Metamorphosis of a Bully/and Other Stories

By Luciano S. Aldana, Sr

This is a continuously moving story taking place in a barrio across the US-Mexico border in the 1950s. It takes the reader from one crucial scene to the next with no digressions or unnecessary pauses. From the start it introduces a fearless sailor who suddenly appears in the barrio and metamorphosis into a fearful bully of the town. He is a streetfighter with predisposition to fight. He makes his presence known when he provokes a cowboy from Oklahoma and gives him a vicious fight leaving him hanging to his life in a hospital.
After this terrible fight, he continues to elevate his presence and soon has a stranglehold on the young pachucos from the barrio by attacking them when they cross his path. Still not satisfied, he goes after two of their friends because he hates their reputation of being fearless when provoked. One of them is a younger guy who runs his family’s store. The young man gives him a good fight and this infuriates him so much that every time he sees him on the streets, he provokes him to fight and warns him to leave town or else. Later he’s angered when his sycophants tell him that the young man hasn’t left town, and decides that next time he sees him he will kill him.

After this story, four short stories follow complicating and complementing little crumbs left through the events of the main story. Each subsequent story, therefore, is a complete epic with its own beginning, middle, and end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luciano S. Aldana, Sr
• Release date: Feb 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005180348

Luciano S. Aldana, Sr

Has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, a B.S. Degree in Commerce, and an AA from a Community College.He retired after 27 years of public service in a major city: 15 years in the Police Department/Internal Affairs Unit as IA Senior Staff Analyst and Grant Manager, 2 years in the Auditor’s Office as Internal Auditor, and 10 years in the Environmental Services Department as Accountant.COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Was Treasurer of the State of CA American GI Forum and a member for over 15 years. Was board member of the State Universities EAOP/Parent Board.

Book preview

METAMORPHOSIS of a BULLY

And OTHER STORIES

By Luciano S Aldana, Sr

SECOND EDITION (Feb. 2022)

Copyright 2022, Luciano S. Aldana, Sr.

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

About this book

This story is a fictional product based on true and imagined events, and the skills of the author’s artistic talent. World Rights and all rights reserved.

The names used are the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Table of Contents

METAMORPHOSIS OF A BULLY

Descontón Rising

1958—The Encounter

Requiem

Ixtlan

The Cafe

The Lion is not the Way Someone Paints it

Against Coyote

1958 Guachinango

A Slip of the Tongue

A New Year

DJ’s Automobile

1959 The Blacksmith

End of the Road

The Black Van

The Tepic Jail

Tepic

Ixtlán

Mexicali, June 20, 1959

Mexicali Bound

Mexicali Jail

Home Sweet Home

The Day All Hell Broke Loose

Redemption

THE BARRIO DETECTIVE

BOXERS and WRESTLERS

THE DIME LADY KNOCKS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

This is a continuously moving story taking place in a barrio across the US-Mexico border in the 1950s. It takes the reader from one crucial scene to the next with no digressions or unnecessary pauses. From the start it introduces a fearless sailor who suddenly appears in the barrio and metamorphosis into a fearful bully of the town. He is a streetfighter with predisposition to fight. He makes his presence known when he provokes a cowboy from Oklahoma and gives him a vicious fight leaving him hanging to his life in a hospital.

After this terrible fight, he continues to elevate his presence and soon has a stranglehold on the young pachucos from the barrio by attacking them when they cross his path. Still not satisfied, he goes after two of their friends because he hates their reputation of being fearless when provoked. One of them is a younger guy who runs his family’s store. The young man gives him a good fight and this infuriates him so much that every time he sees him on the streets, he provokes him to fight and warns him to leave town or else. Later he’s angered when his sycophants tell him that the young man hasn’t left town, and decides that next time he sees him he will kill him.

The story takes a new turn when the young man’s family struggles to protect him from the police, the Federales, the Mexican Secret Service and two coyotes. Now is up to them to help him escape from town to town while trying to keep their sanity as the family sinks into a sea of debts.

After this story, four short stories follow complicating and complementing little crumbs left through the events of the main story. Each subsequent story, therefore, is a complete epic with its own beginning, middle, and end.

METAMORPHOSIS OF A BULLY

IN THE SPRING OF 1954, a young man appeared in a barrio of Mexicali, and rumors soon began circulating that he was a fisherman come off a fishing boat from Ensenada. He was a young man with a heavy tan complexion from long hours under the sun. At the height of 6-1 he was not especially attractive, but intimidating. His hair was thick, auburn, wavy and wild. The open top of his shirt revealed a massive chest with a golden necklace and the tooth of a shark. He also had a distinctive golden front tooth with a cross that glittered in the hot summer sun.

It didn't take long after his arrival before he began showing his powerful fist. All it took was for someone to give him a wrong look and he could be lying flat on the floor. With a predisposition for fights, he was invincible. And with those qualities, he soon became the terror of the barrio.

Few days after his arrival, this now known fisherman walked into the cantina and saw an older guy called El Tejano. The barrio called him El Tejano because he was from Oklahoma, rode the dusty streets on a 2-horse carrier, and, wore dusty Levy’s clothes, a Texas hat, and cowboy boots. The garb and the carriage were a throwback from the days of the Old West. In spite of his contrasting appearance to the barrio, people had high esteem for this cowboy man; for he was a cordial quiet man, married to a Mexican woman, and who only wanted to fit in to a new life in a town that appealed to his previous humble living in the US.

But on this particular day, his life in the barrio would take a new turn. Tejano was sitting at a barstool enjoying a cold beer when the fisherman walked in. Immediately, the fisherman locked eyes on him, and said, Hey you, this is no place for old geezers. Move!

Tejano, who was about 50, old enough to be his father, turned, looked at him up and down, and said, Watch your mouth, young man, and returned to his beer.

Hey, nobody talks to me that way, replied the fisherman poking him on the back.

Tejano didn’t budge, took another drink, and said, Go bother somebody else and let me enjoy my beer.

Without warning, the fisherman grabbed the stool with both hands, and spun him around. Getting close to his face, he said, You’re sitting on my seat. Move!

I didn’t see anybody’s name—

Before Tejano could finish, the fisherman grabbed him by the collar and threw him off the seat. Tejano almost landed on his face, if it wasn’t for the long steps taken to avoid falling.

Tejano came back breathing hard. He stood behind the fisherman now sitting on his barstool and poked him. Exasperated, he said, You punk, who the hell you think you are?

The fisherman was not a man of words to settle a dispute with diplomacy. He immediately jumped out of the seat and gave Tejano a hard right-hook to the temple. Tejano went down flat on his back. Not satisfied, the fisherman went over for the coup de grace. He gave him a tremendous kick to the head with the sharp end of his own boot.

Days later, Tejano woke up on a hospital bed with his head bandaged. His wife saw him open his eyes and thanked the Lord and gave him a long, warm hug.

Bill, what happened to you? Who did this to you? The police want to know.

Tejano glanced at the police and his wife, but couldn’t say anything. A tear rolled down his face. He tried to remember, and couldn’t.

Without memory there was nothing the police could do.

After he was discharged from the hospital, he was never the same. His wife told him of the attack at the bar, and he couldn’t remember it. He became lethargic, fell into deep depression, and died within a few months. It was a pity for the proud Tejano everybody knew. People had been accustomed to seeing him riding high and proud on a two-horse carriage on the dusty streets of the barrio. He practically brought the Old West to the neighborhood. But now, just like the Old West, he was a memory of the past.

The assault on Tejano was a prelude to the beatings the fisherman would soon unleash to the young pachucos. The pachucos were a group of young fun-loving, joyful fellows ages 18 to 26, who walked the streets in packs, and with loyalty toward each other.

***

It was a quiet, fresh morning of September with an orange sun rising above the roof tops of town. The vacant brick building across from a corner store cast a long shadow toward the center of the street. Next to the building a small group of young fellows had gathered in a circle. Little Leon, a 6-year-old kid from the Altamonte Family, was coming out of the driveway next to the store when he heard the commotion and crossed the street to check. He looked between the fellows gathered and saw two young men sizing each other up. It was the fisherman people had been talking about, and a young pachuco.

Full of confidence, the fisherman flexed his muscles and jerked his neck right and left. The fisherman’s strong features alone seemed to intimidate his opponent. Compared to him, his head looked big and full of thick wavy hair. He began moving sideways and around the young pachuco with a malicious smile showing a strong set of teeth, gray as the morning.

Some fellows in the crowd began placing bets. The pachuco, who was shorter than the fisherman, had been provoked and had no choice but to fight for his honor. Maybe he hoped he could land a few lucky punches, at the most.

The fisherman raised his strong arms and there was instant uproar from the group gathered. He bounced on his feet with slow jabs to estimate his arms’ length toward the pachuco. The pachuco reacted by protecting his ribs and face, and then threw a couple of sorry punches back at the fisherman. Although, he quickly recovered his defense, he felt a strong left jab pass through his arms and hit him above the eye. His head bounced back, and, stunned, fell backwards a couple of steps. Another right-cross hit him on the jaw and his knees buckled. A left upper-cut lifted him up and was about to collapse, but managed to crouch forward.

Knock him out! somebody shouted.

A powerful right-hook hit him on the temple with a neck-cracking pounding sound, and he went down flat to the ground.

The fisherman stood over his body with an evil smile, making his chest big and pounding it like a drum. Three of his sycophants jumped around him screaming euphorically, ¡Descontón! ¡Descontón! You are the Knock out Puncher! You knocked him out, Descontón. After that day, Descontón became his nickname.

A friend of the unconscious pachuco kneeled down to check him. He slapped him a couple of times, and his eyes barely opened a slit. The friend moved a finger in front of his face, but there was no reaction. A red bump was growing above the left eye. The friend checked the back of his head, and felt another bump.

Get a steak from the store and put it over the eye, the fisherman-Descontón ordered the pachuco’s friend.

Little Leon had been watching the scene aghast. He felt a revulsion in the stomach when he heard the poundings on the pachuco. His sun-tanned face was now pale as he stood watching the fellow run to his family’s corner store. His older brother Alfredo had also been watching the commotion from behind the counter, and when the guy went in, chuckling he cut a piece of meat and gave it to him.

The fellow came back with the meat and saw another fellow assisting his friend, who was still on the ground with a bleeding lip and beginning to open his eyes. He kneeled down with the steak and placed it over the eye. Then he said to the guy assisting his friend, The fisherman is so cold that not even the sun warms him up. The assisting guy agreed and replied in a low voice so as not to be heard, The sun freezes when he’s around.

After that day, the fisherman had a new nickname: El Descontón.

***

The bus stopped at the corner of the Altamonte store with Descontón coming down the steps. He was speaking loudly to a young man following behind. As soon as the young man touched ground, without warning Descontón turned and lunged at him. The young man put up his arms to defend himself, but Descontón punched him hard on the ribs making the fellow drop to his knees. Descontón was about to finish him off with a kick, when a group of women coming off the bus charged at him with their purses. Leave that boy alone, you punk! Don’t you have better things to do? Why don’t you get a job? the women screamed at him.

Descontón retrieved fending off the purses raining on him, and walked away. Crossing the street, he turned around, scoffed, and said, Bah! You ain’t nothing to me. I can take you anytime. Look—he inflated his chest and beat it with his fists—I have a lot for you here!

DESCONTÓN RISING

Descontón basked on the adulations of his sycophants and the fame he had by