fuentes, a Hispanic Marine, waits for the next firefight to begin in the jungles of Vietnam. As he struggles with the reality of combat, he experiences flashbacks to his formative years in the Barrio, where he suffered through poverty, racism and a lost love and child. With each new dawn, the battles grow in intensity, but it is not death that John fears the most- rather it is the notion that Sharon, the mother of his child and the estranged love of his young life has chosen a future that doesn't include him. John's story is mingled with flashbacks of his time as a young Marine, his experiences and a relationship before he was deployed to Vietnam. In Vietnam, one by one, John loses his friends to the conflict. He reacts with calculated violence against the Viet Cong. His campaign of vengeance is interrupted by his R & R in Hawaii where he attempts to reconcile with Sharon. At the end of his R & R, Sharon agrees to wait for his return from Vietnam before making a final decision about their relationship. John now has hope, and the only obstacle is the remainder of his tour in Vietnam, a matter of months. He returns to the jungle with new purpose and motivation, counting on his combat skills and his fellow Marines to keep him alive.