Journey of a lifetime: ‘Hijo del Barrio/Son of the Barrio’ a Vietnam War-era novel years in the making

For Richard Chavez writing a book and getting it published have long been on his bucket list.

How long? Take a guess.

Five years? No. Ten years? No.

About 25 years, said Chavez, a Corrales resident.

Chavez’s progress on the book project could be compared to the train that slowly chugged forward in the classic children’s story “The Little Engine That Could.”

Chavez’s book project and the children’s story are studies in determination.

“I would work on it. Then it collected dust for a few years,” Chavez said.

“Two or three times I put it aside for long periods of time and picked it back up again. I never gave up on it.”

The next step was finding an editor.

Chavez started calling literary agents in the Albuquerque area. Some of them recommended Kyle Fager, a semi-retired editor living in Wisconsin.

Chavez hired Fager. Initially, he sent Fager a few chapters of the manuscript and asked for feedback.

“Fager came back to me and said he liked it and he would edit the manuscript. Over a period of a year or maybe longer I would send him chapters and he would send me editing suggestions and said I should decide if I wanted (to incorporate) them,” Chavez recalled.

“I was pleased with his input.”

Once Fager completed his editing suggestions, Chavez began a search for a publisher.

Chavez ended up self-publishing the book through Palmetto Publishing of Charleston, South Carolina.

His debut novel is titled “Hijo del Barrio/Son of the Barrio.” It was released earlier this year.

The main character is John Fuentes, born and raised in an unnamed barrio similar to Albuquerque’s Martineztown, where Chavez grew up.

The exciting novel provides glimpses of Fuentes’ family life and his coming-of-age, including a high school romance that results in John becoming a father.

But the central portion of the novel is life during wartime. The principal setting is Vietnam in the late 1960s.

Fuentes is a 22-year-old corporal in a U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance platoon. His platoon sporadically battles the enemy — the stealthy North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong.

The novel’s main story is told through the point of view of Fuentes.

Here is an example of the clarity of Chavez’s writing of scenes. Fuentes is in a jungle: “As he lay in the mud, the smell of the decaying vegetation filled his nostrils. A brown lizard darted across his forearm into the concealment of a nearby bush. A snake slithered nearby, ignoring his presence as John lay frozen, waiting for the signal to continue.”

The book also gives readers the feeling of the weariness of the young men in Fuentes’ platoon and the interminable hardships and dangers they face — the rain, the sweltering heat, the dripping sweat, the trench-digging, the marching, the ambushes they plan of the silent enemy.

Chavez conveys to readers the bravery and the raw emotions of Fuentes and his comrades in uniform.

In one scene, the platoon is headed to an open field where a helicopter waits to extract them.

The rescue is stalled when the unit suddenly comes under enemy fire.

Fuentes desperately sprints to aid Rafael Tafoya, a Marine hit by a mortar round. Tafoya pleads with Fuentes to not leave him behind. Fuentes promises to get him out of the jungle as he plugs Tafoya’s shrapnel wounds.

The scene continues: “Tafoya’s skin paled, and the hand on John’s arm released its hold. John continued to administer first aid as tears ran down his cheeks.”

Fuentes refuses to accept Tafoya’s death.

The novel closes in another rescue scene with Fuentes struggling to reach Grayson, a comrade shot in the legs: “His trousers were soaked with blood from the bullet wounds. There was no time to treat his wounds; the enemy was too close.”

Fuentes carries the injured Grayson toward the waiting helicopter when an explosion knocks Fuentes off his feet and into the mud.

“John felt numb as he pushed himself to his hands and knees. … Groggily, he rose to his feet and stumbled toward the Huey (the helicopter),” Chavez writes.

Now it’s Fuentes’ turn to be rescued, but will he make it?

Chavez, the 78-year-old author, was himself a Marine for more than four years on active duty and active reserve in the late 1960s and early ’70s, though he said he never was assigned overseas.

Chavez said his detailed writing about the war in Vietnam came from conversations he had with Marines he knew and trained with, some of them personal friends who served in Vietnam.

He said his writing was also informed by books he read about the conflict in Southeast Asia.

Chavez was an air traffic controller in Albuquerque and Houston for 35 years before retiring.