Items related to DIEGO’S BROOKLYN
A 9X12 room, on a quiet tree-lined street near downtown Brooklyn, is the home of Joe Barnes. He borrowed $10,000 from the Irish mob in “Hell’s Kitchen” and he’s three months late on the first payment. Now they want it all back with interest; that’s why he’s hiding out across the river with no plans to go back to Manhattan. Joe is biding his time while he waits for a good tip on a horse at the Trotters. He still has all of the money he borrowed and believes he has hidden it well. Below, in a two room, second floor flat, 14 year old Diego lives with Ana, his handicapped mother. Money is hard to come by. A welfare check barely puts food on the table so the boy hustles the streets to buy milk, bread, or anything else they need. He befriends Bill, an old, black southerner from the Carolinas who lives one block over on Bergen Street with Beulah, his warm hearted and matronly wife. Though not on welfare, they scrape by on the little they get from Social Security, and lately, they have come up short for the electric bill. “And old Geezer the cat, he needs to eat, too,” Bill tells Diego. “Momma been feedin’ him scraps, but thems cats got to have theys meat.” Diego shows the old gent how to fish for spare change in the subway gratings of the Lexington Avenue line. To earn more money, they try delivering groceries in a modified baby carriage, but the venture fails from the start. “So, you think this business went on belly up like a shot up gator?” says Bill. “Now, don’t go selling your cow to buy a mule.” ‘Though street-wise and school smart, none of that could have prepared Diego for what lay ahead when the Irish mob eventually found Joe Barnes. The once quiet building is thrown into turmoil as it becomes witness to intimidation and murder.
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About the Author:
I grew up in Brooklyn and was 16 in 1961, the year of Diego’s story. Growing up there at that time helped me describe the “feel” of living in a big city like New York. I remember the wonderful mix of people, not only immigrants from foreign countries, but also the poor from our southern states and from the Protectorate of Puerto Rico. It mattered not, the prejudices and differences of our parents, we as children cared less where our roots were from as long as you lived in our neighborhood and could play stick ball. My brother and I were foster children until my father rescued us. I say rescued, because we were abused, both sexually and emotionally at the so called, “Catholic” homes where we lived. At the time, my brother was 10 years old and I was 8. Our world changed totally in Brooklyn, from the monotony of suburban consistency, to the variety of city life. As an adult, I stayed in Brooklyn, worked and eventually retired from the Department of Sanitation. I then bought a New York City Taxi Cab, enduring traffic and congestion for three hectic years before finally selling the medallion. I travelled West in a 30 foot RV to escape city life and to see the states. It was a wonderful experience, but after 2 1/2 years on the road, at the age of 51, I needed something more meaningful and fulfilling for myself. I found that in writing and like a lot of writers, I began with poems. Eventually, I wrote my first novel which took 15 years to write. That, I blame on my ineptness at grasping the King’s English, blamed in turn on inattentiveness during my school years. Through perseverance and perhaps equally as much because of a love and passion for creating my very own story, I was able to complete the work to my satisfaction. Diego’s Brooklyn, is my second of three novels and my personal favorite, because the character represents the child of my times--an unsuspecting, trusting boy with simple dreams and a warm smile for those around him. He could have been a friend, a neighbor, the kid down the block, or perhaps, in some ways, he was me. Put together, the everyday mingling of the well to do with the average Joe, the corner grocery store owner, the poor, and let’s not forget the criminally insane, and you have the actors and makings for a play about “Life in Brooklyn”, a play I was more than happy to be a part of. ---Adrian Del Valle
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- PublisherCreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 1481290827
- ISBN 13 9781481290821
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages204
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