Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Loca

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
If Junot Diaz's critically acclaimed collection Drown and Janet Mock's Emmy-winning series Pose produced offspring, Alejandro Heredia's Loca would be their firstborn.
It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 11, 2024
      Heredia debuts with a potent narrative of two friends in the Bronx attempting to break free of the bonds, internal and external, that hold them back. Sal, a gay 25-year-old Dominican man, is excited by the prospect of a museum tour guide job. But after he receives a letter inviting him to come in for an interview (“a little American dream folded into an envelope”), he doubts his prospects and is too afraid to go. At a gay bar, Sal meets Vance and they fall in love. Eventually, he gets a job working with kids at a garden, but he’s fired for kissing Vance there. Added to Sal’s self-doubt and self-sabotage is the survivor’s guilt he carries over the murder of his best friend Yadiel back in the Dominican Republic. A parallel narrative follows Sal’s friend Charo, whose relationship with her baby daddy, Robert, hits the skids in part because she wants to spend more time with her queer friends. Eventually, she leaves Robert and their baby “to figure out who she is.” The narrative lacks momentum in places, but Heredia credibly chronicles Sal’s and Charo’s pain as well as their pleasures, as they attempt to find their ways in the world. Readers will look forward to seeing what Heredia does next. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, Gernert Co.

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2025

      DEBUT Heredia's debut novel looks into the lives of two friends, Sal and Charo, who are from the Dominican Republic but find themselves in New York in the late 1990s. Strong narratives present readers with a taste of what life was like for these friends growing up under challenging conditions in which one had to be tough and have street smarts to survive; life in New York is not any easier for either of them. Charo is a 25-year-old mother who works in a supermarket and is in a controlling relationship. Sal teaches science to kids and is in a relationship with his boyfriend, Vance. Some readers may find that storyline transitions are not woven as tightly as they could be, but the writing is both gritty and heartfelt. VERDICT With themes of relationships, love, and family, this tale will resonate with readers who have faced hardships and who have had to search for and embrace their identity. A welcome addition to collections.--Shirley Quan

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      January 1, 2025
      Heartfelt, captivating, and poignant, Heredia's debut novel shows how friendship not only connects people to each other but also anchors them to the many facets of their own selfhoods. Loca follows two Dominican friends, Sal and Charo, as they navigate the practical and emotional tribulations of building a new life in New York. While the queer Sal is attempting to move on from a violent past--one that includes sexual abuse--Charo is searching for independence as a young mother. Set in 1999, at the cusp of the new millennium, their stories skillfully play with duality, creating an intimacy between past and present, desires and failures, dreams and reality. This doubleness illuminates the complexities of the American dream as a national ideology, a cultural belief, and an individual goal. Heredia's narrative is also notable for showcasing the diversity of the Latino diaspora in New York while also addressing mainstream America's perception of dark-skinned Dominicans. A novel of losses and returns, Loca encourages readers to seek out their own definitions of home.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2025
      Two best friends from the Dominican Republic struggle to find their way in New York at the turn of the millennium. Sal and Charo, both in their early 20s, are relative newcomers to the city. Charo arrived first, after an uncle living in the United States agreed to adopt her so she could immigrate more easily. As if repaying her debt to him and sending money to her parents back home weren't hard enough, she's now a mother. Her daughter's father means well, but Charo suffocates under the weight of his expectations and those of the Bronx's Dominican community. Moving to the U.S. was supposed to liberate her, but instead of freedom she's got nothing but responsibility. Meanwhile, Sal can't escape the memory of a horrific crime committed against one of his closest friends, the event that propelled him to leave Santo Domingo. As he's navigating through his identity as a gay Latine man and the anguish of grief, he falls for a man who welcomes him and Charo into his friend group, offering them a refuge in his corner of New York's queer community. Perhaps if they try, they can and do belong. This is pre-9/11, pre-Bloomberg New York. Members of the Dominican community still reel from past wars in their home country and the violence in their new one. People outside of New York barely know the island nation exists and are perplexed by folks like Sal and Charo, who look Black to them but speak English by way of Spanish. Marriage equality and PrEP are more than a decade away. This historical context isn't in the book exactly, but that's the point--Charo and Sal need to grapple with their individual and collective pasts and the uncertainty of the future. What would the 2000s hold? A good question, but like its protagonists, the book meanders. For readers looking for more of a vibe than a plot, this is a solid debut about working through the confusion of intersectional identities and trauma. Heredia explores the challenges of urban adulting before it became a verb.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading