![]() ![]() His story goes back in time to when his grandmother was young, then into his father's childhood where he too was raised to be a "boy king" and how place, circumstance and culture helped to shape his mom and dad as individuals and as parents. What is striking is not only the book's unflinching honesty and its rawness, but also the way in which Martinez tries to understand what lies underneath the way he and his brothers and sisters were raised. Later, as an adult, this would be most evident in his relationship with his brother Dan, who, as the oldest, was brought up to be the main 'boy-king' in charge of protecting the family's honor as well as his siblings. The author details his upbringing in a family in this border town where cultures can't help but collide, and where the ever-present culture of machismo - which in Martinez's case isn't limited just to the males in his family - came to have a huge impact on his life. ![]() Growing up in Brownsville, Texas in the 1970s and 1980s, then goes on to his life after leavingīrownsville. ![]() The Boy Kings of Texas is its author's first book, and was nominated for this year's National Book Award for nonfiction. ![]()
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